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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
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| Bolognium | ||
| Very early fictional element, courtesy of metallurgists. |
See also the article for the word "unobtainium".
| ...the Sillinoise Steel company was described. In the absence of the author, the paper was read by Dr. E.Z. Dame of Never Ready Batteries (Edgar C. Bain). The author's abstract follows:
This paper describes some of the alloys of the newly discovered element Gafnium. The element is named after the famous worker in steel who has but to mention a certain steel when lo! it becomes a super-metal... The element Gafnium is very similar to the element Bolognium with which it alloys in all proportions following a series of inter metallic compounds none of which are attracted by mice at ordinary pressures. |
| Technovelgy from Transactions of Amer Soc for Steel Treating,
by Edgar Bain. Published by Amer Soc Steel Treating in 1926 Additional resources -
|
This is not really a science fiction short story, but was instead a humorous effort by diligent metallurgists and materials scientists. Compare to many entries in List of Materials in Science Fiction.
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Tech news articles related to works by Edgar Bain
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'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
