Now, on a lighter note: My favorite Doc Savage author, Lester Dent, had a fabulous imagination. He wrote most of the Doc Savage novels from 1934 to around 1940. Unfortunately, he had trouble with WATER in one of his early books, stating that Doc and his crew compressed water to make it heavier and thus make Doc’s submarine dive. Water is, of course, incompressible and Mr. Dent ought to have known that. But we let it go.
Moving right along, Mr. Dent proved to the world that he had absolutely NO IDEA of what water is.
It’s H2O, which means each of its molecules is composed of two hydrogen atoms combined with one oxygen atom. Nothing else in there in pure water.
Sadly, Mr. Dent didn’t realize this and published the STUPIDEST THING I’ve ever seen in print. In the story, Doc’s on his way across the desert (“Resurrection Day,” from 1936) and he has to travel light. He took along some energy pills in lieu of food, but not water. Instead…. Here it is:
“Doc added to the pack a flask containing, not water, but the chemical parts of water, minus the unneeded ingredients.”
I laughed for a long time when I read that. So was Doc on his way across the untracked desert with huge bottles of hydrogen and oxygen? How was he going to combine them when he wanted a drink? I guess he was packin’ instant water…just add water!
Again, DUHHHH!