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
"If we're going to be consistent and advocate freedom of speech we have to advocate freedom of encrypted speech too. The genie is out of the bottle, cryptologically."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Slidewalk | ||
| A moving sidewalk; a conveyor belt for people. |
This term refers to a way of moving large numbers of people over a relatively short distance (over flat surface).
| He had stepped on to the corridor slidewalk and had coasted halfway to the elevator before he realized that Phy had followed him and was plucking timidly at his sleeve. |
| Technovelgy from Sanity,
by Fritz Leiber. Published by Astounding S-F in 1944 Additional resources -
|
The slidewalk is also a Heinlein favorite; you'll find references in his 1947 story It's Great to be Back!, his 1948 story Gentlemen, Be Seated and his 1948 novel Space Cadet:
It was a dull trip-climb on a scooter, ride down a completely featureless tunnel, climb off and go
through an airlock, get on another scooter and do it all over again. Mr. Knowles filled in with sales talk.
"This is temporary," he explained. "When we get the second tunnel dug, we'll cross-connect, take out the
airlocks, put a northbound slidewalk in this one, a southbound slidewalk in the other one, and you'll
make the trip in less than three minutes. Just like Luna City-or Manhattan."
Don left the booth and looked around for a cab stand. The station seemed more jammed than ever, with uniforms much in evidence, not only those of pilots and other ship personnel but military uniforms of many corps-and always the ubiquitous security police. Don fought his way through the crowd, down a ramp, along a slidewalk tunnel, and finally found what he wanted. There was a queue waiting for cabs; he joined it.
Space Cadet
The logical extension of this idea is a slidewalk that has been expanded to the size of an interstate highway; see rolling roads, from Heinlein's 1940 novelette The Roads Must Roll.
Of course, even earlier were the demonstration-level sliding walkways shown at the 1893 Chicago Exposition and the 1900 Paris Exposition. Here is a kinetoscope of the moving sidewalk from the 1900 Paris Exposition made by Thomas Edison.
They went on up to the subsurface level and took the crosstown slidewalk out to the rocket port. The slidewalk tunnel broke the surface at one point, becoming a pressurized shed; a view window on the west looked out on the surface of the Moon—and, beyond the hills, the Earth.
It's Great to be Back!
Gentlemen, Be Seated
Compare to the speed belt from Slaves of Mercury (1932) by Nat Schachner and the beltway from The Faceless Men (1948) by Leo Zagat.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Sanity
More Ideas
and Technology by Fritz Leiber
Tech news articles related to Sanity
Tech news articles related to works by Fritz Leiber
| CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride |
| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
| Tesla Electric 'Giga Train' Operational In Germany |
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
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
