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"I went back to science fiction to try a few experiments …and my first experiment was a disaster…"
- Alfred Bester
 |
| Pneumatic Tube Station | ||
| Passengers are sealed into a narrow cylinder that is shot through a pressurized tube to their destination. |
| Mechanically his long legs carried him to the pneumatic tube station, blind instinct directed him to the proper aperture. A car had almost filled; he could barely wedge his broad shoulders into the remaining space. But the crowded discomfort made no impression on him. He did not notice the sealing of the entrance, the hiss of admitted air, the twenty minute flight that took him for the last time to the C Division living area, a hundred miles away. |
| Technovelgy from Exiles of the Moon,
by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat). Published by Wonder Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the shorter range bounce tube from Robert Heinlein's 1956 story Double Star. See also the single vehicle tunnel from Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov, the
submarine tube from An Express of the Future (1895) by Jules Verne, the
sub-Atlantic tube from Ralph 124c 41 + (1911) by Hugo Gernsback, the
vacutubes from Double Star (1956) by Robert Heinlein, the tubecar from The Faceless Men (1948) by Leo Zagat and the public tubes from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance.
The concept was originally proposed for freight delivery by George Medhurst, a London businessman in the early nineteenth century. His second proposal in 1812 was for a system that delivered people
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More Ideas
and Technology from Exiles of the Moon
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and Technology by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat)
Tech news articles related to Exiles of the Moon
Tech news articles related to works by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat)
Pneumatic Tube Station-related
news articles:
- Musk Tunnels Wisely Restrict Drivers
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
| CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride |
| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
