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"The primary attraction [of writing sf] is the sheer pleasure of creating something from whole cloth."
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You might be surprised to learn that this is the earliest description that I know about of the idea behind 3D printers and stereolithography.
Mr. Eric Stokes-Harding wrote novels of high adventure - in a drab, boring era in the not-too-distant future, when the plodding of the scientific method had reduced all challenges to harmless trivialities. Ah, to escape to a more primitive world - Venus, perhaps? But how to get there...
Here's a description of how it works:
Eric helped Nada to a place on the crystal, lay down at her side.
"I think the Express Ray is focused just at the surface of the crystal, from below," he said. "It dissolves our substance, to be transmitted by the beam. It would look as if we were melting into the crystal."
"Ready," called the youth.
A bell jangled. "So long," the youth called.
Nada and Eric felt themselves enveloped in fire. Sheets of white flame
seemed to lap up about them from the crystal block. Suddenly there was a
sharp tingling sensation where they touched the polished surface. Then
blackness, blankness.
Here's an interesting similar perspective from an essay by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. - What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years, published in 1900:
Thanks to Jordan Bassior for suggesting this item.
Compare to Deposition (3D Printing) from Assassin (1978) by James P. Hogan and plastic constructor from Things Pass By (1945) by Murray Leinster. Also, the Biltong life-forms from Pay for the Printer (1956) by Philip K. Dick.
As a transportation device, compare it to the telepomp from The Man Without a Body (1877) by Edward Page Mitchell, the
displacement booth from Flash Crowd (1972) by Larry Niven, the
stepping discs from Ringworld (1970) by Larry Niven and the
trip box from Eye of Cat (1982) by Roger Zelazny.
Also, see the libra-transmitter from Into the Meteorite Orbit by Frank R. Kelly, Jaunte from The Stars My Destination, the Transo from Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak and the geofractor (1939) from One Against the Legion by Jack Williamson. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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