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"The thing that I'm most interested in at the moment is the so-called Infinite Energy solution - the possibility of finding new ways of tapping into virtually limitless sources of energy."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Vacuum Cylinder | ||
| Traveling first class, but like mail, in a tube system. |
This might be a good description of what it will be like to travel in the Hyperloop, if they ever build one.
| We've got to get into his office secretly, by
tte vacuum cylinders. We're to
meet a man from his office at the
Eighth Postal switch-station."
The girls were both in gray, with long dark capes. We took the public monorail down into the mid-Manhattan section under the city roof of the business district, and into the Eighth Postal switch-station where the sleek bronze cylinders came tumbling out of the vacuum portes to be rerouted and dispatched again, A man was on the lookout for us. "Daniel Dean and party?" "Yes," said Snap. "We were ordered here..." We were put into one of the oversize mail cylinders, routed through the tubes like sacks of recorded letters; and in ten minutes, with a thump that knocked the breath from all of us, we were in the switch-rack of Halsey's outer office. |
| Technovelgy from Wandl, The Invader,
by Ray Cummings. Published by Astounding Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
A bit more:
The cylinder-slide opened.
Compare to the submarine tube from An Express of the Future (1895) by Michel Verne, the
sub-Atlantic tunnel from Ralph 124c 41 + (1911) by Hugo Gernsback, the
air tunnel from Through the Air Tunnel (19129) by Harl Vincent, the
pneumatic tube station from Exiles of the Moon (1931) by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat), the
pneumatic-tube zone from Mechanocracy (1932) by Miles J. Breuer, the
vortal tube from Whipping Star (1969) by Frank Herbert, the
public vehicle tube from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance, the
vacutubes from Double Star (1956) by Robert Heinlein and the
bounce tube from Double Star (1956) by Robert Heinlein.
In the service room a passenger
cylinder was waiting. Our guide
entered it with us. At the switch-station we had our breath knocked
out with the bumping, but the
cylinder remained sealed. And after
another ten minutes in the vacuum
tube, we reached our unknown destination.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Wandl, The Invader
More Ideas
and Technology by Ray Cummings
Tech news articles related to Wandl, The Invader
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Cummings
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| Volvo's Autonomous Truck |
| Eviation Alice Electric Plane First Flight |
| Robotaxi By Cruise Premieres in Austin, Texas |
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'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
