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"The permanent government now is the anchorpeople. They don't get elected, and year after year they're responding emotionally to this or that."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Floater (Vehicle) | ||
| A gentle conveyance distinguished primarily by antigravity power. |
As far as I know the first real use of this term in science fiction, although the word is used earlier in Nowlan's Armageddon—2419 A.D. published in 1927 to refer to devices that let individuals float in mid-air.
| A dark shadow drifted slowly across the room, and they turned to see a five-passenger floater sinking slowly, gently, to Earth. The nude figures about the pool below were scampering from beneath it. It landed gently, as, all about the city, other floaters were landing gently, but surely, despite the efforts of human occupants.
As the one below landed, there was a soft boom, and a sharp hiss, a cry of surprise and fear as half a dozen people. crowded into the little machine, tumbled out. Then more cracklings, a few snapping sparks, then silence. |
| Technovelgy from The Machine,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1935 Additional resources -
|
Another quote, this time from Installment Plan (1959) by Clifford Simak:
One instant it was floating level, a thousand feet above the ground, descending gently, with its cargo stacked upon it and the riding robots perched atop the cargo. The next instant it tilted as first one motor failed and then a second one. The load of cargo spilled and the riding robots with it. The floater, unbalanced, became a screaming wheel, spinning crazily, that whipped in a tightening, raging spiral down upon the base.
THE mishap came at dusk, as the last floater was settling down above the cargo dump, the eight small motors flickering bluely in the twilight.
(Floater in 'Installment Plan' by Clifford Simak)
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'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
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'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
