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"The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer. Day after month after year after story after book."
- Harlan Ellison

Breathing Balloon  
  Like a helmet, but rather than being solid it can pass some gases.  

When next he left the extension cage, carrying the flight stick, Svetz was wearing another spin-off from the interstellar-exploration industries. It was a balloon, and he wore it over his head. It was also a selectively permeable membrane, intended to pass certain gasses in and others out, to make a breathing-air mixture inside.
It was nearly invisible except at the rim. There, where light was refracted most severely, the balloon showed as a narrow golden circle enclosing Svetz’s head. The effect was not unlike a halo as shown in medieval paintings. But Svetz didn’t know about medieval paintings...

The horse screamed as it went into free fall. The horn, intended for Svetz s navel, ripped past his ear and tore his breathing balloon wide open.

Technovelgy from Get a Horse!, by Larry Niven.
Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1969
Additional resources -

Compare to the microscreen from Bolden's Pets (1955) by F.L. Wallace.

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  More Ideas and Technology from Get a Horse!
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