![]() ![]() Here's a passive implementation of this idea - take a look at this Science Fiction in the News story - Pilkington Activ Glass - The Invisible Squeegee Of Window-Willie.Ĭompare to the window-cleaner robots from Rendezvous With Rama (1972) by Arthur C. Published by Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1956 Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour? I held him back until I had him down to a price that people could not refuse. That was Window Willie and it's a wonder that somebody hadn't thought of him sooner. In writing this story Heinlein envisioned a world both 15 and 50 years in the future. ![]() It’s always interesting to read other’s predictions of the future. It was published in 1956 but is set in the 1970s and 2000s. It turned Out that an electrostatic device could make dirt go spung! off any polished silica surface, window glass, bathtubs, toilet bowls-anything of that sort. It is Robert Heinlein’s time travel book. I got to thinking about dirty windows and that ring around the bathtub that is so hard to scrub, as you have to bend double to get at it. But I had just had a long government vacation and wanted to be my own boss. The other big market for engineers is civil service-good starting pay, good pensions, no worries, thirty days annual leave, liberal benefits. You haven't missed any meals, you've had a lot of rides in company airplanes. Go to work for Standard, or du Pont, or General Motors? Thirty years later they give you a testimonial dinner and a pension. While I was in the service I had thought hard about what one engineer can do. Yes, I invented Hired Girl and all her kinfolk-Window Willie and the rest-even though you won't find my name on them. ![]()
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