When did the concept of the O'Neill Cylinder first appear in print?

Here is Jack Williamson's description of his version of what we now
call the O'Neill Cylinder from his short novel "The Prince of Space"
in the January 1931 isssue of AMAZING.

"The City of Space is in a cylinder," Captain Smith said.
"Roughly five thousand feet in diameter, and about that high. it
is built largely of meteoric iron which we captured from a
meteoric swarm__making navigation safe and getting useful metal
at the same time. The cylinder whirls constantly, with such
speed that the centrifugal force against the sides equals the
force of gravity on the earth. The city is built around the inside
of the cylinder__so that one can look up and see his neighbor's
house, apparently upside down, a mile above his head. We enter
through a lock in one end of the cylinder." p. 877.

"They were, Bill saw, at the center of an enormous cylinder. The
sides, half a mile away, above and below them, were covered with
buildings along neat, tree-bordered streets, scattered with green
lawns, tiny gardens, and bits of wooded park. It seemed very
strange to Bill, to see these endless streets about the inside of
a tube, so that one by walking a little over three miles in one
direction would arrive again at the starting point, in much the
same way that one gets back to the starting point after going
around the earth in one direction." p. 877.

"...There are five thousand people here....We grow our own food.
We utilize our waste products__matter goes through a regular
cycle of life and death as on the earth. Men eat food containing
carbon, breathe in oxygen, and breathe out carbon dioxide, our
plants break up the carbon dioxide, make more foods containing
the same carbon, and give off oxygen for men to breathe
again....The power of the sun is all we need from outside." p. 878.

Sounds like Jack Williamson did a good job of sketching out the
fundamentals many years before O'Neill. Does anybody know of
anything earlier?

I remember reading a Russian author who mentioned "greenhouses in
space." But I don't think he went into much detail.

Incidentally "The Prince of Space" is currently in print, part of a
double volume from Gryphon Books.

Rick Brooks

From: rick000brooks [mailto:rabrooks@...]

> I remember reading a Russian author who mentioned "greenhouses in
> space." But I don't think he went into much detail.

Yes, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (one of the first people on Earth to consider
rocket travel into space) wrote about "orbital mansion/greenhouses".
O'Neill names one of spacecraft in THF the Tsiolkovsky in tribute. Another
he names the Dandridge Cole after an author who proposed hollowing out
asteroids to live in back in the early 60's.

Seems there's nothing new under the sun (nor in an independent orbit about
it).

Regards,

Mike Combs

As far as I remember, rotating cities in space were envisioned for the first
time by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky himself, around 1900.

Also, the expression "O'Neil Cylinder" does not refer to all types of
cylindrical colony - just that one with three huge windows and three huge
45-degree tilted mirrors.

Lucio Coelho

From: "rick000brooks"
To:
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 1:26 PM
Subject: [spacesettlers] Did sf writer Jack Williamson design the first
O'Neill Cylinder back in 1930?

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:
> As far as I remember, rotating cities in space were envisioned for
the first
> time by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky himself, around 1900.
>
> Also, the expression "O'Neil Cylinder" does not refer to all types
of
> cylindrical colony - just that one with three huge windows and three
huge
> 45-degree tilted mirrors.
>
> Lucio Coelho
>
You use a more rigid definition than some people. I think it
pointless to argue which is "right."

Incidentally, the one Jack Williamson designed had no windows. The
Prince of Space was a super-scientist criminal. He was also the hero
who saved Earth. His Cylinder was also his hideout.

I'll bet it'd show up vividly in infra-red.

I'd like to see if Konstantin Tsiolkovsky mentioned the closed cycle
for food, air, and water, which I consider an important part of the
definition.

Rick Brooks