Flaming Atom

Flaming Atom

 Red and Green. According to the ISFDB, Charles Cloukey was born in 1912 and was 18 years old when his story "Rhythm" was published in Amazing Stories (1930). Set in the year 1999, Cloukey's story included Elsie Damon, a cute redhead and love interest for Graham Greene. Graham likes to refer to the charming Miss Elsie as "Flaming Atom".

Backstory. Graham was in a plane crash which damaged his feet, apparently leading to infections, amputations and permanent damage to his heart. According to the SFE, Cloukey died of typhoid fever in 1931, just before the modern age of antibiotics.

interior art by Leo Morey

Graham is waiting patiently for Flaming Atom to turn 21 so that they can get married and also waiting for 10 years to pass since the disappearance of his father, Thornton, a scientist, who had discovered "the secret of life somewhere in the phosphorous compounds." Thornton's unpublished knowledge of how to make synthetic life is locked up inside Vault Number Three of the Second National Bank. Ten years must pass until Thornton can be declared dead and the key to Vault Number Three given to Graham.

Evil Elmer. There in the image to the left are Graham, Flaming Atom, Hermann von der Konz (known as "Von", Graham's friend and the narrator of the story) and Elmer Calvroom, who stands to inherit the Secret of Life if Graham dies. 

 Too Complex to Kill. Elmer is an inventor who tries to kill Graham using an evil sound-generating device (ESGD™) that will synchronize with Graham's weak heart and drive it to destruction. However, Elmer's complex plot to kill Graham and make it look like natural heart failure is foiled by the fact that Graham was born with an unusual sense of hearing. He's unable to hear the low-frequency tones produced by Elmer's ESGD and so he sleeps through the attempted murder and then awakens suddenly, pops Elmer on the chin and calls the police.

technology in 2000: electric plane
interior art by Leo Morey

It looks like Cloukey's story had to be split into two parts, the second of which was called "Synthetic". Set about one year after the events in "Rhythm", Graham, Flaming Atom and Von der Konz are relaxing at the "palatial" Greene family beach house near Atlantic City when Graham casually mentions that the Evil™ Elmer recently broke out of prison. Flaming Atom, a test pilot, rushes off to prepare for an upcoming airplane speed competition.

Building on his father's work, Graham's crack scientific team has synthesized some rabbit cells from atomic constituents and grown those cells into an adult bunny. Graham shares with Von some startling findings from the biology research lab... Firstly, the bunny grew to adult size in just three hours. Second, Thornton apparently used a Super-Duper™ microscope to determine, atom by atom, the genomes of both a rabbit and a human 🔬. So far, only a rabbit 🐇 has been made in the lab, but experiments with synthetic human cells have begun.

"Paradox"
interior art by Walitt

Bible Science. 📖 Graham and Von get into a discussion of the question of whether an artificial lab-grown human would have a soul. During their "scientific" discussion of the ethics of making artificial people, Graham mentions the "fact" that humans have only existed for a few thousand years. He suggests that maybe a lab-grown human can be better than a regular human made the old-fashioned way.

In the middle of that discussion, word arrives that Flaming Atom was in a plane crash and is now blind. Graham asks Von to go collect his fiance, but on the way to her crash site, Von is attacked by a mysterious electric plane ❊ equipped with a heat ray weapon. Von learns that it was that heat ray that blinded Flaming Atom. Evil™ Elmer sends along a note, admitting that it was he who blinded Flaming Atom and he demands that Graham turn over the Secret of Life or be killed.

Synthetic Life. Three weeks later, Flaming Atom has a pair of new eyes and Graham has two new feet. Also, the first synthetic man (he's given the name Bob Nelson) is already fully grown and has been educated using "hypnotic machines" (he speaks not only English but also French). 

 Figure 1. A city in the year 2930;
interior art for "Paradox" by Walitt

During his short (one month) life, Bob falls in love with Flaming Atom and then saves her life when the Evil™ Elmer returns in his electric plane and tries to kill Graham. Bob dies saving the lives of Flaming Atom and Graham and Von ends up being convinced that Bob had a soul.

