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Upon the shores of molten seas stand men, stand men alone,
And down below, in the molten flow, in the waves that cry and moan
Are women bare with flaming hair, whose passions have no surcease.
And in the air, midst the scarlet glare, are more who will never know Peace.
THE BEST WAYS TO GET AROUND
I don't mean socially; I mean off the Earth and between the planets.There are a few really good ways, as invented by perspiring authors inscience-fiction magazines. And if I miss any, which is extremelydoubtful, remember that I'm writting from memory, that I hadn't read_all_ the scientifiction magazines from 1926 and on, and that I am notgoing to go researching through the tremendous stacks of oldscientifiction magazines that I now have in my possession.
Now, what DO I mean by THE BEST WAYS TO GET AROUND? Briefly, by the wordBEST, I mean so pseudo-logical that you could almost leave off the"pseudo". See? (No)
For instance, Jack Williamson's geodesic machinery, wherein he warpsspace around, appeals to me as being pure fairy tale stuff. He justgives a lot of verbal hocus-pocus, and runs off reams of litteraryfertilizer until we throw up our hands in disgust and say; "O.K., O.K.,Jack, to hell with that, let's get on with the 'story'. We'll grant youthat you _can_ get around."--And we're willing to grant E.E. Smith thesame privilege. He _DOES_ get around--anybody disagree? The question is;how? Oh, by useing "X", and the inertialess drive. The same with brotherBurroughs. What do we care if dear old John Carter "yearns" himself toMars? He gets there, and we are happy, or were happy.
So, we exclude all those from THE BEST WAYS TO GET AROUND. They are verynice and convenient to get people places; but, when we run across one ofthe "BEST WAYS" we often wonder if it REALLY WOULDN'T be possible,provided----. Of course, that word "provided" is the catch--the reasonwhy we really aren't going around that way.
Again--So, way back there, Edmond Hamilton, and a hundred others, haveused the idea of _light-preasure_ in an attempt to get away fromrockets. But he didn't tell us how, scientifictionaly. In directcontrast to vauge statements made regarding the use of _light-preasure_as propulsion, I remember the MOON CONQUORS, by R.H. Romans, in a 1931(I think) (You're right, 4SJ) quarterly. You've seen radiometers. Thethings with black and white vanes placed in a vacuum. The theory is thatthe opposite shades cause unbalanced light preasure, so that the vanesgo around and around. Romans invented a pseudo-scientifically logicalway to use _light-preasure_, once he got his ship in space. Hisscientist invented a compound of _absolute black_. (Which is alsoobtainable in a darkroom) A small square of darkroom--or, I mean,absolute black painted on the posterior of the ship, and regulated atwill, gave the same ship quite respectable speeds. Certainly it won'twork outside of a story--but, I'm talking scientifictionally. Romansused his imagination, and we all had fun.
In the same story, Romans used a swell device to get the ship off theearth. He used a mile-long tube, composed of circular magnets. It was a_magnetic gun_. Each magnet pulled the ship towards it, and then, as theship passed it, the magnet's poles were reversed, and made to repel theship. With each magnet at maximum charge, either pulling or pushing theship, according to whether it was in front or behind the latter, thesame erupted from the tube with the necessary 7 M.P.S. velocity ofescape, and so was off on the way to the moon. What's wrong with theidea? I dunno.
John W. Campell (Jr.) used to have brainstorms: in fact, he invented_two_ of THE BEST WAYS TO GET AROUND. One, in the first of the ARCOT,MOREY, and WADE stories, "PIRACY PREFERRED", was that of molecularmotion. All the little molecules in a bar of metal go madly around inevery possible direction. If you could invent, as Campbell did in thestory, an electro-magnetic vibration that would force all the molleculesto go in the same direction, then the bar of metals would go in thatdirection, since it would be them. So Mr. Campbell hooked the thing upto his ship, and off he went to Venus, or some other planet. Well, it_would_ work, wouldn't it, _provided_ (ah yes!) you could make all themollecules
go into one directional flow.
