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"I forged a concept which is relatively simple and possibly unique in theology, and that is, the irrational is the primordial stratum of the universe."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Air Tank Flying | ||
| Using little blasts of compressed air to fly around inside a space station. |
| And nearly buckled against
the wall was that contrivance little Skeptsky liked to fool
with, here in the center of the disk where even artificial
gravity was negligible — little compressed-air tanks that
he strapped to his shoulders, with rocket-nozzles attached. He could fly lightly all about the place, and did,
explaining blandly that he was practising at being an
angel.
It was horribly lonely in the vast open space that was supposed to be a recreation-center and observatory, where weight was non-existent. |
| Technovelgy from The Power Planet,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Amazing Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
Another excerpt:
“I am practising at being an angel,” he observed placidly. “When that war-rocket gets here, a little practice
should come in handy. I have lived a highly moral life,
you see...”
He reached over his shoulder, opened the pet-cocks
of his compressed-air tanks, and soared lightly away in
the vast room in which nothing had any weight. He
looked very strange, swooping lightly here and there in
the vast gravitationless room. Two hundred feet by two
hundred feet by six hundred, was the size of the general
observatory. The size of a twenty-story building in
height, and the same width, and two or more city blocks
in length. And all the walls were floors, and the chairs
had thigh-grips in them to hold a man down when he
sat, lest he float away from the force of an incautious
gesture...
Now and then there were little
thumps as Skeptsky landed lightly upon one of the walls
which was also a floor, and maneuvered himself about
to fly again with the quite incredible flying apparatus,
which would work nowhere else save in this one monster
room.
Compare to the levitators from Lost City of Mars (1934) by Harl Vincent, the Dragonfly sky-bike from Rendezvous With Rama (1972) by Arthur C. Clarke and the bat wings from Limits by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
It was little Skeptsky, flying lightly about the two-hundred-foot room where nothing had any weight. He
had the compressed-air tanks strapped to his shoulders
with those astoundingly efficient nozzles that are used —
in a larger form — by space-rockets themselves. He
could fly, here, with a propulsive force of a few ounces
only. He landed lightly beside them.
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
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'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