Apparently, Cloukey was a young science student when he died and I have to wonder how his science fiction writing might have progressed had he lived a long life. I also wonder if Isaac Asimov was influenced by any of Cloukey's stories. Cloukey published another series of stories about time travel to a future era when the people of Earth are at war with Evil™ Martians.

Back from the Future. The story begins inside an "exclusive" Philadelphia club with Sherman and Preston discussing the paradoxes of time travel stories such as Wells' The Time Machine. Raymond Cannes then casually tells Sherman and Preston that time travel will be invented in the year 2806 and that he has just returned from a visit to the future. Raymond's trip to the future was made possible by the mysterious appearance of detailed instructions for how to make a time machine. Sadly, after Dr. Hawkinson builds the time machine and uses it to send Cannes into the future, Hawkinson is killed in a laboratory accident 🔥.

Time Loop. Upon arriving in New York of the year 2930, Cannes is quickly sent off to Australia by automated airline delivery. In Australia, Cannes meets Dwar Bonn, the greatest scientist of that age, who has just built the first time machine capable of time travel into the past. Cannes uses the portable time travel device to deliver the instructions for building a time machine to Dr. Hawkinson in 1928 and then he returns to the year 2930, completing a time loop.

80,000 ton airplane of the future

Many technological wonders exist in the year 2930 such as 80,000 ton airplanes, the half-mile tall buildings (shown in Figure 1, above and to the left) and the ability to quickly "read out" the entire contents of Raymond's memories of the the 20th century. And most importantly, the tradition of brilliant scientists each having a beautiful daughter is still alive and flourishing in 2930.

The Thrilling Conclusion. Of course, Cannes falls hopelessly in love with Dwar Bonn's cute daughter, Greta. However, Cannes bungles his chance for romance by impulsively trying to kiss Miss Greta. 💔 Then an Evil™ Martian spy appears and tries to steal Dwar Bonn's time travel machine. Cannes captures the Evil™ Martian who has murdered Dwar Bonn. However, the Martian's are on the verge of killing everyone on Earth, so Cannes returns to 1928, only to die in an accident.

hopeless; interior art for "Paradox" (1929)

Cloukey wrote himself into the story so that he could be at the "exclusive" Philadelphia club and hear Cannes' account of his trip to the future, given to the club's members just before Cannes steps outside and is run over by a truck. 

All is lost. Nothing remains of the time machine because upon returning to 1928, there was a slight miscalculation. Cannes fell out of the sky over Philadelphia, smashing the time machine. Cannes threw the broken device into the Delaware river.

All is not lost. However, apparently readers of "Paradox" asked for a sequel story and so Cloukey could not let matters rest there... eventually two sequel stories were published, continuing this time travel adventure.

Editorial blurb for "Paradox +"; July 1930

interior art by Frank R. Paul

 Paradox Plus. There were actually two time travel machines in "Paradox". The "fancy" one from the future was destroyed, but at the start of "Paradox +" readers are told that the original primitive time travel machine that was built by Dr. Hawkinson was not destroyed when the good doctor's lab burned down.

 1929. For the sequel, two friends (Preston and Sherman) at the Philadelphia gentlemen's club, who heard Cannes' story about the future, now use the time machine to go off to the future on an adventure of their own, returning to the day that Dwar Bonn was killed by the Evil™ Martian spy. They meet up with a co-worker of Dwar Bonn (Vanon) and arrive at just the right moment to rescue Greta. As shown in the image to the right, Greta and the other passengers all jump out of their airplane just before it is destroyed by the Evil™ Martians. 

interior art by P. Muller
for "Anachronism" (1930)

 War of the Worlds. Apparently, Cloukey was a fan of H. G. Wells and so in the year 2930, Earth has fought several wars against the Evil™ Martians. Now, the Evil™ Martians are on the verge of killing every human on Earth by means of their new weapon, neonoglycerine. Evil™ Martians have infiltrated Earthly society and hidden vast quantities of neonoglycerine inside airplanes and buildings. Using a Special Ray™ sent out from their base at the South Pole, the neonoglycerine was detonated, killing 30% of Earth's population. Luckily, some neonoglycerine inside the rear cargo compartment of the airplane that was carrying Dwar Bonn and Greta across the Pacific Ocean did not explode.

