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67-601: The company was established by André Morin in 1930, and was an outgrowth of his father Robert Morin's existing car and carriage workshop business. Based in the commune of Parthenay in the department of Deux-Sèvres , Sovam specialized in the manufacture of "camions magasin", or mobile shop kiosks built on light truck platforms. In 1962 Morin spun this business off into the Etalmobil brand, and Sovam diversified into other lucrative niches, producing airport handling equipment and specialized light utility vehicles. In 1964 they introduced

134-516: A (French-speaking) Swiss television program entitled Un Jour une Heure aired in October 1974. The great advantage of the Speedaway, as compared to the then existing systems, was that the embarking/disembarking zone was both wide and slow-moving (up to four passengers could embark simultaneously, equating to around 10,000 per hour), whereas the transportation zone was narrower and fast-moving. The entrance to

201-641: A Continuous Transit System with Sub-Surface Moving Platforms for Atlanta in 1924, with a design roughly similar to the Paris Exposition system. The proposed drive system used a linear induction motor . The system was not constructed. The Speedwalk, the first commercial moving walkway in the United States was installed in 1954 in Jersey City, New Jersey, inside the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Erie station at

268-498: A change in speed. In the Strugatsky brothers' Noon Universe , the worldwide network of moving roads is one of the first megaprojects undertaken on newly united Earth, before the advent of FTL starships and its consequences turned everybody's attention to the stars. These roads there are quasiliving organisms similar to Clarke's description and were used for both local commuting and long-distance non-urgent transport until their use

335-674: A conventional moving walkway. They were imagined by science fiction writer H. G. Wells in When the Sleeper Wakes . Robert A. Heinlein made them the instruments of social upheaval in the 1940 short story The Roads Must Roll . Isaac Asimov , in his Robot series , imagined slidewalks as the potential method of transportation of practically the entire urban population on Earth, with expressways moving at up to 95 km/h (60 mph) equipped with seating accommodations for long-distance travel, and with slower subsidiary tracks branching off from

402-502: A future London. Thirty years later, the silent film Metropolis (1927) depicted several scenes showing moving sidewalks and escalators between skyscrapers at high levels. Later, the short story " The Roads Must Roll " (1940), written by Robert A. Heinlein , depicts the risk of a transportation strike in a society based on similar-speed sidewalks. The novel is part of the Future History saga, and takes place in 1976. Isaac Asimov , in

469-407: A hundred miles an hour... The corridor still inclined upwards, and in a few hundred feet had curved through a complete right-angle. But only logic knew this: to the senses it was now as if one were being hurried along an absolutely level corridor. The fact that he was in reality travelling up a vertical shaft thousands of feet deep gave Alvin no sense of insecurity, for a failure of the polarizing field

536-685: A moving sidewalk to assist passengers in boarding and disembarking rides and attractions. Some examples include: The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber uses a travelator in the number "The Phantom of the Opera" (act one, scene six), to give the illusion the Phantom and Christine are traveling the catacombs below the Paris Opera House a great distance to the Phantom's lair on the subterranean lake. Moving walkways known as magic carpets are also used in ski resorts . Skiers can place their skis on

603-461: A moving walkway to ease guests through an animal display or habitat. An aquarium at the Mall of America does this with a moving walkway made up of specially rounded pallets that enable it to change directions en route. The San Diego Zoo uses moving ramps to help guests ascend steep grades. Some amusement park rides, such as continuous-motion dark rides like Disney's Omnimover rides, make use of

670-543: A narrow mediaeval street that climbs up from the bridge and gateway of the Porte Saint-Jacques to the centre of town. In time of the pilgrimage, this would have been the main pilgrimage route south through the town, and was occupied by weavers . Outside the city walls, the district of Saint-Jacques occupies land at the northern side of the Saint-Jacques bridge, and was also an area of weavers in mediaeval times. To

737-496: A new power output of 77 kW (103 hp) at 6750 rpm and top speed of 195 km/h (121.2 mph) the 1300GS was much more athletic than its predecessors. The car debuted at the Paris Salon of the same year where it received the gold medal of the "grand prix de l’Art et de l’Industrie Automobile". The 1300GS was considerably more expensive than the previous models, being listed at 21,500 francs in October 1967. The Sovam 1100VS

