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"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Salamander | ||
| Name given to the fire trucks of the future, which carry kerosene rather than water, and are used to burn houses. |
The fire trucks have a special role in Fahrenheit 451, of course; rather than providing equipment to put out fires, they are used to start fires.
| The Mechanical Hound was gone. Its kennel was empty and the firehouse stood all about in plaster silence and the orange Salamander slept with its kerosene in its belly and the firethrowers crossed upon its flanks and Montag came in through the silence and touched the brass pole and slid up in the dark air, looking back at the deserted kennel, his heart beating, pausing, beating. Faber was a grey moth asleep in his ear, for the moment. |
| From Fahrenheit 451,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Doubleday in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Although salamanders are real creatures (lizardlike amphibians of the order Caudata, having porous scaleless skin), they once had the reputed ability to run around in fires. Here's an illustration of that legend from a modern classic Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling:
"...Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for their enjoyment, and they spend an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs."
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'LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.'
'...a rolled-up sheet of a thin, dark metal strange to them.'
'... his contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory complex.'
'Space-weather men had been placed at their disposal...'
With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.
'... Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!
