Full record for dropshaft n.

Definition	a liftshaft with no lift-cages, using controlled gravity to move people up and down at high speed
OED requirements	antedating 1957
Earliest cite	Harlan Ellison, 'Deeper Than the Darkness'
Comment	Ralf Brown located and Mike Christie submitted a 1958 cite from Robert Silverberg's "Prime Commandment". Douglas Winston submitted a 1989 cite from Geo. W. Proctor's "Stellar Fist". Douglas Winston submitted a 1986 cite for the form "drop-shaft" from Charles Shefield's "The Nimrod Hunt". Douglas Winston submited a cite from a 1970 reprint of Poul Anderson's "After Doomsday"; Malcolm Farmer verified it in the 1962 magazine publication. Douglas Winston submitted a 1998 cite for the form "drop shaft" from Kathy Tyers' "Fusion Fire". Douglas Winston submitted a 1987 cite from Chris Claremont's "First Flight" Douglas Winston submitted a 1997 cite from Sarah Zettel's "Fool's War". Fred Galvin submitted a July 1957 cite from Randall Garrett's "Devil's World" Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1976 reprint of Poul Anderson's "The Star Plunderer": we would like to verify this in its original publication (Planet Stories, September 1952) Fred Galvin submitted an April 1957 cite from Harlan Ellison's "Deeper Than the Darkness"
Last modified	14 August, 2009

Citations for dropshaft n.

click here for more information about the citation list

1957 H. Ellison Deeper Than Darkness in Infinity Sci. Fiction Apr. 21/1	The Pyrotic let the dropshaft lower him, and he found the lifescoot some time later.
1957 R. Garrett Devil's World in Imaginative Tales July 86/2	The man quivered and collapsed. Courtney dumped him out of the dropshaft and set the dial for the twenty-third level.
1957 R. Garrett Devil's World in Imaginative Tales July 84/2	He caught the dropshaft and spun downward to the ground level. There, he entered the lock and donned a breathingsuit.
1958 R. Silverberg in Original Sci. Fiction Stories Jan. 6/1	Even had the strangers come that night, if they had left their ship in a parking orbit and landed on World by dropshaft, it might not have happened.
1987 C. Claremont FirstFlight iv. 54	She looked up the DropShaft at the CM hatch twenty-five meters away, then down between her feet at the Stores Modules, slightly closer; the Carousels spun around her but in the core all was still and she stretched lazily, as if she was already on her bed.
1988 K. Tyers Fusion Fire xx. 217	He broke into a run again, leading up the passway toward the drop shaft.
1997 S. Zettel Fool's War ii. 48	The ship read her fingerprints and sent its signal down to the engine compartment. ‘Torch lit,’ she reported, just before a low rumble that echoed all the way up the drop shaft confirmed her call.