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804-501: A number of sights, including: Moving walkway A moving walkway , also known as an autowalk , moving pavement , moving sidewalk , people-mover , travolator , or travelator (British English), is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distance. Moving walkways can be used by standing or walking on them. They are often installed in pairs, one for each direction. The first moving walkway debuted at

871-553: A population of 37,817 (2014) in an area of 836.2 km (322.9 sq mi). Parthenay is located on the Route nationale 149 (RN149), which runs roughly east–west from Nantes to Poitiers , and which forms part of the European route E62 from Nantes to Genoa . The RN149 is a conventional highway, and has to a certain extent been by-passed by a combination of the autoroutes A83 and A10 that passes some 25 km (16 mi) to

938-495: A similar manner, and because of this, there is no need to hold the handrails when entering or exiting the walkway. It moves at roughly 2 km/h (1.2 mph) when riders step onto it and speeds up to approximately 7 km/h (4.3 mph), which it remains at until near the end, where it slows back down. ThyssenKrupp continued development of that product, and the result is Accel , an upgraded version of Express Walkway , offering speeds of up to 12 km/h (7.5 mph), which

1005-512: A slower speed than a natural walking pace, and when people step onto one, they tend to slow their pace to compensate; thus moving walkways only minimally improve travel times and overall transport capacity. Moving walkways are built in one of two basic styles: Both types of moving walkway have a grooved surface to mesh with combplates at the ends. Also, nearly all moving walkways are built with moving handrails similar to those on escalators. In 1961, Jim Downer designed and had produced by Dunlop,

1072-453: A standard moving walkway. In 2007, ThyssenKrupp installed two high-speed walkways in Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson International Airport . They connect the international gates in the newly opened Pier F, located at one end of the pier, with the rest of the terminal. One walkway serves departing passengers travelling towards the gates and the other serves arriving passengers travelling towards

1139-796: A “Véhicule Utilitaire de Livraison” (light delivery vehicle) or `VUL' which used a fibreglass truck or van body mounted on a shortened Renault 4 chassis. The vehicle proved to be ideal for urban delivery work. In 1965 Morin decided to launch a low-volume Sovam sports car. Like the VUL, the car would make extensive use of Renault 4 parts, including a shortened version of that car's punt chassis and its entire power-train. The Sovam inherited its donor car's front mid-engine, front wheel drive layout and fully independent suspension consisting of upper and lower A-arms with longitudinal torsion bars and telescopic dampers in front and trailing arms with transverse torsion bars and telescopic dampers in back. Renault also provided

1206-514: Is 5 km/h (3.1 mph) faster than of Express Walkway , and is the same speed as of original version of TRR walkway. An inclined moving walkway is a type of vertical transportation used in airports and supermarkets to move people to another floor with the convenience of an elevator (namely, that people can take along their suitcase trolley, shopping cart , or baby carriage) and the capacity of an escalator . Conflicting sources name either Goodyear Tire or Canadian elevator company Turnbull as

1273-449: Is a 10-metre (33 ft) acceleration zone where the "ground" is a series of metal rollers. Riders stand still with both feet on these rollers and use one hand to hold the handrail and let it pull them so that they glide over the rollers. The idea is to accelerate the riders so that they will be traveling fast enough to step onto the moving walkway belt. Riders who try to walk on these rollers are at significant risk of falling over. Once on

1340-490: Is constructed in a bend of the River Thouet, which surrounds the town on the west and north sides. The highest ground within the walls lies to the south, where the current town centre lies. To the north and west, a spur of high ground runs above cliffs which descend vertically to the riverside park of La Prée . At the northern end of this spur, with the river on two sides, are the remains of the towns fortified chateau . Between

1407-528: Is of the belt type, with a sequence of belts moving at different speeds to accelerate and decelerate riders. A sequence of different speed handrails is also used. In 2002, CNIM designed and installed the experimental, 185-metre (607 ft) trottoir roulant rapide high-speed walkway in the Montparnasse–Bienvenüe station in France . At first it operated at a speed of 12 km/h (7.5 mph) but

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1474-615: Is the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris , France, which has several moving walkways inside a series of futuristic suspended tubes. Moving walkways can be useful for lengthier connections between lines or platforms; for example: A moving walkway was formerly part of the complex in Spadina subway station in Toronto, Ontario , Canada. Installed in 1978, it reduced the travel time needed to transfer between

