The force field was first used in
science fiction in the 1930's, by such writers as
E.E. "Doc" Smith and
Charles L. Harness. E.E. "Doc" Smith made vivid use of the force field in his
Skylark and
Lensmen series. Where when a ship is attacked its force field would slowly run up the
spectrum from red to orange all the way to violet before finally collapsing.
In the movie Dune, the efficiency of a force field was directly proportional to speed and momentum of the object attacking it. A bullet would bounce but a knife would slowly penetrate. This effect is also put to good use in the television show Stargate. Charles L. Harness was the first to introduce this concept, in his novel “Flight into Yesterday”.
Variations on the force field are the tractor beam and the pressor beam, used in the Star Trek series .