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"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
- Neal Stephenson

Boring Heat Machine  
  Takes tunnel boring material and turns it into building material.  

In digging their volcanic shafts it would be no impossible task for them to adapt their wonderful machines for fashioning the lava product into underground corridors and chambers instead of the castles or fortresses they had first built above ground...

Then I noticed that the character of the earth flowing from the boring machine was changing. In a few minutes molten lava was pouring out of the broad-lipped spouts. There ensued unusual activity on the part of the shovel-handed machines, whose operators, with a skill that held me enthralled, manipulated the liquid stone, absorbing the heat from it with accessory apparatus, and shaping it as it hardened.

Technovelgy from The Onslaught From Venus, by Frank Phillips.
Published by Science Wonder Stories in 1929
Additional resources -

From the cover description:


(Heat machine from 'The Onslaught From Venus' by Frank Phillips)

"Here we see ... one of their heat machines is turning out molten lava made from rock and earth, and which later will be used to make building blocks for these invaders."

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Onslaught From Venus
  More Ideas and Technology by Frank Phillips
  Tech news articles related to The Onslaught From Venus
  Tech news articles related to works by Frank Phillips

Boring Heat Machine-related news articles:
  - Boring Company Bricks Predicted In 1929

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