1541-482: The 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris as the Rue de l'Avenir . It consisted of three elevated platforms—the first stationary, the second moving at a moderate speed, and the third moving at about ten kilometers per hour (six miles per hour). These demonstrations likely inspired some of H. G. Wells' settings mentioned in the "Science Fiction" section below. The Beeler Organization , a New York City consulting firm, proposed

1608-543: The Pavonia Terminal . Built by Goodyear , it was 84.5 meters (277 feet) long and moved up a 10% grade at 2.4 km/h (1.5 mph). It was removed a few years later when traffic patterns at the station changed. The first moving walkway in an airport was installed in 1958 at Love Field in Dallas , Texas. On January 1, 1960, Tina Marie Brandon, age 2, was killed on the moving sidewalk. Moving walkways generally move at

1675-667: The River Thouet , and is the sub-prefecture of the Parthenay arrondissement . It is situated some 40 km (25 mi) north of Niort , 50 km (31 mi) west of Poitiers , 120 km (75 mi) south-east of Nantes , and 350 km (220 mi) south-west of Paris . Each July, Parthenay hosts the Festival Ludique International de Parthenay , otherwise known as the Festival de Jeux or FLIP , in which

1742-790: The UK , inclined travelators are used in stores, including Asda , B&M Bargains , IKEA , Marks & Spencer , Morrisons , Sainsbury's , and Tesco . For example, Tesco in Aberystwyth uses six inclined travelators (three up, three down in a criss-cross layout) to transport shoppers and their trolleys between the store, the rooftop car park and the under-store car park. In the United States, inclined walkways can be found in certain IKEA, Menards , Publix , H-E-B , Wegmans , Costco Wholesale , and Whole Foods Market stores. When in operation, travelators have similar safety risks to traditional escalators, with

1809-562: The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago , Illinois , in the United States as The Great Wharf Moving Sidewalk. Designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee , it had two sections: one where passengers were seated, and one where they could stand or walk. It ran in a loop down the length of a lakefront pier to a casino. Six years later, another moving walkway was presented to the public at

1876-453: The chateau and the town centre along the top of the spur is the citadel , protected by the city wall along the top of the cliffs to the west, and by its own inner walls to the south and east. To the east of the citadel and the north of the town centre, the land slopes more gently down a small valley to the river. Running down the middle of this valley can be found the Rue de la Vau Saint-Jaques ,

1943-488: The 1100VS could attain a top speed of 165 km/h (102.5 mph). The cost of a 1100VS was set at 12,960 francs in 1966. In 1967 a brand new model, the 1300GS, was released. This car had a new hardtop body with 2+2 seating and rectangular headlamps, but the biggest change was that the 1300GS received the 1255 cc engine and 5-speed manual transaxle from the Renault 8 Gordini. Four-wheel disk brakes were also an option. With

2010-437: The 845 cc Billancourt engine fell short of the car’s sporting appearance, but with an initial list price of just 9,990 francs the car managed to attract a few buyers. For 1966 the price of the 850VS was increased to 10,870 francs. That same year saw the introduction of a new 1100VS model with improved performance. With Renault’s recently introduced 1108 cc Cléon-Fonte engine producing 65 hp (48 kW) of power

2077-561: The Fall of Night (later rewritten as The City and the Stars ) the Megacity of Diaspar is interwoven with "moving ways" which, unlike Heinlein's conveyor belts, are solid floors that can mysteriously move as a fluid. In the novel, Clarke writes, An engineer of the ancient world would have gone slowly mad trying to understand how a solid roadway could be fixed at both ends while its centre travelled at

Sovam - Misplaced Pages Continue

2144-590: The French group Mécanelle, whose principal shareholder was Russian financier Vladimir Zagaynova. On June 24, 2015, SOVAM went into receivership. On November 1, 2015, the painting and sandblasting branch of the company was sold to BTS Industrie, and the airport equipment and services branch was acquired by the Kamkorp group and integrated into their product line as SOVAM GSE (Ground Support Equipment). The company went back into receivership on March 24, 2017. On July 6, 2017, Sovam

