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"What television does is rent us friends and relatives who are quite satisfactory. This is quite something, to rent artificial friends and relatives right inside the house."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Tele-Motor-Coasters | ||
| Powered skates for personal transportation. |
Personal mechanized transportation was on everyone's mind in 1911; the automobile was now a familiar sight. In the world of Ralph 124C 41+, another alternative was available.
| ...Ralph bade Alice sit down on a chair in the vestibule. He pressed a nearby button twice and a servant brought two pairs of what appeared to be roller-skates.
In reality they were Tele-motor-coasters. They were made of alomagnesium and each weighed only about one and a half pounds. Each had three small, rubber-covered wheels, one in front and two in the rear. Between the wheels was a small electric motor - about the size of a lemon; this motor could only be operated by high frequency currents and, despite its small size, could deliver about one-quarter horsepower. From each coaster a thin insulated wire led up the wearer's back to the hat or cap. Here it was attached to the collector, which was a stiff pin about eight inches long, projecting half-way out from the hat or cap. This pin sucked up, as it were, the high frequency electricity and carried it to the small motors, which latter propelled the coaster. To control the speed of the motor, one simply lifted up the front part of the coaster; this not only cut off the current, but automatically braked the two rear wheels. "...the Tele-motor-coasters would not be possible were it not for the metallic streets. The flat spring which trails on the street between the two rear wheels must make continuous contact with the metallic "ground" else the current cannot flow. |
| From Ralph 124c 41 +,
by Hugo Gernsback. Published by Modern Electrics in 1911 Additional resources -
|
The power for this device is broadcast power.
Here's a graphic image by Frank R. Paul from the publication of the novel in Amazing Stories Quarterly (1929).
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Tech news articles related to Ralph 124c 41 +
Tech news articles related to works by Hugo Gernsback
Tele-Motor-Coasters-related
news articles:
- Motosk8 - Next Best Thing To Tele-Motor-Coasters
- In-Road Electric Vehicle Charger
- Robotic Roller Skate Micro-Mobility
- RocketSkates Motorized Skates
- Rollkers Walking Skates
| CopterPack Is Robert Heinlein's 1954 Copter Harness |
| Las Vegas Tunnels To Have Autonomous Teslas |
| First Boring Passenger Station In Las Vegas |
| Tesla's 20,000 Superchargers |
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'... the lens displays would be useless without a wearable computer to do the graphics.'
'the registration number which the traffic control automatically photographed as she left the controlway...'
'It could maintain a steady six miles per hour...'
'Then they press one of these here thirteen buttons...'
'...without burning a single hydrocarbon molecule to injure the diseased atmosphere any further.'
'Bird-like robots now descended from the ceiling of the theatre...'
'The efficient robot waiter of the Sky Club had cleared away the remnants of an epicurean meal.'
'...in the tank the new body and the new mind and memory and life has taken almost instant form.'
