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"My father was a master mechanic; I grew up with a screwdriver in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other."
- Frank Herbert
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| Chalf (Quick-Scribe Powder) | ||
| A special powder that forms itself into words and symbols. |
Chalf is a truly unique idea. If you think about it, laser printer toner (the fine carbon material) is a similar powder, that is fixed onto the paper to form words and symbols. But, do you really need the paper?
| McKie brought a white vial from his copious jacket, scattered metallic powder on the desktop.
Watt pushed himself back from his desk, eyeing the powder with suspicion. He took a cautious sniff, smelled chalf, the quick-scribe powder. Still... "It's just chalf," McKie said. And he thought: If he buys that, I may get away with this. "So scribe it," Watt said. Concealing his elation, McKie held a chalf-memory stick over the dusted surface. A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf. |
| Technovelgy from The Tactful Saboteur,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Galaxy in 1964 Additional resources -
|
Chalf also offered the devious Jorj X. McKie, saboteur extraordinary, with an opportunity to do what he did best. His boss, Clinton Watt, was right to be suspicious.
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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...'
