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"In science fiction one can say a great many things that are unpalatable, … because it's expressed as science fiction you can slip it past their defenses."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Solid Power | ||
| A concentrated form of easily accessed energy to supply any need. |
| "...I'll tell you this - Vliet's fortune isn't in money. I learned that before I came here. It's in 'solid power'."
"Solid power" was, he knew, the most super-valuable substance in the solar system. For it wasn't really a substance at all, but compressed energy "frozen" by temporary transformation into artificial atoms. Trillions of units of power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice. And a suitable transformer would, when desired, turn it back into almost limitless power. "... Vliet has at least ten cubes of it." Kruppa was saying. "Whew!" Crane whistled softly. "The stuff's worth a million Earth dollars a cube." |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on the Tenth World,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Amazing Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Here's how it works when hooked up:
Inside this pump-like object was the hastily assembled electrical apparatus which started the disintegration of "solid power' back into pure energy, by smashing one of its artificial pseudoatoms, the process being self-continuing thenceforward until damped out.
The thing they had partially built resembled outwardly a stock pump whose spout pointed toward the stockade, and atop which was a broad, round hopper for the supply of carbon required as a chemical "governor" of the process.
Compare to the shipstones from Friday (1982) by Robert Heinlein and the kink springs from The Calorie Man (2005), by Paolo Bacigalupi.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Revolt on the Tenth World
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Tech news articles related to Revolt on the Tenth World
Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
Solid Power-related
news articles:
- NDB Nuclear Waste Battery Lasts A Lifetime
- Nuclear Batteries May Pack Inner Punch
| BeamBike Solar Power Canopy For Electric Bikes |
| REALLY Remote Control Excavators |
| Your Solar Electric Paint Is Ready, Larry Niven |
| How Long Till We Have These Tattoos? |
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'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
'... the glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.'
'The slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector...'
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'
