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" I think that computers today allow us one last opportunity to provide something like a level playingfield in America."
- William Gibson

Metal Solvent Ray Thrower  
  Acts like a flame thrower in space.  

He has an unexpected use for this device.

Here was something: A metal solvent ray thrower, big and powerful enough for his purposes. It was as large as a small cannon, but easy to handle without the gravity pull that the ship once had...

Away he soared into the starry blackness, floating outward like a kite. He traveled for many yards, until he came to the end of the cable with ever so gentle a jerk... He pointed the ray thrower in the direction that the wreck was traveling in and touched the trigger switch.

Fire gushed into the dark, fire full of destructive power - and motive power. Like a rocket, the thrower recoiled and hurled backward.

Technovelgy from Lost Rocket, by Manly Wade Wellman.
Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941
Additional resources -

Compare to the emergency repulsion ray from Earth-Venus 12 (1936) by Gabriel Wilson, the reaction pistol from Gordon A. Giles Diamond Planetoid (1937), the propulsion gun from Venus Mines, Incorporated (1931) by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat) and the Pistol 'Rocket' (1931) from Buck Rogers: 2430 AD (1931) by Nowlan and Calkin.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Lost Rocket
  More Ideas and Technology by Manly Wade Wellman
  Tech news articles related to Lost Rocket
  Tech news articles related to works by Manly Wade Wellman

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