- For other uses, see Cavor.
Cavorite was an alloy discovered late in the 19th century by the Human scientist Cavor, who named it after himself. He believed that it shielded objects against gravity.
History and specifics
Cavor used it to power his spacecraft, but when he activated it during a test run on 12 April 1901, he and the vessel disappeared. Cavorite was thought to be merely fictional after H.G. Wells wrote about it in The First Men in the Moon.
In the 23rd century, the crew of the USS Enterprise discovered Cavor and his spaceship, and when Montgomery Scott examined the cavorite and activated it, he found that it did indeed seem to work as described, appearing to instantly imbed itself in one of the ship's bulkheads, thus verifying Cavor's claims. They soon determined what had happened: since gravity is actually the bending of space-time, it was not something that could be shielded against, so when Cavor activated his cavorite, it instead rendered his ship at rest to the expansion of the universe, thus instantly transporting him two thousand light-years in space and over two hundred fifty years in time. (TOS - New Visions comic: "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner")
Appendices
Background
According to Wells' account of events, the cavorite alloy components were mixed in a furnace, then cooled prematurely on 14 October 1899 to 60° Fahrenheit, or 15.5° Celsius, activating its antigravitational properties. (The First Men in the Moon, chapter II at Project Gutenberg.)
Appearances
External links
- Cavorite article at the Technovelgy Science Fiction Dictionary.