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FMS Digest, v. 1, issues 1-5, February - July 1941
v.1:no.3: Page 3
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F M Z DIGEST Page 3 MAN THE SPACE-ROCKETS! By Graph Waldeyer Condensed from FANTASIA April, 1941 If you want to see an astronomer jump and claw the air just go up behind one and say "Orson Welles." For years I've been fitting facts together about this sky-gazing business. Savants, not to mention laymen with big claims staked out on Planet Earth, have been going through life with one eye cocked apprehensively at the heavens. The eye-cocking started late in the Eighteenth Century, when Sir William Herschel swept the skies with the first giant telescope. Sir William quickly saw that something was amiss up there. The history of the first giant telescope built in America is closely tied up with what Sir William saw. James Lick, the doner, wouldn't know an astronomical telescope from a frigate's cannon. Yet in 1874 he suddenly drew up a deed of trust leaving over a million dollars "to construct and erect a powerful telescope...superior to any yet made...and a suitable obervatory." Why this sudden interest in the skies on the part of this normally shrewd Pennsylvania Dutchman? We are entitled to one hypothesis, which follows: Lick, pursuant of his craft as piano maker, one day came into possession of an antique piano. He found a wadded bit of parchment stuck in between the bass chords. The parchment was covered with jumbled letter combinations. Deciphered, they proved to be a record of Hercshel's observations of the planet Mars. What did the notes reveal to James Lick? Military preparations on Mars, that's what they revealed. Now another factor entered the picture: wireless, Marconi, Tesla and other early experimenters received faint, strange signals over their primitive sets. Tesla sold the elder J.P. Morgon on what was taking place on a red spot of light 40,000,000 miles away. A $200,000 structure was raised to keep tab on wireless emanations from Mars. Andrew Carnegie cocked an eye. The steel-tyrant had one 60-inch reflector. In 1910 he journeyed there to see for himself. Soon after, the Carnegie Institution provided funds for the 100-incher at Mount Wilson. During the 1920 opposition of Mars greatly improved receiving sets all over the world were bombarded with mysterious signals. But as Mars swept by in 1924 the direst fears of the savants were realized. For the first time since earthly wireless, no signals came through during a Martian approach. Nothing but potent, sinister silence. What did that make of all the signals from 1899 to 1920? It was now apparent that their sole purpose had been to fish for a response. Like suckers, we bit, giving the Martians a picture of our degree of scientific achievement and hence, our probable capacity for resisting invasion. "Man the space rockets," I'll be the head monster yammered, "and don't fire till you see the whites of their polar caps!" The Rockefellers' answer to this Martian threat was the 200-inch telescope for Mount Palomar... The work was rushed madly to be completed in time for the July, 1939, opposition of Mars. The schedule was set back two years when experiments fizzled, and no other telescope was powerful enough to detect a fleet of rockets dusting off from mars. I leave you a consoling thought. Mars won't be that close again for centuries, so if the pop - eyed, tentacle-waving inhabitants are coming at all, they are on their way right now. Illustrations by LOU GOLDSTONE
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F M Z DIGEST Page 3 MAN THE SPACE-ROCKETS! By Graph Waldeyer Condensed from FANTASIA April, 1941 If you want to see an astronomer jump and claw the air just go up behind one and say "Orson Welles." For years I've been fitting facts together about this sky-gazing business. Savants, not to mention laymen with big claims staked out on Planet Earth, have been going through life with one eye cocked apprehensively at the heavens. The eye-cocking started late in the Eighteenth Century, when Sir William Herschel swept the skies with the first giant telescope. Sir William quickly saw that something was amiss up there. The history of the first giant telescope built in America is closely tied up with what Sir William saw. James Lick, the doner, wouldn't know an astronomical telescope from a frigate's cannon. Yet in 1874 he suddenly drew up a deed of trust leaving over a million dollars "to construct and erect a powerful telescope...superior to any yet made...and a suitable obervatory." Why this sudden interest in the skies on the part of this normally shrewd Pennsylvania Dutchman? We are entitled to one hypothesis, which follows: Lick, pursuant of his craft as piano maker, one day came into possession of an antique piano. He found a wadded bit of parchment stuck in between the bass chords. The parchment was covered with jumbled letter combinations. Deciphered, they proved to be a record of Hercshel's observations of the planet Mars. What did the notes reveal to James Lick? Military preparations on Mars, that's what they revealed. Now another factor entered the picture: wireless, Marconi, Tesla and other early experimenters received faint, strange signals over their primitive sets. Tesla sold the elder J.P. Morgon on what was taking place on a red spot of light 40,000,000 miles away. A $200,000 structure was raised to keep tab on wireless emanations from Mars. Andrew Carnegie cocked an eye. The steel-tyrant had one 60-inch reflector. In 1910 he journeyed there to see for himself. Soon after, the Carnegie Institution provided funds for the 100-incher at Mount Wilson. During the 1920 opposition of Mars greatly improved receiving sets all over the world were bombarded with mysterious signals. But as Mars swept by in 1924 the direst fears of the savants were realized. For the first time since earthly wireless, no signals came through during a Martian approach. Nothing but potent, sinister silence. What did that make of all the signals from 1899 to 1920? It was now apparent that their sole purpose had been to fish for a response. Like suckers, we bit, giving the Martians a picture of our degree of scientific achievement and hence, our probable capacity for resisting invasion. "Man the space rockets," I'll be the head monster yammered, "and don't fire till you see the whites of their polar caps!" The Rockefellers' answer to this Martian threat was the 200-inch telescope for Mount Palomar... The work was rushed madly to be completed in time for the July, 1939, opposition of Mars. The schedule was set back two years when experiments fizzled, and no other telescope was powerful enough to detect a fleet of rockets dusting off from mars. I leave you a consoling thought. Mars won't be that close again for centuries, so if the pop - eyed, tentacle-waving inhabitants are coming at all, they are on their way right now. Illustrations by LOU GOLDSTONE
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