Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The immediate problem with our meat brains is that they have no back-up. We can lose the most precious information we have from one bump on the head or stroke. You want a mind system with back-up that can access other databases."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Gyrocar | ||
| A two-wheeled, self-balancing automobile. |
It would be a unique and exotic sight, wouldn't it?
| Most of the cars were between sixty and seventy horse-power; the Amphibian alone being as low as forty-five; while the Capri was eighty, the Gowfer's Goer a hundred, and the huge Liebig a hundred and twenty horse-power.
And it was among these leviathans that the little gyrocar was daring to thrust its puny self, with its two young drivers - and their dog... Indeed, the gyrocar was a sight to make a man look twice. Its two wheels being, naturally, under the centre of the car, were largely hidden by the body; and the absence of the usual four wheels at the corners made it appear to be gliding over the ground without visible means of support. |
| Technovelgy from Two Boys in a Gyrocar the story of a New York to Paris motor race,
by Kenneth Brown. Published by Houghton Mifflin in 1911 Additional resources -
|
Eric Frank Russell lets his imagination go in Sinister Barriers (1939):
They hit ground level, and Wohl
straightened out, saying, “Those whirligigs sure give me a kick!”
Graham swallowed a suitable remark,
his attention caught by the long, streamlined, aluminium-bronze shape of another gyrocar. ■ It flashed along William
Street toward them, passed with an audible swoosh of air, sped up the ramp
to the corkscrew from which they had
just descended. As it passed, Graham’s
sharp eyes caught sight of a pale, haggard face staring fixedly through the
machine’s flexible glass windshield...
Wohl pressed the accelerator stud, the two-wheeled speedster plunged forward, its incased gyroscope emitting a faint hum...
He held his breath while
they cut round another decrepit four-wheeler whose driver gesticulated
wildly.
“Every jellopy ought to be banned
from the skyways,” Wohl snarled.
Compare to the Gyro-Hat from An Experiment in Gyro-Hats (1926) by Ellis Parker Butler, the directed cars in tunnels from The Lord of Tranerica (1939) by Stanton A. Coblentz, the tumblebug from The Roads Must Roll (1940) by Robert Heinlein, the Two-Wheeled Ground Car from First Lensman (1950) by E.E. 'Doc' Smith, the monowheel from Firewater (1952) by William Tenn, the Gyro Two-Wheeled Truck from The Sign of the Tiger (1958) by Alan Nourse (w/Meyer), the Gyrocar (Gyro) from The Ring (1969) by Piers Anthony (w/R. Margroff) and the smart bike from Distraction (1998) by Bruce Sterling.
With a swift turn that produced a
yelp of rubber from the rear wheel, the
gyrocar spun off the skyway, and on
to a corkscrew. It whirled around the
spirals with giddying effect.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Two Boys in a Gyrocar the story of a New York to Paris motor race
More Ideas
and Technology by Kenneth Brown
Tech news articles related to Two Boys in a Gyrocar the story of a New York to Paris motor race
Tech news articles related to works by Kenneth Brown
Gyrocar-related
news articles:
- Gyro-X Self-Balancing Two-Wheeler Car
- Gyroscopic Median-Straddling Mass Transit Vehicles
| The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist |
| Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology |
| Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat |
| Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
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 Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
