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"Tokyo homeless people reiterate the whole nature of living in Tokyo in cardboard boxes, they're only slightly smaller than Tokyo apartments, and they have almost as many consumer goods. It's a nightmare of boxes within boxes."
- William Gibson
 |
| Toaster | ||
| A handheld beam weapon. |
| "But what about hand weapons? Are there any available?"
"You mean toasters?" "Anything that's lethal." "Nothing." |
| From Accidental Flight,
by W.F. Wallace. Published by Galaxy in 1952 Additional resources -
|
Here are some additional quotes:
"He adjusted the toaster beam to an imperceptible thickness. Deftly he sliced through the control case and removed a circular section..."
"Outside, there was the characteristic sputter, like frying, that the toaster beam made when it struck metal..."
"Jordan juggled the toaster. "I can weld with this. Let's put him in a cabin and weld the door closed..."
Compare to the blaster (1925) from When the Green Star Waned by Nictzin Dyalhis, the neutron blaster (1951), from The Complete Paratime, by H. Beam Piper and the heat ray from The War of the Worlds (1898), by H.G. Wells.
Also, see the nuclear shears from Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov, the
Slaver disintegrator from Ringworld (1970) by Larry Niven, the
Lasgun from Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert, and the
atomic torch from One Against the Legion (1939) by Jack Williamson.
"The rocket pilot moved closer. The deadly little toaster was in his hand..."
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More Ideas
and Technology from Accidental Flight
More Ideas
and Technology by W.F. Wallace
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Tech news articles related to works by W.F. Wallace
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| Musk's Boring Flamethrower |
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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'The planes flew continuously, twenty-four hours a day...'
'It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.'
'...a single perfectly level platform, which rose so high above the water that it was not splashed by the waves.'
'Is an extra-factual memory that convincing?' Quail asked.
Megastructures have repair robots, which have repair robots, ad infinitum.
‘She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew...’
Perfect for clot-busting in the human brain. No Raquel Welch and no lasers, though.
