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"did I had an extremely expensive wife - she would see a new car that she liked and just buy it... under California law I was bound to buy her debts. I think I turned out 16 novels in five years."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Walking Balloon | ||
| A means of efficiently traversing rough country. |
| ...they were in Wisconsin, and stepped off into a "walking balloon", which proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs over a slant of steep upland.
 (The Walking Balloon) This vehicle is a shallow car with small hollow sails of silk above it, containing just enough gas to keep it about thirty feet above ground, assisted by a small electric engine in the centre. From the bottom of the car two long rods or mechanical legs, made of aluminum—the lightest metal known— extended down to the ground, where they are reciprocated at regular intervals by an electrometer, which enables them to imitate the motion of walking, and carry the balloon along at the rate of some fifteen miles an hour. They are not meant for high speed, and can travel only, of course, on prepared routes, but are very convenient in certain places. |
| Technovelgy from In the Deep of Time,
by George Parsons Lathrop. Published by Not known in 1897 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the wonderful kite-copter car from The Kokod Warriors (1952) by Jack Vance.
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Walking Balloon-related
news articles:
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| Who Knows What Might Be Found When Visiting A Metal Asteroid? |
| StoryFile To Help William Shatner Become Landru |
| DNA Controls Swarms Of Molecular Robots |
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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.