2211-558: The Sera. Durand drew a compact two-seat coupé with a greenhouse whose sides curved inward towards the centre of the car and that was topped by a removable roof panel. The lines of the car were low and sporty, although not universally acclaimed. The Sovam 850 "Voiture de Sport" (VS) was presented at the Paris Motor Show in October 1964 and the interest that the car generated persuaded Morin to put it into production. The performance delivered by

2278-609: The Sovam failed to acquire the level of cachet achieved by competitors such as the Alpine A110 and Matra 530 . October 1967 marked the last of the manufacturer’s three appearances at the annual Paris Motor Show. In 1968 Morin would produce just five Sovam sports cars. Over the span of its manufacturing life from 1965 to 1968, fewer than 150 cars were produced. Sovam entered a car in the Paris-Calcutta-Paris race in 1966 to demonstrate

2345-474: The breeding of cattle , and the Parthenais breed is named after the town. It was not until the 19th century that the town expanded beyond its walls. Wide boulevards and squares were constructed following the line of the old town wall and moat to the east of the town. Beyond these, the railway station was built in 1880, and new districts and industries grew up around this. The mediaeval walled town of Parthenay

2412-506: The car’s reliability. The 850VS entered was driven by Maïté Patoux and co-driven by Chantal Bernard. The two women successfully completed the 18500 kilometer distance between July and November, returning just before the 1966 Auto Show where the car was exhibited on the Sovam stand. Patoux also drove an 1100VS model in the 12th “Rallye National d'Automne” in La Rochelle in November 1967 where she

2479-504: The fast lane runs at 100 mph (160 km/h), and the first "mechanical road" was built in 1960 between Cincinnati and Cleveland. The relative speed of two adjacent belts is 8.0 km/h (5 mph) (in the book, the fast lane stops while the second lane keeps running at 153 km/h (95 mph)). In the Wells and Asimov works there are more steps in the speed scale and the speeds are less extreme. In Arthur C. Clarke 's novel, Against

2546-709: The first flat running 'Travelator' for a BBC exhibition in Charing Cross underground station. In the 1970s, Dunlop developed the Speedaway system. It was in fact an invention by Gabriel Bouladon and Paul Zuppiger of the Battelle Memorial Institute at their former Geneva , Switzerland facility. A prototype was built and demonstrated at the Battelle Institute in Geneva in the early 1970s, as can be attested by

2613-588: The installation of elevators. Shopping carts used on inclined moving walkways usually have wheels specially designed to get caught in the grooves of the walkway's tread when rolled onto the walkway, thereby preventing the cart from rolling down. The wheels are lifted off the tread by the landing plate at the end. Moving walkways are frequently found in the following locations: Moving walkways are commonly used in larger airports, as passengers – often with heavy luggage in tow – typically need to walk considerable distances. Moving walkways may be used: Of particular note

2680-458: The inventor of the inclined moving walkway. Some department stores instead use shopping cart conveyors to transport passengers and their carts between store levels simultaneously. Walmart in Canada require users of wheelchairs and other mobility aids to be accompanied by shop staff when using their moving walkways, which they refer to as 'movators'. This policy has been superseded in some stores by

2747-408: The lines to Niort and Thouars survive, and these lines now only carry freight trains. The région of Nouvelle-Aquitaine provides inter-urban bus service that connects Parthenay to Niort, Bressuire, Thouars, Poitiers and other local towns and villages. The nearest airports are at Poitiers ( Poitiers - Biard Airport ) and Nantes ( Nantes Atlantique Airport ). The medieval centre of Parthenay contains

Sovam - Misplaced Pages Continue

2814-520: The most common injuries on travelators being caused by tripping or falling over, and thus typically have similar guidelines to escalators to use them safely. The concept of a megalopolis based on high-speed walkways is common in science fiction . The first works set in such a location are " A Story of the Days To Come " (1897) and When The Sleeper Wakes (1899) (also republished as The Sleeper Awakes ), written by H. G. Wells , which take place in

2881-510: The novel The Caves of Steel (1954) and its sequels in the Robot series , uses similar enormous underground cities with a similar sidewalk system. The period described is about the year 5,000. In each of these cases, there is a massive network of parallel moving belts, the inner ones moving faster. Passengers are screened from wind, and there are chairs and even shops on the belt. In the Heinlein work

