How old is teleportation in SciFi?

[Batman]

I earlier tonight watched the '11 Dr Who Christmas Special ('The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe') and the scene when the Platform crew beam out on Marge got me thinking. She's obviously flabberghasted, being from 1941, before Trek transporters became moderately well known, and I very much suspect modern day SciFi fans well versed with various forms of teleportation wouldn't be that much better of seeing it actually happen, but would pre-Trek SciFi fans (post-Trek the 'prepare for beamout' warning is something of a dead giveaway) be able to recognize it as a kind of teleportation technology? When was it first used in a Sci-Fi story?

[MrDakka]

The telepomp from The Man Without a Body written by Edward Page Mitchell in 1877.
Via technovelgy: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/SrchRes.asp

As for the concept itself, I suspect there may be ancient myths with stories of transportation.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

There's also Arthur C Clarke's 1937 "Travel by Wire". Not quite as old, but it shows the concept has stuck around.

[MrDakka]

As for the concept itself, I suspect there may be ancient myths with stories of transportation.

I meant teleportation.

[dworkin]

You could make a case for all those holy men 'carried to the heavens' in various holy books, I vaguely recall some hindu diety who could travel 'the breadth of the earth in the twinkling of an eye' and then there's Sun Wukong and co who could 'jump' to other realms. He decides to visit his mortal minions and then just appears there a few times.

[Atlan]

In the books John Carter essentially arrives on Mars through an entirely unexplained form of teleportation.

[Batman]

'Unexplained' being the operative term. I'm looking for the point in time where SciFans would go from 'Holy Shit-those people just disappeared' to 'Holy shit-did those people just get teleported out?'

[Bright]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest listed uses of the word "teleportation" were in the 30s, with the more common definition of "instant personal movement" having developed by the 50s.

[Batman]

Don't fix on the word 'teleport'. When did 'they miraculously disappeared' change into 'they were transmatted/teleported/beamed/matter-transmitted'?

[dworkin]

A very educated observer from the 30's may interpret it as quantumn transport on the macro scale.

[Ahriman238]

If the question is 'how long has the concept of teleportation been around,' the answer is 'since the first time a man turned to his friend and said "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if instead of walking everywhere we could just be... there? Right away?"

If the question is 'could someone before X year recognize a teleportation technology if he saw it' the answer is 'maybe. If I saw someone disappear in a flash of light, i'd probably suspect some sort of teleport before say, disintegration. How true that'd be other people in other times, I cannot say.'

If the question is 'how long ago could an average person hear "prepare for beamout" and immediatly think of teleportation' the answer would probably be 'since Star Trek first aired.'

[Batman]

Yeah, I totally didn't address the 'prepare for beamout' angle in the freaking OP. My question, which I do think I've articulated reasonably clearly, is when was teleportation introduced to SciFi to the extent that SciFi fans would have recognized what happened on the platform as teleportation.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Well, there are the Venus Equilateral stories, by electronic engineer George O. Smith, printed in the early to mid forties and first collected 1947- probably had a larger circulation than Clarke, at the time.

They've been mentioned before in connection with Trek teleportation and it's logical but mainly fan- explored consequences, such as the total destruction of a scarcity based economy and the collapse of a society based thereon- so a reasonable connection for anyone familiar with the stories would be 'Oh, crap, there goes the neighbourhood.'

Followed after a few moments' thought by 'My God, we can afford everything now, the world is transformed, we can do anything.'

Depends on the model you use, I suppose.

[gamer]

Allegedly in real-life Nikola Tesla invented a way to travel FTL speeds to test it they equipped a ship with crew with some sort of teleportation drive. When the drive system activated the people observing the ship noticed a green gas came out of the ship engulfed it and the ship dissappeared. And at that instant another group of observers hundreds of miles away noticed that same ship surrounded in that same green gas so the experiment was a success. But when they went inside to investigate some of the crew were completely missing vanished without a trace, others horribly mutilated and fused to the ship, and the remaining survivors were completely insane, basically the plot of Event Horizon happened. Afterwards the survivors were placed into a mental institution and the project scrapped.

