| From: | Samuel Jones <sjones1@***.UNICOMP.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | MonoWire! <html format> |
| Date: | Fri, 30 Jun 1995 08:55:35 CDT |
<h1>Monowire</h1>
<address>Flipper is Dead<br>
The UK cyberpunk Thinktank<br>
By CHOPPER (CM5323@***.ac.uk)</address>
<hr>
<h2>Subject: Monowire. What is it?</h2>
From the books we can deduce its
<ol>
<li>very thin
<li>very strong for its thickness
<li>very sharp (see pt 1)
</ol>
The name 'monomolecular' implys its a single long molecule..
<p>
My best guess is...
<p>Its a <b>BUCKYTUBE!</b>
<p><i>buckminsterfullerene</i> is a football like sphere of 60 carbon
atoms
C 70 has a ring of 10 carbons between the two hemispheres,
making it like a rugby ball.
This can be extended by adding more rings of carbon atoms
between the hemispheres into a filament.
<p>
The Japanese have already made nanofibres like this, but only
fractions of a mm long.
<p>
But if a Fullerene tube several meters long could be made, it
would be
<ol>
<li>approx 7nm across (very thin)
<li>as strong as diamond (approx) as it has a hexagonal graphite=
structure.
also, it would be flexible and shiny like graphite when it
catches the light.
</ol>
<i>In JM; the whip shines in the streelights.The only way to spot
it is when its moving.</i>
<p>For non-Chemists:
Imagine a sheet of hexagons five hexes wide rolled into a tube
so the edges match up. Cap the ends with half footballs.
If that was made if carbon molecules, thats a Monofilament.
<p>
SR states that monowire DOES NOT conduct electricity.
<p>
The MonoWhip uses a lenght of Monowire as a flexible blade.
<p>
As the fibre is so fine it weights virtually nothing. The
cutting force is provided by the weighted tip which is swung
past the target.
The weighted tip is either a glowing ball or a fingertip if the
whip is implanted. The weight is small and heavy to control the
line.
<p>The moving tip's kinetic energy is focused onto the monoline.
As the line is <i>very</i> thin, this gives even a slow swing enough
cutting force to sever plastics and flesh.
Swing hard, with the full strenght of your arm and a long lenght
of line, the weight can get up to very high speeds.
And when the line hits it'll cut body armour, metal pipes and
plates, sever limbs, cut flesh, cartilage and bone.
<p>
The user must take great care when using the 'whip, as the
monoline is moving in a circle connected to there hand.
Fumbled rolls, loss of concentration or panic can cause the user
to misjudge a swing and cut themselves.
<p>
In combat, the whip is deadly. the wounds it causes are finer
than any cut, and you only feel them seconds after, as the
synapses in your nerves misfire.
<p>
The wire itself is so fine that special care must be taken in
storage and handling. The wire is stored on a reel of high
density ceramic
('one of the new ono-sendai diamond analogs' to quote Gibson)
and is capped with a bead of the same ceramic.
<h3>Monowire is very light.</h3>
This means that you have to weight it to do damage.
You must have a force acting on the wire, either a weight
pulling it or something pushing onto it.
If left without a force acting upon it, it'll just sit there.
So if you drop some, it'll stay on the floor
<h3>Monowire is very thin.</h3>
Only very dense materials like diamond analog ceramics,
heavy dense metals, etc, will stop it.
If dropped it'll lie flat on the floor and not cut into the
floor
<h3>Monowire is very strong.</h3>
The Monoline has to be broken with a laser cutter.
Monolines will not cut each other (so reinforcing armour
with monolines will stop monowhips)
<h2>Uses of monowire</h2>
<h3>Invisable replacement for barbed wire</h3>
The monowire entanglement if very hard to spot (only tell by
the light catching the lines.) and if you run into it you
could easily loose your legs. If you advance into it slowly,
you'll get cut lets and may panic. If you pull back, the wire is
pulled out by a diferent path than it went in by, taking a chunk
out of your leg. Unlike razorwire, monowire will penetrate quite
deeply and do serious injurys.
<h3>Stringing across doors/corridors</h3>
Again, running into the line will cut off your legs.
'Nicer' than entanglements, as you don't fall legless and
bleeding face first into a tangle of monolines. But it still
kills you.
<h3>Bullet with several lenghts of wire fixed to it (with little
weights on the other end)</h3>
When this hits, the monowire will be dragged on by the
weights on the other end. If it penetrates, this may cut chunks
out of the wound channel. If it lodges in the body, or stops on
armour, the trailing wire will wrap round, cutting at anything
it meets.
This makes a medics job hell. they can't see the Wire in the
wound until they start cutting chunks from their fingers.
<h3>Two spring loaded monowire reels, one on each end of a monoline.</h3>
Fired from an pair of airguns, they trail the line between them.
if the reels are ratcheted, the line locks on impact and the
weight of the reels pulls it onto the target.
<h3>Reinforced Armour.</h3>
Most armys will issue arm and leg protectors reinforced with
either ceramics or monowire to stop the wire cutting in. This
means that a potentially fatal cut will snag on the wire and
then either:
<ul>
<li>the wearer stops / is tripped over
</ul>
or
<ul>
<li>the monoline pulls free and can whiplash freely. Luckily the
only weight on the line it the holder bead in the end...
</ul>
Monowire is usually supplied in reels with self adhesive ceramic
eyelets prethreaded. And its Expensive.
<h2>Uses of monowire in CP literature and other soure material</h2>
<ul>
<li>The Yak Hitmans implanted monowhip in 'Johnnie Mneumonic' is
THE reference for monowhip users
<li>Turner strings it up in the trees in 'Count Zero'
<li>Beuvoir uses it and a ceramic reel to make a slideline onto the
top of the projects in 'Count Zero'
<li>the 'Offiser Suisse' monowhip in 'voice of the Whirlwind'
<li>The Predators net in Predator II
<li>Dreams of flesh and sand. Monowire stilleto's, with static
charged monolines used as blades
<li>Games Workshop'dark future'. in one of the sidebars, a terrorist
puts halluc in the airducts and cross crosses monowire across
the emergency stairs. Panicing peaple fall down the stairs
in chunks
</ul>
<hr>
Disclaimer
<p>
this article is a mix of materials science, articles in
magazines, cyberpunk fiction, supposition and guesswork.
Even If its not 100% accurate, I'd like to think it works in SR.