2948-585: The number of people who could view the interior exhibits in the limited time the train was stopped in each town. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC , US, uses a moving walkway to connect the two main buildings. The Tower of London in London , England, uses a moving walkway where visitors are passing the cabinets which contain the Crown Jewels . Similar to museums, some zoological park exhibits have

3015-554: The platforms on the Bloor–Danforth and the Yonge–University–Spadina lines. They were removed in 2004 and patrons are now required to walk between the stations. Moving walkways have been heavily incorporated into Hong Kong 's system of Central–Mid-Levels escalators . Moving sidewalks may be used: The 1975–76 American Freedom Train did this with a moving walkway inside each successive railroad car, thus maximizing

3082-472: The railway and, more recently, the town's eastern by-pass road. In 2001, the commune of Parthenay joined together with six neighbouring communes to establish the Communauté de communes de Parthenay , which provides a framework within which local tasks are carried out together. This intercommunality was merged into the Communauté de communes de Parthenay-Gâtine in 2014. The new intercommunality has 39 communes,

3149-481: The south of Parthenay. Other major roads link Parthenay to Niort , Saumur , Saint-Maixent-l'École and La Roche-sur-Yon . Through traffic can avoid passing through the old town by using a by-pass road that encircles the town at a distance of about 2 km (1.2 mi). Parthenay railway station was formerly a junction on the SNCF rail system, with lines to Niort , Thouars , Poitiers and Bressuire . However, only

3216-434: The sportscar division of the company was closed down other branches of the business continued to prosper, in particular the division focusing on supplying airports with special purpose vehicles and rolling walkways . In the mid-1980s, Sovam built the first model of a military vehicle for André Goldman. The venture was named SOVAMAG, which stood for "Société des Véhicules Automobiles Michel André Goldman". The resulting vehicle

3283-440: The system was like a very wide escalator, with broad metal tread plates of a parallelogram shape. After a short distance the tread plates were accelerated to one side, sliding past one another to form progressively into a narrower but faster-moving track which travelled at almost a right angle to the entry section. The passenger was accelerated through a parabolic path to a maximum design speed 15 km/h (9 mph). The experience

3350-563: The terminal. The airport decided to decommission the walkway in 2020. The walkway's pallet-type design accelerates and decelerates users in a manner that eliminates many of the safety risks generated by the moving belt-type used in Paris, making it suitable for use by people of all ages and sizes regardless of their health condition. The pallets "intermesh" with a comb and slot arrangement. They expand out of each other when speeding up, and compress into each other when slowing down. The handrails work in

3417-521: The tip of the rocky promontory surrounded by the loop of the river, was built in the 13th century. At the same time the outer fortifications protecting the citadel, and the town itself, were completed. Economically, Parthenay benefited by being on one of the branches of the Way of St. James , the mediaeval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella in Spain . The main fortified gate, by which pilgrims would enter

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3484-502: The town's streets and squares are filled with games of many types. The shorter indoor FLIP d'hiver runs in November. Legend has it that Parthenay was created with a wave of the fairy Melusine 's wand. However the name of Parthenay first appears in written records at the beginning of the 11th century and there is no evidence of previous significant human occupation in the Middle Ages . The castle, situated on an easily defended site at

3551-458: The town, still bears the name of Saint Jacques (the French name for Saint James ). Historically, Parthenay was considered the capital of the Gâtine Vendéenne , the hilly and wooded area that occupies the centre of the current department of Deux-Sèvres and is quite different in character from the plains to the south, around Niort . Because of the nature of the land, the area became known for

3618-465: The walkway, riders can stand or walk as on an ordinary moving walkway. At the exit, the same technique is used to decelerate the riders. Users step onto a series of rollers which decelerate them slowly, rather than the abrupt halt which would otherwise take place. The walkway proved to be unreliable, leading to many users losing their balance and having accidents. Consequently, it was removed by RATP in 2011 after nine years in service, being replaced with

3685-416: The walkway, which is designed to provide a strong level of grip. Since the walkways cannot be too steep and are slow compared to other aerial lifts , they are used especially for beginners or to transport people over a short uphill distance, such as to reach a restaurant or another lift's station. Moving walkways can also be found at the entrances of chairlifts to help passengers in the boarding process. In

