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"I never saw why I had to give up science in order to write, or the other way around, so I didn't!"
- Gregory Benford
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| Walking Balloon | ||
| A means of efficiently traversing rough country. |
| ...they were in Wisconsin, and stepped off into a "walking balloon", which proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs over a slant of steep upland.
 (The Walking Balloon) This vehicle is a shallow car with small hollow sails of silk above it, containing just enough gas to keep it about thirty feet above ground, assisted by a small electric engine in the centre. From the bottom of the car two long rods or mechanical legs, made of aluminum—the lightest metal known— extended down to the ground, where they are reciprocated at regular intervals by an electrometer, which enables them to imitate the motion of walking, and carry the balloon along at the rate of some fifteen miles an hour. They are not meant for high speed, and can travel only, of course, on prepared routes, but are very convenient in certain places. |
| Technovelgy from In the Deep of Time,
by George Parsons Lathrop. Published by Not known in 1897 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the wonderful kite-copter car from The Kokod Warriors (1952) by Jack Vance.
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- LEONARDO Robot Has Legs And Thrusters, Can Skateboard, Slackline
- Bipedal Robot Floats Gently While Walking
| Space Explorers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine |
| Who Knows What Might Be Found When Visiting A Metal Asteroid? |
| StoryFile To Help William Shatner Become Landru |
| DNA Controls Swarms Of Molecular Robots |
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'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
