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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes."
- Larry Niven

Portable Atomic Heater  
  Compact source of energy.  

Libby found himself assigned to the roofing detail. He helped the metalsmith’s mate struggle over the hill with a portable atomic heater, difficult to handle because of a mass of eight hundred pounds, hut weighing only sixteen pounds. The rest of the roofing detail were breaking out and preparing to move by hand the enormous translucent tent which was to be the “sky” of the little valley.

The metalsmith located a landmark on the inner slope of the valley, set up his heater, and commenced cutting a deep horizontal groove or step in the rock. He kept it always at the same level by following a chalk mark drawn along the rock wall.

Technovelgy from Misfit, by Robert Heinlein.
Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1939
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