In the Deep of Time by George Parsons Lathrop:
Science Fiction Inventions, Technology and Ideas

This story is sometimes called Thomas Edison's novel, because he spent a lot of time working on Progress, a science fiction story he abandoned but not before producing many pages of notes.

George Parsons Lathrup originally offered to collaborate with Edison on his memoirs, having written about him for magazines. He and Edison had five or six interviews together in which "in which Edison poured out suggestions faster than Lathrop could assimilate them" according to an Australian newspaper.


('In the Deep of Time' by George Parsons Lathrop)

In his 1908 biography, Edison told Lathrop that he “would rather invent a dozen useful things, including a mechanical novelist who would turn out works of fiction when the machinery was set in motion, than go any further with the electrical novel.”

But Lathrop went ahead anyway. Select an invention:

Artificial Silk
A fabric like silk produced entirely without silkworms.

Electric Bicycle
A two-wheeled device utilizing stored electricity as motive power.

Glow-Worm Living
Alternated work, play and slumber without long periods of sleep.

Helium Metal
An ore with the spectroscopic line of Helium.

Home Planet
Usually the birthplace of your species or simply your planet of origin.

Interstellar Express Car
Uses anti-gravitation metal to achieve terrific speeds in space.

Life-Brew
A non-alcoholic beverage, but similar to wine.

Noninterference With Other Worlds
Earliest expression of the 'Prime Directive' idea.

Planetary Telegraphing
A method for communicating with dwellers on other planets in the solar system.

Sun-Telephone
Receives transmissions from the sun itself.

Vivification
A process by which the body can be preserved for centuries at body temperature and then revived.

Walking Balloon
A means of efficiently traversing rough country.

 

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