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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear
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| Electric Boat | ||
| A surface vessel powered by electricity. |
As far as I know, the first use of the term 'electric boat' in science fiction, if not the first reference to the idea (see below).
 (Electric boat from 'The Great Drought' by Capt. S.P. Meek) Before the doctor’s surprised gaze, the edges of a huge box rose above the surface of the water, around the electric boat. The boat was raised and water could be heard running out of the box which held it. When the box was drained, a man leaped in and made some adjustments. A cover, hinged on one side, swung over and closed the box tightly with the boat inside. |
| Technovelgy from The Great Drought,
by S.P. Meek. Published by Astounding Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the electric-yacht from A Strange Trip (1885) by John Baker Hopkins.
Science fiction fans of course recall the first fictional electric sea-going vessel, the Nautilus, described by Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, published in 1875.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Great Drought
More Ideas
and Technology by S.P. Meek
Tech news articles related to The Great Drought
Tech news articles related to works by S.P. Meek
Electric Boat-related
news articles:
- Electric Jet Boats From Enevate and Sealence Collab
| The 'Last Mile' In China Crowded With Delivery Robots |
| Musk Idea Of Cars Talking To Each Other Predicted 70 Years Ago |
| Waymo And Tesla 'Autonomous Cabs' Are Piloted By Remote Drivers |
| Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode |
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'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
