In May, 1959, Popular Science reported on the advent of argon-filled, airless factories for new materials fabrication, and the novel "space suits" that would be worn by the workers.
EXOTIC metals that can survive the heat barrier of hypersonic flight soon will be mill-worked at a white-hot 4,000 degrees in a forbidding atmosphere of argon gas, similar to that inside an incandescent light bulb.
Men working in this out-of-the-world gas-chamber metal mill will wear "space suits," trailing umbilical cords plugged into air-breathing and exhaust manifolds.
Should a lifeline break, a man might live a minute or two–as helpless as if he were out in space or under water without an oxygen supply. Crash doors will provide a quick escape. But in case he is injured or some obstacle gets in the way, he will have an emergency air capsule to keep him alive until rescue comes.