[Simon_Jester]

...This is complete and utter bullshit, and it didn't happen.

[Ahriman238]

Yeah, I totally didn't address the 'prepare for beamout' angle in the freaking OP. My question, which I do think I've articulated reasonably clearly, is when was teleportation introduced to SciFi to the extent that SciFi fans would have recognized what happened on the platform as teleportation.

I like to cover all my bases. A very well-read person, probably since a bit before the turn of the century. Just anyone, probably aorund the time of Star Trek,as mentioned.

I suspect most people in most times could theorize teleportation after some people requested something and then disappeared in a flash of light. At least as far as, "they're probably somewhere else."

[FTeik]

IIRC in the old Flash Gordon-series from the thirties they had transportation-devices, that looked almost exactly like the later ST-transporters: a raised platform, where one or several humans were turned into a pillar of light, before vanishing. Only difference were a - transparent - door (reasonable safety-measure, if you ask me) and the need for a recieving-station.

[Themightytom]

Allegedly in real-life Nikola Tesla invented a way to travel FTL speeds to test it they equipped a ship with crew with some sort of teleportation drive. When the drive system activated the people observing the ship noticed a green gas came out of the ship engulfed it and the ship dissappeared. And at that instant another group of observers hundreds of miles away noticed that same ship surrounded in that same green gas so the experiment was a success. But when they went inside to investigate some of the crew were completely missing vanished without a trace, others horribly mutilated and fused to the ship, and the remaining survivors were completely insane, basically the plot of Event Horizon happened. Afterwards the survivors were placed into a mental institution and the project scrapped.

What the fuck? Are you drunk?

IIRC in the old Flash Gordon-series from the thirties they had transportation-devices, that looked almost exactly like the later ST-transporters: a raised platform, where one or several humans were turned into a pillar of light, before vanishing. Only difference were a - transparent - door (reasonable safety-measure, if you ask me) and the need for a recieving-station.

I was going to post on that, and also, the older Doctor Who's had episodes with transmats. Also in the The Fly from the late 50's the guy was trying to invent a teleporter but screwed it up.

[gamer]

Allegedly in real-life Nikola Tesla invented a way to travel FTL speeds to test it they equipped a ship with crew with some sort of teleportation drive. When the drive system activated the people observing the ship noticed a green gas came out of the ship engulfed it and the ship dissappeared. And at that instant another group of observers hundreds of miles away noticed that same ship surrounded in that same green gas so the experiment was a success. But when they went inside to investigate some of the crew were completely missing vanished without a trace, others horribly mutilated and fused to the ship, and the remaining survivors were completely insane, basically the plot of Event Horizon happened. Afterwards the survivors were placed into a mental institution and the project scrapped.

What the fuck? Are you drunk?

Actually I'm quite sober, you did notice the words "Allegedly" did you? So it may or may not be true, anyway my source is the history channel.

[Batman]

Yeah, right, what? I'm a guy who insists he seriously is a superhero comics character and 'I' know that is useless.

[gamer]

Yeah, right, what? I'm a guy who insists he seriously is a superhero comics character and 'I' know that is useless.

I didn't say it did happen or it didn't.

Just imagine if it did though.

[Batman]

Since it didn't, how about we assume it didn't and dismiss it as completely irrelevant.

[gamer]

Since it didn't, how about we assume it didn't and dismiss it as completely irrelevant.

Do you know for certain?

Also even if it didn't happen wouldn't this be relevant to the topic at hand? You want to know the oldest mentioning of teleportation and that is what came to mind.

The description of what allegedly transpired reminded me of the plot of Event Horizon.

[Patrick Degan]

So it may or may not be true, anyway my source is the history channel.

Well, that right there should have warned you.

[JointStrikeFighter]

It was clearly the plot of the Philadelphia experiment anyway