快猫短视频

FEW readers will know the name of David E. H. Jones, who died on 19 July. For many, however, his alter ego, Daedalus, will stand out in their memories of 快猫短视频. The imaginary inventor鈥檚 musings were a fixture in the magazine from 1964 until the 1980s.

Daedalus proposed 鈥減lausible schemes鈥� for the likewise fictional company DREADCO. These thought experiments switched between flights of fancy and satire, but often anticipated real discoveries. Determining when the soul leaves the body, and pressure-formed soap whose bubbles explode on skin have yet to find their moment, but his 1966 suggestion of a 鈥渉ollow molecule鈥� of carbon had its vindication in the 1996 Nobel prize in chemistry, awarded to others for the discovery of fullerenes.

In tribute, this month鈥檚 Old 快猫短视频 looks at what our resident maverick was developing in Septembers past. In our 1 September 1966 issue, Daedalus suggested sloping the water in canals to increase the speed of boats. The gradients would be created by 鈥渕agnetic densifiers鈥� and time-consuming locks would be a thing of the past.

The 18 September issue three years later carried a proposal for a drill made of vapour. The idea was that an iron vapour jet would whack into an iron plate and each atom in the jet would knock an atom off the far side of the plate 鈥� like a tiny Newton鈥檚 cradle.

The following week, Daedalus had dreamed up the 鈥渋nverted aqualung鈥�: a transparent, sealed suit filled with water that a dolphin could wear on land. Its flippers would fit in large paddles to give the cetacean traction in air and propel a railcar upon which it was mounted. The unfortunate beast would be 鈥渁ble to explore the world freely before diving back into the pool鈥�.

Such ideas emerged from an amazing, inquisitive mind, and one that derived great pleasure from the (probably) implausible. As Daedalus wrote in 1981, 鈥淒READCO succeeds only because it is run for the satisfaction and entertainment of the staff, particularly me.鈥