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"Science fiction has gotten more accurate as we've gotten closer to the present, because science fiction stories have not only attracted, but also generated current scientists."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Conveyor Ribbon | ||
| A moving sidewalk. |
We see these most frequently today in airports.
| One had to be alert to pass across the series of progressively speeding conveyor ribbons to reach the central path that spiralled upward two hundred feet, then shot at sixty miles an hour along the radial street. He dimly remembered stumbling, someone hauling him upright, a shouted objurgation from a Traffic Controlman... |
| Technovelgy from Exiles of the Moon,
by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat). Published by Wonder Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
This passage describes how you cross conveyor ribbons at increasing (or decreasing) speeds:
Compare to the slidewalk from Sanity (1941), by Fritz Lieber.
In real life, demonstration-level sliding walkways were shown at the 1893 Chicago Exposition and the 1900 Paris Exposition. Take a look at this kinetoscope of the moving sidewalk from the 1900 Paris Exposition made by Thomas Edison.
Garry started to move outward, striding diagonally across the speed-graded belts, till he reached the stationary walk...
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
