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Two guys I would not want along on a camping trip.
If H. G. Wells was uncomfortable with nature,
Hugo Gernsback had issues
with the whole surface of the Earth. His idea of the ultimate
city was one that got as far away from dirt as you can without
actually getting into orbit. Nothing but glass, metal, and
plastic all day long; who would be happy with that?
Gernsback, apparently, who had this to say about his floating city in
the sky:
This illustration reproduced from the magazine SCIENCE
AND INVENTION of February 1922, shows a city 10,000 years
hence as conceived by Hugo Gernsback, and based on a
prediction by Captain Lawson of aerial fame. The city the size
of New York will float several miles above the surface of the
earth, where the air is cleaner and purer and free from
disease carrying bacteria. Gravity-nullifying devices were
pictured as the means of keeping the cities suspended. Four
gigantic generators will shoot earthward electric rays which
by reaction with the earth produce the force to keep the city
aloft. By increasing of decreasing the electrical energy the
city may be raised or lowered as desired. The city is roofed
over by a substance which is transparent, strong and
unbreakable. The atmospheric pressure within the city will
probably be four or five pounds per square inch instead of
14.7, as it now is. Possibly, therefore, future men will have
larger chests than we do. Furthermore, by rising above the
clouds we will be freed from rain, snow and thunder showers.
We will have in fact perpetual sunlight. The city will derive
its energy from the sun, the solar energy being converted into
electrical energy.
All
very well and good, but if we assume that fantasy technologies like
antigravity aren't involved and unless Newton's laws have been
repealed in 10,000 years, those electric rays are going to have to
produce thrust to hold the city up and if it weighs anything what New
York does, the countryside beneath is going to be crushed flat right
down to the bedrock; which probably suited Gernsback just fine.
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