Friday, May 18, 2012

Seen At Dayton: Gernsback Gone Wild

Hugo Gernsback, who all but invented "pulp" SF and promoted hobby radio his entire career. (And a notoriously slow payout to writers, I'm told. Well, you can't have everything).

His magazines were full of ideas from the start: ...I did not say good ideas. Eventually you run out of extension cord, have to stop Westinghousing and fix bayonets! Also: machine guns. Possibly a problem.

(A few magazines down the pile: Great White Fleet battleships, fitted with new transmissions and great big metal wheels, crawling up onto the beach. Slow? maybe, but they'd eat tanks for lunch. At least until they bogged down or sheared a gear or axle.)
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7 comments:

  1. NotClauswitzMay 19, 2012 at 12:27 AM

    Saddam Hussein might have read that, during the Iran-Iraq war he employed the electrocution tactic in the marshes. He brought "the Westinghouse" with him, though.

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  2. AnonymousMay 19, 2012 at 1:14 AM

    "...I did not say good ideas. Eventually you run out of extension cord, have to stop Westinghousing and fix bayonets! Also: machine guns."

    Forgive me for the following, if you might but...you don't know what you're talking about. Anything looks good, even a frontal assault against prepared positions, anything looks good with that four dent Montana Peak campaign cover. Always did.

    Mike James

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  3. Roberta XMay 19, 2012 at 7:22 AM

    And here I was, thinking those...hats...were Old School impractical even for 1917.

    Major points for style but possibly not much good for shrapnel. More "Pickett" than "Pershing."

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  4. Fuzzy CurmudgeonMay 19, 2012 at 10:44 AM

    Perhaps the land-mobile battleships were the inspiration for Oh John Ringo No's SheVa Mark VII continental siege unit?

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  5. Roberta XMay 19, 2012 at 11:46 AM

    I'm pretty sure he owes Keith Laumer for that. And the land leviathans are a bit large to be Bolo, Mk. 1.

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  6. rickn8orMay 19, 2012 at 1:49 PM

    Roberta and Mike, I'm reminded of B-17 pilots with their headsets OVER their hats.
    A bit over-concerned about being out of uniform?

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  7. Roberta XMay 19, 2012 at 2:47 PM

    Nope, the hat prevents abrasion. Also, it's kewl to have 'em mashed like that, dunno why.

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