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"[Science fiction is] an integration of the mood and attitude of science (the objective universe) with the fears and hopes that spring from the unconscious."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Herculoy | ||
| A very strong alloy like steel. |
Magnus Ridolph is setting a trap.
| A heavy concrete pill-box now rose on the
border of the blighted acreage, a windowless
building reinforced with steel and set on a
heavy foundation. A hundred yards from
the pill-box a ten-foot cylindrical block stood
anchored deep into the ground. An endless
herculoy cable ran from the pill-box, around
a steel-collared groove in the block, back
into the pill-box, where it passed around the
drum of an electric winch, then out again
to the block.
Magnus Ridolph glanced around the little room with satisfaction. There had been no time for attention to detail, but the winch ran smoothly, pulled the cable easily out, around the anchor block, back again. Inside the door rose a stack of resilian plates, each an inch thick, each trailing three feet of herculoy chain. |
| From The Howling Bounders,
by Jack Vance. Published by Startling Stories in 1949 Additional resources -
|
Compare to ultron from Armageddon: 2419 A.D. (1928) by Philip Frances Nowlan, permalloy from Fugitives From Earth (1939) by Nelson S. Bond, magnalloy from The Cave of Horror (1930) by S.P. Meek, helio-beryllium from Out Around Rigel (1931) by Robert H. Wilson, steelonium from Ralph 124c 41 + (1911) by Hugo Gernsback and plasteel from Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Howling Bounders
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Vance
Tech news articles related to The Howling Bounders
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance
Herculoy-related
news articles:
- Osmiridium Sounds Like Science Fiction (But It's Not!)
| MXenes - Atomic-Thin Metal Sheets Now Easier To Make |
| Do We Still Need Orbiting Factories? |
| MIT Self-Assembling Reprogrammable Materials |
| Tiny Mining - Extract Precious Industrial Minerals From Your Own Body |
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'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
