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"There's a poetry in the materials we use to construct our world of artifacts; it speaks of our long history as a technological species."
- William Gibson
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| Beam Car | ||
| A vehicle like an elevator car, but which travels on a radio and magnetic beam, from the surface of a planet up to a satellite. |
| The interior of the projectilelike vehicle was padded thickly and was provided with oxygen apparatus. But no propelling mechanism was in evidence. Jor Therol, following them inside, closed and made airtight the door, then spoke softly as if in answer to the objections which had presented themselves in the minds of his guests. “Phobos,” he said, “is all you say —on the surface. We go not to the surface, however, but to the interior of the body, where is to be found the city of Scarta. This car in which we ride is driven through the tube by magnetic forces and thence over a beam of radio impulses to the receiving tube at Scarta. Hold fast now, my friends. We leave.”
 ('Lost City of Mars' by Harl Vincent) The car flung upward with a violence that flattened them all to the cushions. The pressure was unbearable as it accelerated to a terrific velocity. Almost instantly the small compartment became insufferable from the heat of atmospheric friction. Coler panted, tried to raise his head, but could not move it. His eyes burned in their sockets. Something snapped in his brain. |
| Technovelgy from Lost City of Mars,
by Harl Vincent. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1934 Additional resources -
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Science Fiction
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'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
