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"The point sticks in your head: physics rules. Virtue does not triumph unless the physics allows it."
- Larry Niven

Electro-Magnet Anchor  
  Attach a line to a spacecraft hull.  

"There are plenty of space suits in the lockers," he said tersely. "Get into them. Stand by the air-lock. You, Jarl, get into the lock and take a cable with an electro-magnet anchor. Lash yourself to it. When I give the signal by blinking the lights in the lock, open the outer door and leap across to the other ship. I know you risk death from their rays, but it is our only chance. Clamp the anchor against the side of the ship and locate the emergency entrance lock."
Technovelgy from The Space Rover, by Edwin K. Sloat.
Published by Astounding Stories in 1932
Additional resources -

Also called a magnet grapnel in the same novel.

Compare to the MagnaPoon from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Space Rover
  More Ideas and Technology by Edwin K. Sloat
  Tech news articles related to The Space Rover
  Tech news articles related to works by Edwin K. Sloat

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