And the other brainstorm was when Aarn Munro, in the MIGHTIEST MACHINE,decided that momentum and velocity were wave formations, and therefore,one should be able to _tune into them_! (Anyone should be able to thinkup a simple theory like that.) Not a bad WAY TO GET AROUND--in ascience fiction story.
Back in 1930, or some such year, Charles R. Tanner wrote THE FLIGHT OFTHE MERCURY, in the old WONDER STORIES. In that story he told you justhow to go ahead and make an ETHERPROPELLER, provided there is such athing as ether, and Osmium B. The theory is: you use water screws, airpropellers, and so why not an ether propeller? Put a cork in motionlesswater. Start a wave motion in the water with your hand. If the length ofthe wave is greater than the diameter of the cork, the cork just bobs upand down and stays where it is. If the lengths of the waves are shorterthan the diameter of the cork, the waves go around it, and the cork stillstays right where it is. If the length of the wave is exactly thediameter of the cork, tho cork rides right off, in the trough of thewave, at the same speed as that of the wave formation. Now invent anelectro-magnetic vibration--by useing the metal Osmium B--exactly thelength of a Copper atom. Make your ship of copper, putting the etherpropeller, that which causes vibration in the ether, at the end of theship, and presto! all the copper atoms move along in the trough of theether waves, at the same speed as the other waves, which is the speed oflight. And, Mr. Tanner is off for Mars, in a super-plausiblyscientifictional way.
HELL SHIP, in last year's ASTOUNDING, Arthur J. Burks put forth an ideawhich had been discussed by engineers before he had ever used It. Theyjust didn't know how to do it. Mr. Burks did--didn't he write the story.At least, the idea gave him more earthly benifit than it gave theengineers. Maybe he thinks he invented it--I don't know, nor does itmatter: He used it, the idea of gravatic lines of force, forming aspider web throughout the solar system. With the proper machinery,which he ascribed with good attention to detail, you could crawl upthose lines of force like a spider. This idea is so plausable that itmight be placed in the same catagory as rocket propulsion, which isfact.
THE MOTH, in this year's ASTOUNDING, contains another of those ideas ofinterplanatary locomotion which I call one of THE BEST WAYS TO GETAROUND. Don't worry, I'm not pointing to myself with pride. I just wrotethe story, Charles R. Tanner conceived the idea. He tossed it offparanthetically one night, and promptly forgot about it. The idea----Ifall objects are in motion, according to the Lorentz-Fitzgeraldcontraction theory, lose length in the direction of motion, why couldn'tan artificialy produced cause instantaneous motion, why couldn't anartificialy produced contraction cause instantaneous motion,proportional to length-loss? Not a thing in the world against it, myfriends, all you have to do is to find a way to cause the artificialcontraction of the ship in question. Of course, in my story, I inventeda force-field----very handy when you're in a tight spot!----which causedtho electrons to flatten out. This force acted on the ship andeverything within. Therefore, any speed up to a little below that oflight could be obtained, and that bogey man so often ignored inscientifiction, acceleration, was disposed of at the start, since therewas nothing that had a tendancy to stay behind. There is the realinertialess drive, which E.E. Smith talked of, but never used.
(Paranthetically: When Charles R. Tanner saw the story containing hisidea in print, he became enthused, and promptly invented and named allmachines used in the process, discovered a new and ultimate particlecalled the "graviton", that which makes the proton 1846 times heavierthan the electron, and practically drew plans for the force field whichcaused the contraction. When he finished we knew exactly _how_ to obtainspeeds far exceding both those of Smith and Campbell. Our inventionswere plausable, and they'd work, provided----)
I've just about reached the end of the list, though there are one or twoothers that might be mentioned right here at the tail end of thearticle. Jules Verne, I suppose, has to be credited with the first shipfired from a canon, in ONCE AROUND THE MOON. Wells takes the bow forgravity plates, which Willy Ley so neatly disposed of, only he called it"cavorite" in THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON., and Roy Cummings used iteffectivly in AROUND THE UNIVERSE (and a hundred others). In a story inthe old WONDER Donald Wolheim put his rocket ship on a huge wheel,rotated the wheel and flung it off into space. Fair, except that theacceleration would be killing.
