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"I'm strictly an ivory-tower person. I can explain things but I can't do things."
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![]() The earliest mention in science fiction that I know about; in common use on Earth.
John W. Campbell used it in The Derelicts of Ganymede:
Duke Stetson pulled the releasing lever. Automatic doors opened, and a powerful spring gear drove the little twenty-foot ship clear of the gleaming monster.
Eando Binder used this phrase in Murder on the Asteroid in 1933:
Due to the constant dangers of meteors in space
which might at any moment crash through an ether
boat, each space vehicle carried one or more of the
life boats. They were simply little one-man ether
boats, miniature models of the larger craft, equipped
with small but efficient rocket motors. If for any reason the larger boat became unmanageable, damaged,
or useless as a vehicle, the passenger could then embark in the life boat and propel himself within reach
of rescue. Each life boat was equipped with a radio.
They also carried food, oxygen, and heating apparatus.
Hanson, holding the little man in his arms, smirked
as he saw the dull metal ellipsoid boat, for it entered
his plans of the moment. On its side was emblazoned
the same number as was on the outside hull of the
bigger boat — P-322-M-505.
Doc Smith used this phrase just a year later in Triplanetary:
Compare this very early use of the concept with a more famous descendant, the escape pod from George Lucas' 1976 story Star Wars. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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