3D Printing Any 3D Printers in old Movies / Books?

[Huxter]

Anyone remember any mention of 3D printing in old movies or books?

Who's seen Mystery Science Theatre 3000 or Robby the Robot debut, Scifi Fridays...?

The only thing I recall that is close is Star Trek Enterpises' "Protein Resequencer"?

I have not read a whole lot of scifi, but have seen many a scifi movie!

Was 3D printing not foreseen until much more recent?

 

[Speaknoevil]

That is actually a good question. Star Trek and other shows foresaw many technologies of today. I have watched a lot of Sci-Fi, but have not seen a depiction of 3D printing until recently in shows like Westworld. Then again, I'm by no means an expert.

 

[dhbarr]

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/163886


Murray Leinster's "Things Pass By" has a man building a spaceship one layer at a time by spraying:

"But this constructor is both efficient and flexible. I feed magnetronic plastics — the stuff they make houses and ships of nowadays — into this moving arm. It makes drawings in the air following drawings it scans with photo-cells. But plastic comes out of the end of the drawing arm and hardens as it comes. This thing will start at one end of a ship or a house and build it complete to the other end, following drawings only."

It's older than the Eric Frank Russell story, as it was first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories, Summer 1945, which is available at the Internet Archive. It was reprinted in Fantastic Story Magazine, Winter 1955, also available at the Internet Archive.

 

[Huxter]

Thank you - that's some good reading!

But gradually these differences were righting themselves, for the whole of the second canvas was being built up atom by atom, molecule by molecule, into an exactly identical twin of the one which had felt the brush of Francis Boucher.

 

[dr wogz]

in the 5th Element, "she" is built up in layers, initially..

 

[Huxter]

Oh yeah - we watch the Fifth Element alot! I should have realized that!

 

[dr wogz]

it's in my all time top 10 movie list!