On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 at 07:27, Stan Sieler via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Hi, > > Back in 2017, I posted something about seeing a possible first-ever > reference to the idea of 3-D printing in a 1951 issue of Galaxy Science > Fiction magazine. > > I stumbled over an even earlier one tonight... > > The September, 1941, issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine has a > story called "Elsewhere" by Caleb Saunders (a pseudonym of Robert A. > Heinlein). On page 118 we see: > > [They used] a single general type of machine to manufacture almost > anything. They fed into it a plan which Igor called, for want of a better > term, the blueprints. It was, in fact, a careful scale model of the device > to be manufactured; the machine retooled itself and produced the artifact. > A three-dimensional pantograph, Igor called the machine, vaguely and > inaccurately. One of them was, at that moment, molding the bodies of > fighting planes out. of plastic, all in one piece and in one operation.
That is really quite remarkable! Good find! -- Liam Proven – Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk – gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven – Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 – ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053