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"In 1970 I found little difficulty staying 30 years ahead of the man in the street, and now I find it difficult to stay 18 months ahead of the man on the street."
- Vernor Vinge

Rigid Metallic Clothing  
  An early exoskeleton.  

In the story, Earthmen must survive on Jupiter.

The greatest difficulty, Crane saw, was Jupiter's gravitation...

Earth's scientists solved the problem to some extent by devising rigid metallic clothing not unlike armor which would support the interior human structure against Jupiter's pull. Crane's men were also administered compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone to strengthen the skeleton structure...

Technovelgy from A Conquest of Two Worlds, by Edmond Hamilton.
Published by Wonder Stories in 1932
Additional resources -

Here's another short quote that details the nature of the clothing:

Halkett wore an old suit of the metal body-strengthening armor... He was a contrast to Crane and Burnaham, trim in their metal body-protection with on it the insignia of the Council Army that Halkett once had worn.

This body-strengthening armor was a bit clumsy in use:

For though the metal armor and other protections safeguarded the earthmen fairly effectively from the greater gravitation, they found it still difficult to make the simplest motions. It took weeks for Crane's men, against the drag of the Jovian gravity, to clear the fern forest around them and turn up dirtworks of the oozy black Jovian soil.

Their greatest obstacle was not the Jovians themselves, who could offer no effective resistance to the atom-blasts and bombs of Crane's men, but the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort, that required them to wear the metal body-support armor and made their movements still more difficult...

Compare to the powered suit from Robert Heinlein's 1959 novel Starship Troopers, or the medical exoskeleton from A Specter is Haunting Texas (1968), by Fritz Leiber

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from A Conquest of Two Worlds
  More Ideas and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
  Tech news articles related to A Conquest of Two Worlds
  Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton

Rigid Metallic Clothing-related news articles:
  - NASA's X1 Robotic Exoskeleton For Astronauts
  - DARPA's Warrior Web
  - Robotic Exoskeleton For Shipyard Workers
  - Audi's Chairless Chair Lower Body Exoskeleton
  - Ekso Works Industrial Exoskeleton
  - FORTIS Exoskeleton Not Quite Ripley's Alien-Fighting Exoskeleton
  - Rigid Clothing, Or Wearable Furniture?
  - Chairless Chair Exoskeleton By Sapetti
  - Wandercraft Atalante Exoskeleton Now With Natural Gait
  - Project MARCH VII Exoskeleton Video
  - Skip Movewear Arc'teryx AI Exoskeleton Pants

Articles related to Armor
Liquid Body Armor For TALOS Exoskeleton
DIY Taser-Proof Clothing
Look Great In Your Garrison Bespoke Bulletproof Suit
Bionic Body Armor Makes You Dodge Bullets

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