AND THAT'S ABSOLUTLY ALL THE BEST WAYS TO GET AROUND. Unless there aresome of those which I haven't heard of. If you know of some, I wouldlike to be enlightened.
--ROSS ROCKYLYN
--THE SYMPHONIC ABDUCTION--
"I suppose you've heard about what happened to my brother Jerry?" RaySpencer asked me; I shook my head. "The whole family was worried abouthim for a while: couldn't tell whether he had sleeping-sickness, orwhat. All we knew was that he'd gone coma listening to some phonographrecords when he was alone in the house. Perhaps the intense emotionaleffect of the music, plus its stentor, was the cause.
"When I returned home, he lay cold on the floor in front of theradio-phonograph. The automatic release had shut off the record, but thecurrent was still on, and the volume dial was turned full strength.Nothing I could do would rouse my brother, so--scared--I put him to bedand called a doctor, who had him taken to a hospital for observation. Noone could determine what was the trouble, and since we couldn't affordto keep him at the hospital indefinitely, we brought Jerry back home.And although it wasn't exactly appropriate, I couldn't help rememberingthe story of the Sleeping Beauty whenever I looked into his room and sawhim, apparently only napping.
"Then one day I heard him--still in his trance--whisperingly singing.The indistinct notes were reminiscent of one of Chaikovsky's balletpieces. I tried vainly to wake him. He sighed on and on until the faintbreath of a voice softened into silence....
"When at last he did awake, I had been listening to some continentalcommuniques in the adjoining room, with the door open so that I couldlook in on him in case of emergency. The program ended and was followedby concert music. I don't care much for symphony, so I arose and went tothe radio to switch it off. At the same time, Jerry stirred: I heard hisbed creak. Turning to look his way, I twisted the wrong dial, and themusic thundered: my brother began to toss on his bed. Disregarding theracket for a moment in excitement at seeing him move, I ran in to him,shouting, shaking him a little. His hands groped, found mine, and clungto them. Painfully he endeavored to raise himself, dropped backperspiring and panting. Then he screamed--horribly!--as if all Hell'sdevils were shovelling all Hell's coals on him, and opened his eyes, hisface taut with dread. He recognized me. In a moment I had soothed himback to normalcy. He was perfectly all right from then on.
"Or at least we thought so. But since you're so interested inmetaphysics, get him to tell you about the vision he had during hiscatalepsy. He won't feel embarrassed; he's told it to others. Just saythat I mentioned it to you." Ray had finished. Later, when I chancedupon Jerry Spencer, I brot him up to my apartment for dinner. The mealover, he smiled at my query concerning his comatose dream, and related:
"None in my family are as interested in music as I: my belief is that torealize its full magic you must leave off talking--better still, listento it alone--and, closing your eyes, open your mind to it. Relax--forgetyourself. All of my folks poke fun at me when I sit on the floor by theradio during the concert broadcasts, my ears close to the speaker. Butthat is the only way by which I can really enjoy music. The veryloudness, blasting at my hearing, emphasizes the tone-magic,overwhelming everything else. And sometimes, if my eyes are shut, I cansee fantastic dream worlds, fiery pageants inspired by thundrousharmonies.
"I had never dared to turn on the amplifier as loud as I'd have wished.My family said that it would annoy the neighbors. So that day when I wasalone at home, I thot that then was my chance, if ever, and proceededto play my favorite record; the first scene of Chaikovsky's SWAN LAKEballet, as loudly as possible. The sound was not so deafeningas--maddening, or better still, intoxicating. How I Loved it! I satcross-legged, eyes shut, dreaming, at last absolutely happy. More:ecstatic.
"The first notes were like an invitation emanating from a lostdimension, calling me, wheedling. Promising haven, peace. The call ofthe unknown: not the lure of dashing adventure but of mystery, mournfulsorcery, epic splendors....
