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"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Talking Speedometer | ||
| A gauge that tells you its value verbally |
This is an early use of the idea of a gauge that does not need you to look at it to get a "reading."
| He pressed the accelerator under his finger, and as he passed the 150-k.p.h. mark the speedometer's mechanical whisper cut in- "One sixty- One sixty-eight- One eighty-" |
| Technovelgy from Biddiver,
by Theodore Sturgeon. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Sturgeon couldn't resist adding another example:
"Four hundred twelve k.p.h.-"
"Altitude twenty-three thousand fifty-"
He went quite peacefully to sleep then, ignoring the new whispering voice that joined that of the speedometer:
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More Ideas
and Technology from Biddiver
More Ideas
and Technology by Theodore Sturgeon
Tech news articles related to Biddiver
Tech news articles related to works by Theodore Sturgeon
| Can Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Control The Weather? |
| Wolfram Alpha Mathematica Predicted by Science Fiction in 1948! |
| Special Lights For Driverless Cars! |
| 'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars' |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
