Here’s a Fun Fact!
Jefferies Tubes were specifically named for use in Star Trek
Jeremy thought they were an actual thing. He's awesome like that.
So here's my problem with fiction. I make the assumption that the fiction is at least based on some sort of fact. Let's take Star Trek, for instance. I have no trouble believing in the communicator devices or the little tablet computers they always seemed to have kicking around. In fact, we've already met or exceeded that technology some 200 years early. Go, humanity! I'm also pretty convinced that a matter-antimatter annihilation reactor would generate a tremendous amount of energy, which in turn could cause a warp in the space-time continuum, rendering warp drive possible. We're not there yet, But We're Not Entirely Far Off. Space ships? Okay. Laser pistols, sure. Extra-terrestrial life forms, why not?
All of these things are (or were) stretches from reality, but they were based on the reality of the day, so we just took them as truth. Ship's components were pretty standard fare. You had the bridge, with the captain's chair, the helm, a brig, the engine room (or "main engineering"), the quarters, the bulkheads and so on and so forth. They also included maintenance access ports called "Jefferies Tubes." This was the name, and who was I to believe that they didn't exist in ships already? I'm not an expert in nautical or aerospace design. I'm sure there are maintenance ports in boats and planes...so I made the completely unconscious jump to believe that they were called Jefferies Tubes, that they had always been called Jefferies Tubes, and they would be called Jefferies Tubes right through to the 24th century Galaxy-Class Starships.
Well, file this under "Things You Learn While Doing Other Things," but I learned recently, much to my dismay, that Jefferies Tubes were named after Matt Jefferies, the production designer of Star Trek: The Original Series. They were never a real thing in any vehicle prior to the original Enterprise. What a letdown.
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