DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Jupiter, v. 1, issue 1, May 1946

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Jupiter, v. 1, issue 1, May 1946

Page 8

   During the First World War, when people apparently didn't have the habit of writing the Federal government about everything, and during the interwar period, correspondence was relatively light, and would-b inventors received received individual replies, as did writers of other letters such as later came in floods: tenders of service, comments on foreign policy, etc. Soon after the outbreak of war in Europe this time, however, the correspondence grew till it was piled up for months, which resulted in still more letters asking why no reply had been received. (to connect which with the original letters was an extremely difficult job). Moreover, it became apparent that replies explaining why the suggestion was no good resulted in interminable argumentative correspondence from many cranks, which further burdened the clerical staff. So a few forms were multigraphed (quoted in my Probability Zero,) and the budding geniuses received replies as general and brief as could b without positive discourtesy. Many thereupon sought means obtaining special attention, as by writing their congressmen or inking emphatic notices that the letter is for the personal attention of the Secretary of war.
   From these efforts to secure attention by the higher-ups, it is obvious that many people have unbearable quaint notions of how things run in Washington. (This is not to say that letters worth attention don't get it; when Korzybski tendered his services, the matter was referred to someone who knew who he was.) This is typical: "Dear Mr. Roosevelt: I hope you will I hope you will pardon me for writing to you direct, but I believe in going to the man who can deliver actions when I want action." (Actually, of course, the letter never got within two echelons of the President; a White House secretary (of which there were many) tossed it into the tray to go over to the Munitions Building. Others were just a little more realistic: "To the person who opens the mail: I guess it is you duty to see that Secretary Stimson is not bothered with unimportant letters. Now I think that this..." These are all quasiquotes, of course; (I kept no notes). Hundreds of people, especially women, wrote Mrs. Roosevelt on every conceivable subject. "I know the President is a verry busy man during the day, so I thought maybe you could mention this to him at dinner or in the evening." Of course, Eleanor's staff referred such letters to the appropriate government office, whether she was in Washington or Zanzibar.
   But this ignorance of the way the modern world runs was apparent also in the inventions submitted. People with ideas to protect places or other targets from enemy warplanes supposed that they were still shooting only light machine gun slugs as in the last war. One woman kept coming to us (via mail) because she had discovered that melted rubber which has cooled till it becomes "tacky" can be kept in that state by a simple treatment, and thenceforth whenever a hole is punched in it, the rubber tends to ooze and fill the hole. He insisted that airplane wings should be coated with this stuff, thinking that perforation (rather than structural weakening) was the thing to fear from enemy bullets, and heedless of the effect of goo in increasing weight and ruining the air flow.
   The average person who wrote in had no idea of the amount of hard work and knowledge that must go into any modern development of military importance. He was unaware that almost any gadget he might think of could be invented on order by Army technicians if the need arose. He gave no thought to the bugs in an idea which would take years to iron out. Often he suggested something something to meet a situation that was over with by the time his letter was answered.
   One of the dozens of people who wanted us to dump oil on the German army and set it afire believed that his idea deserved very serious consideration, because he had spent so much time figuring out how many planes it would take to cover a given area with oil.
   At least he was a step ahead of most of our contributors. You probably know that the London balloon barrage covered only a fraction of the approaches to the city, and was intended more for psychological reasons than for real obstruction. Yet defence-minded citizens deluged us with suggestions for filling the air around our cities, or around the whole country, with planes of balloon-borne wires. Such dopes had never troubled to calculate the amount of space to be filled. Others had no conception of the proportion of open air to planes even in a tight formation. Several suggested (with drawings) that our planes get above the enemy plans and drop bombs
                    (8)

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During the First World War, when people apparently didn't have the habit of writing the Federal government about everything, and during the interwar period, correspondence was relatively light, and would-b inventors received received individual replies, as did writers of other letters such as later came in floods: tenders of service, comments on foreign policy, etc. Soon after the outbreak of war in Europe this time, however, the correspondence grew till it was piled up for months, which resulted in still more letters asking why no reply had been received. (to connect which with the original letters was an extremely difficult job). Moreover, it became apparent that replies explaining why the suggestion was no good resulted in interminable argumentative correspondence from many cranks, which further burdened the clerical staff. So a few forms were multigraphed (quoted in my Probability Zero,) and the budding geniuses received replies as general and brief as could b without positive discourtesy. Many thereupon sought means obtaining special attention, as by writing their congressmen or inking emphatic notices that the letter is for the personal attention of the Secretary of war. From these efforts to secure attention by the higher-ups, it is obvious that many people have unbearable quaint notions of how things run in Washington. (This is not to say that letters worth attention don't get it; when Korzybski tendered his services, the matter was referred to someone who knew who he was.) This is typical: "Dear Mr. Roosevelt: I hope you will I hope you will pardon me for writing to you direct, but I believe in going to the man who can deliver actions when I want action." (Actually, of course, the letter never got within two echelons of the President; a White House secretary (of which there were many) tossed it into the tray to go over to the Munitions Building. Others were just a little more realistic: "To the person who opens the mail: I guess it is you duty to see that Secretary Stimson is not bothered with unimportant letters. Now I think that this..." These are all quasiquotes, of course; (I kept no notes). Hundreds of people, especially women, wrote Mrs. Roosevelt on every conceivable subject. "I know the President is a verry busy man during the day, so I thought maybe you could mention this to him at dinner or in the evening." Of course, Eleanor's staff referred such letters to the appropriate government office, whether she was in Washington or Zanzibar. But this ignorance of the way the modern world runs was apparent also in the inventions submitted. People with ideas to protect places or other targets from enemy warplanes supposed that they were still shooting only light machine gun slugs as in the last war. One woman kept coming to us (via mail) because she had discovered that melted rubber which has cooled till it becomes "tacky" can be kept in that state by a simple treatment, and thenceforth whenever a hole is punched in it, the rubber tends to ooze and fill the hole. He insisted that airplane wings should be coated with this stuff, thinking that perforation (rather than structural weakening) was the thing to fear from enemy bullets, and heedless of the effect of goo in increasing weight and ruining the air flow. The average person who wrote in had no idea of the amount of hard work and knowledge that must go into any modern development of military importance. He was unaware that almost any gadget he might think of could be invented on order by Army technicians if the need arose. He gave no thought to the bugs in an idea which would take years to iron out. Often he suggested something something to meet a situation that was over with by the time his letter was answered. One of the dozens of people who wanted us to dump oil on the German army and set it afire believed that his idea deserved very serious consideration, because he had spent so much time figuring out how many planes it would take to cover a given area with oil. At least he was a step ahead of most of our contributors. You probably know that the London balloon barrage covered only a fraction of the approaches to the city, and was intended more for psychological reasons than for real obstruction. Yet defence-minded citizens deluged us with suggestions for filling the air around our cities, or around the whole country, with planes of balloon-borne wires. Such dopes had never troubled to calculate the amount of space to be filled. Others had no conception of the proportion of open air to planes even in a tight formation. Several suggested (with drawings) that our planes get above the enemy plans and drop bombs (8)