3752-463: The west of the town centre, the district of Saint-Paul spills down the steep hill to the river, across the Saint-Paul bridge and around the former Saint-Paul's Priory, founded in the 11th century. The Saint-Paul's district was the home of the town's tanners . Later expansions to the east and south of the walled town date from the nineteenth century and later, and were encouraged by the construction of

3819-546: The windscreen, which came from the Floride , although the windscreen was flipped over for use in the Sovam. The expertise that the company had acquired producing fiberglass bodies for the VUL allowed for the rapid development of a suitable frame and body to be mounted on the chassis. To design the body Morin turned to Jacques Durand , who had already done designs for the Atla , the Arista and

3886-561: Was a technical failure due to its complexity, and was never commercially exploited. In the mid-1990s, the Loderway Moving Walkway company patented and licensed a design to a number of larger moving walkway manufacturers. Trial systems were installed at Flinders Street railway station in Melbourne and Brisbane Airport Australia. These met with a positive response from the public, but no permanent installations were made. This system

3953-531: Was acquired by Irish Investment company Abbey International Finance and Tim Rane appointed as President & CEO. Parthenay Parthenay ( French: [paʁtənɛ] ; Poitevin : Partenaes ) is an ancient fortified town and commune in the Deux-Sèvres department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France . It is sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on two sides by

4020-756: Was called the Sovamag TC10. From 1988 it was manufactured industrially and mainly for export in the Techni Industrie plant in Bonchamp-les-Laval. In 1992 production was transferred to the Auverland (now S.N.A.A., Societe Nouvelle des Automobiles Auverland) plant in Saint Germain-Laval, but retained the Sovamag designation. Siraga purchased Sovam in 1997. At the end of 2010 the business was acquired from them by

4087-510: Was carried forward unchanged in 1967, although the price had been increased to 14,800 francs for most of the year, with a final rise to 15,500 at the October Salon for the 1968 model year. The original 850VS model was re-priced at 12,800 francs early in 1967 before being dropped from the lineup the same year. By 1967 the Sovam sports car was not without its achievements. The unusual looks of the car nevertheless continued to attract criticism, and

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4154-416: Was eclipsed by an instant teleportation network. The animated TV series The Jetsons depicts moving walkways everywhere, even in private homes. A slidewalk is a fictional moving pavement structurally sound enough to support buildings and large populations of travelers. Adjacent slidewalks moving at different rates could let travelers accelerate to great speeds. The term is also used colloquially for

4221-627: Was first in the women's class. Maurice Barros drove his 1100VS in 1967 in the second Critérium des Maures in the Var, the second Rallye des Roses in Antibes, and the first Rallye du Vaucluse. An 850VS was prepared for local rallies organized by L'Ecurie Gâtine, which was a branch of the Automobile Club of Deux-Sèvres. Several Sovam owners and amateur drivers also competed in various regional and national rallyes and hillclimbs with 850VS and 1100VS cars. After

4288-554: Was later reduced to 9 km/h (5.6 mph) due to safety concerns. As the design of the walkway requires riders to have at least one hand free to hold the handrail, those carrying bags, shopping, etc., or who are infirm or physically disabled, must use the ordinary walkway beside it, and staff were positioned at each end to determine who could and who could not use it. Using this walkway is similar to using any other moving walkway, except that there are special procedures to follow when entering or exiting at either end. On entering, there

4355-455: Was still in development in 1975 but never went into commercial production. Another attempt at an accelerated walkway in the 1980s was the TRAX ( Trottoir Roulant Accéléré ), which was developed by Dassault and RATP and whose prototype was installed at Invalides station in Paris. The speed at entry and exit was 3 km/h (1.9 mph), while the maximum speed was 15 km/h (9.3 mph). It

4422-528: Was unfamiliar to passengers, who needed to understand how to use the system to be able to do so safely. Developing a moving hand-rail for the system presented a challenge, also solved by the Battelle team. The Speedaway was intended to be used as a stand-alone system over short distances or to form acceleration and deceleration units providing entry and exit means for a parallel conventional (but fast-running) Starglide walkway which covered longer distances. The system

4489-462: Was unthinkable. In his non-fiction book Profiles of the Future , Arthur C. Clarke mentions moving sidewalks but made of some sort of anisotropic material that could flow in the direction of travel but hold the weight of a person. The fluid would have the advantage of offering a continuous gradient of speed from the edge to edge so there would be no jumps, and simply moving from side to side would effect

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