Origin of 3-D printing (again)

Liam Proven lproven at gmail.com
Fri Jun 19 07:50:54 CDT 2020


On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 at 07:27, Stan Sieler via cctalk
<cctalk at 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: lproven at cix.co.uk – gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com
Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven – Skype: liamproven
UK: +44 7939-087884 – ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053


More information about the cctech mailing list