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Fantasy Magazine, v. 4, issue 4, whole no. 28, February-March 1935
Page 100
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100 FANTASY SPACESHIPS OF FICTION by EDWARD F. GERVAIS 4. Miscellaneous Space Flyers Several of the more important types of space ships have been discussed, but there are several hybrids and oddities which are hard to place in any one group. The authors seem to get more careless as time goes on in mentioning anything about the spaceships he uses, therefore there are several which are left entirely to the readers' imagination, but there are a few remaining which are worthy of some consideration even if they seem to be rather improbable. Jules Verne makes use of a huge cannon to fire a projectile with human beings in it. This method is too fantastic even for modern science fiction authors. The original acceleration from such a such a shot which comes all in one blast and yet is powerful enough to free the projectile from the Earth's sphere of gravity, is more than sufficient to kill the inhabitants of such a shell. A recent story makes use of a huge fly wheel for releasing a projectile on an interplanetary voyage. Since the inhabitant of this shell was not human, the story cannot be condemned, but as for applying any such method where human beings are concerned, it could not be used due to the high centrifugal force involved. Another method of launching a ship from Earth has been accomplished in some stories by using a gigantic runway equipped with huge magnets which would attract the ship and when it passes the first magnet, it will be repelled by it and attracted by the second magnet. This method has some possibility, but it would have to be a very long runway in order that the ship can obtain the sufficient speed without killing the passengers by too excessive acceleration. If these methods are not used for launching and do not consist of the ship's entire means of motivation, they deserve some consideration, but unless the ships are equipped with some other means of propulsion, the trip is a one way affair. Whenever an author wishes to write a story and sell it as science fiction, he always has rays doing everything in the stories. It is all right to use them moderately, but they are used far too frequently and of course, as usual, we find a whole flock of space ships which are equipped with rays for driving them. These types of space ships are very weak and it would be rare indeed to have an explanation on just how a ray drives a space ship. Two types are used in space ships, the propulsive and repellent ray. It is a matter of conjecture whether any such ray will ever be invented, but if so, there will be a good explanation for its action. There are numerous other varieties of spaceships which we could not discuss here, but generally they are varieties of those discussed in this series.
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100 FANTASY SPACESHIPS OF FICTION by EDWARD F. GERVAIS 4. Miscellaneous Space Flyers Several of the more important types of space ships have been discussed, but there are several hybrids and oddities which are hard to place in any one group. The authors seem to get more careless as time goes on in mentioning anything about the spaceships he uses, therefore there are several which are left entirely to the readers' imagination, but there are a few remaining which are worthy of some consideration even if they seem to be rather improbable. Jules Verne makes use of a huge cannon to fire a projectile with human beings in it. This method is too fantastic even for modern science fiction authors. The original acceleration from such a such a shot which comes all in one blast and yet is powerful enough to free the projectile from the Earth's sphere of gravity, is more than sufficient to kill the inhabitants of such a shell. A recent story makes use of a huge fly wheel for releasing a projectile on an interplanetary voyage. Since the inhabitant of this shell was not human, the story cannot be condemned, but as for applying any such method where human beings are concerned, it could not be used due to the high centrifugal force involved. Another method of launching a ship from Earth has been accomplished in some stories by using a gigantic runway equipped with huge magnets which would attract the ship and when it passes the first magnet, it will be repelled by it and attracted by the second magnet. This method has some possibility, but it would have to be a very long runway in order that the ship can obtain the sufficient speed without killing the passengers by too excessive acceleration. If these methods are not used for launching and do not consist of the ship's entire means of motivation, they deserve some consideration, but unless the ships are equipped with some other means of propulsion, the trip is a one way affair. Whenever an author wishes to write a story and sell it as science fiction, he always has rays doing everything in the stories. It is all right to use them moderately, but they are used far too frequently and of course, as usual, we find a whole flock of space ships which are equipped with rays for driving them. These types of space ships are very weak and it would be rare indeed to have an explanation on just how a ray drives a space ship. Two types are used in space ships, the propulsive and repellent ray. It is a matter of conjecture whether any such ray will ever be invented, but if so, there will be a good explanation for its action. There are numerous other varieties of spaceships which we could not discuss here, but generally they are varieties of those discussed in this series.
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