A much earlier example of scientist/engineers naming something real in honor of a similar object in a work of science fiction is the “Repulsor” rocket engine developed b y the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR), the German rocket society that Werner von Braun and Willy Ley were members of. They named it after the spacecraft that appeared in Kurd Lasswitz’ novel Auf zwei Planeten (“Two PLanets”), an account of an invasion of the Earth by technol,ogically superior Martians. (The book came out in 1897, the same time as H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, and that novel eclipsed Lasswitz’ in the English-speaking world. Laswitz still hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves – there hasn’t yet been a complete and proper translation of the book.)
The Repulsor was built and named in 1931. The last surviving example is in the collection at the Smithsonian:
They were, originally. I don’t know if they were sole owners or in partnership. A friend got season tix because he was a hockey fan behind the Orange Curtain. He took me to a game where Michael Eisner drove the Zamboni, for some reason or other.
I’m surprised the entire franchise didn’t wither into nothingness from embarassment.
He’s all over the Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne. While the oldest text of that that we have is 17th C, it’s mentioned in earlier works and we have no reason to believe it’s made up, AFAIK. And in any case, the oldest texts predate Macpherson. Of course, I’ve only read translations at one remove in collections and online, not any 17th C originals.
Yeah, that’s kinda lame. Back when I had season tix, they used to let a fan do a ride-a-long on the real Zamboni during the between period breaks. I never won that. Although twice I won the “you get to move from the upper bowl to the front row” thingy (but the second time was probably because we knew the guy who escorted you down). The only problem is, for a hockey game, front row seats are awful.
Yeah, but that means you get to bang on the glass when the fight on the ice is right in front of you and you get to be on TV when there’s a fight in front of you or if you’re seated behind the benches or penalty boxes.
At some point in the Toy Story franchise, Disney actually made a Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command cartoon series. It featured Zur (I think that was his name) and Little Green Men.