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"I'm strictly an ivory-tower person. I can explain things but I can't do things."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Sonar Pistol | ||
| A device that divers can use to find seabottom and objects in extremely dark or murky water. |
The action in the novel Starfish takes place at extreme ocean depths where no light from the surface penetrates. How can divers find their way around? By using the same techniques as sea creatures.
| They call it a squid: a jet-propelled cylinder about a meter long, with a headlight at the front end and a towbar at the back. Clarke, floating between Beebe and the seabed, checks it over with one hand. Her other hand grips a sonar pistol. She points the pistol into blackness; ultrasonic clicks sweep the night, give her a bearing.
"That way," she says, pointing. Ballard squeezes down on her own squid's towbar. The machine pulls her away. |
| Technovelgy from Starfish,
by Peter Watts. Published by Tor Books in 1999 Additional resources -
|
I don't think that there is anything as sophisticated as this device in a handheld form. Present-day divers can equip themselves with simple handheld sonar devices that look like flashlights. They are used to make a simple depth-check possible from the surface (from a kayak or canoe) or when underwater. These devices are simple, however; you point them at the bottom and press the button and a single result is provided. They do not provide a picture of what is there.
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'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
'There were cubic miles of it, and it glistened like a silvery Christmas tree...'
'Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual...'
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
