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"Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Bubble Armor Space Suit | ||
| Steel bubble-shaped space suit. |
| Enclosed in a steel bubble of suit-armor, he presently propelled himself to the lock.
Gingerly, he floated up to and through the opening, rather like a small balloon of greenish steel-alloy in his bulky armor.
 (Bubble Space Armor from 'Agent of Vega' by James Schmitz) A wash of corrosive atomic fire splashed blindingly off the front of his armor as he appeared in the control-room door -- through it twin narrow-beam tractor rays came ramming in reversed, brain-jarring thrusts at his face-piece. He drove quickly into the room and let the tractors slam him back against the wall. They could not harm him The fire was different. For perhaps a minute, his armor could continue to absorb it, but no longer. A stubby tentacle on the front of his chest armor now raised a shielded projectile gun and sprayed the top of the desk beyond which U-1 crouched with a mushrooming, adhesive blanket of incendiaries. |
| Technovelgy from Agent of Vega,
by James Schmitz. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1949 Additional resources -
|
Here's an actual device - the Romano undersea robot - from Modern Mechanix (1935):
The Romano undersea robot, recognized by many authorities as one of the greatest advancements in deep sea operation history, has a pear-shaped shell capable of withstanding water pressure at depths of 5,000 feet. It has two arms nine feet long, strong enough to lift half a ton, and yet adjustable enough to pick up a small coin. There are powerful lights that can pierce the water for a hundred feet.
Oxygen for the operator is supplied by an apparatus inside the sphere working in conjunction with an air purifier.
Compare to the cylinder space suit from Islands of the Sky (1952) by Arthur C. Clarke.
Compare to these other early space suit references;
the air-tight suit from Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss, the pneumatic suit from The Shot into Infinity (1929) by Otto Willi Gail, the space suit from The Emperor of the Stars (1931) by Schachner and Zagat, the altitude suit from The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell, the Osprey Space Armor from Salvage in Space (1933) by Jack Williamson, the space overalls from Lost Rocket (1941) by Manly Wade Wellman and the space bubble from The Planet Strappers (1961) by Raymond Z. Gallun.
(Romano undersea diving robot)
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'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
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'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'
