Life-Line

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Life-Line is Heinlein's first published science fiction story (1939), about a man who builds a machine that will predict how long a person will live. It does this by sending a signal along the world line of a person and detecting the echo from the far end.

Professor Pinero's invention has a powerful impact on the life insurance industry, as well as on his own life. Pinero is mentioned in passing in the novels Time Enough for Love and Methuselah's Children when the practically immortal Lazarus Long mentions having been examined and being sent away because the machine is "broken".

Heinlein was motivated to write the story by a contest in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine promising $50 US to the winner, but ended up submitting it to a rival magazine, Astounding, and was paid $70. It made a later appearance in The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, a collection of short stories published in 1966 and his Expanded Universe in 1980.

On receiving the check for the story Heinlein is reported to have said, "How long has this racket been going on?" (Grumbles from the Grave, pg 3) The amount was the equivalent of about $500 dollars in 1984, or approximately one month's rent on a nice apartment.Template:Sf-stub