And lucky for Earth, there are now artificial islands in the Pacific Ocean where robots grow wheat. The wreckage of the airplane lands on a wheat island and Vanon finds a sample of un-exploded neonoglycerine. Additional Martian spaceships are arriving with more neonoglycerine and the Evil™ Martians are also ready to release a deadly bacterium into Earth's atmosphere. Lucky for Earth, the physics lab of Dwar Bonn is still open for business and his scientists soon build a Ray Projector that can detonate neonoglycerine. If you are wondering about the state of Earthly rocket science in the year 2930... see Figure 2, below.

Figure 2. A "brief" explanation; edited for brevity

 The fate of Greta. At the end of "Paradox +", Greta is dead, having bled to death after being taken to the South Pole by a Martian spy. As shown in the image to the right, the great 80,000 air-liners of the future are like 20th century ocean-liners; they are named. The one that carried Dwar and Greta Bonn was called the Patrician.

the invisible Martian spy

 Invisibility. In a three minute flight from Australia, Sherman rides in an invisible rocketship to the Martian base at the South Pole where the dead body of Greta is discovered. The thrilling conclusion of the story was not published until December. In "Anachronism", Sherman and Ben Yun (another scientist of the year 2930) access the Martian supply vault at the South Pole and make use of an advanced Martian drug to revive the dead Greta. 

The war against Mars grinds to an end. The Martian germ warfare agent was found in the vault at the South Pole before it could be released into Earth's atmosphere. A powerful radio wave projector was used by Earth to detonate vast amounts of neonoglycerine on Mars, disrupting Martian civilization and ending the war. After Greta marries Vanon, Sherman decides that he wants to return to 1929. Working from Dwar Bonn's notes, Ben Yun obligingly builds a time machine and sends Sherman back to 1929.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 The End of Time Travel. However, the sneaky Martian spy who killed Dwar Bonn and took Greta to the South Pole also traveled from 2930 to 1929. Like all Evil Materminds™, the spy wants to be understood, so he sends Sherman a letter in which he explains that he killed Ben Yun and destroyed Ben Yun's time machine with a time-delayed bomb after using the time machine to come to 1929. Arriving in 1929, the Martian immediately destroyed the time machine that had been built by Dr. Hawkinson. 

And Teleportation, too. And now, in revenge for the defeat of the 2930 Martian Invasion force, the sneaky Martian spy begins to terrorize Philadelphia by killing Earthlings. He uses a devious teleportation device from the future that materializes lumps of iron inside people's brains.

in the Ekcolir Reality

For "Anachronism", Cloukey constructed a kind of future science locked-room mystery. The Martian spy's teleportation device uses two projectors. When iron atoms are disintegrated by the teleporter, the energy is beamed into the head of a victim by two projected beams of particles. The two types of particles meet inside the victim's brain and reform iron atoms. The sudden appearance of a lump of hot iron inside the brain instantly kills the victim. 

How can Earthlings with primitive 20th century technology defend themselves against this Evil™ Martian from the future? Before his own death, Sherman called into the case the brilliant scientist, Bradley Bowman Blake. By noticing that the locations of all the victims in Philadelphia define an ellipse, the brilliant Blake deduces the locations of the two beam projectors.

 Damsel in Distress. After locating the teleportation equipment, what remains in the story for Cloukey to relate is the inevitable demise of the Evil™ Martian who is holding Mary Sherman as his prisoner and threatening to blind her with concentrated acid. However, the clumsy Martian spills acid on his hand and then drops dead from a heart attack.

interior art for "Sub-Satellite" 

Cloukey's first published story ("Sub-Satellite") included a character named "Clankey" who tells his friend, Kornfield, about the first trip to the Moon. The lunar adventure was made possible when Dr. D. Francis Javis invented a technique for making artificial diamonds that are worth 2,000,000,000 dollars. Ten years of work and 1,000,000,000 dollars spent resulted in completion of the first spaceship (see the image to the right). 

The Right Stuff. Dr. Javis hired a young dare-devil and stunt-flier (Mr. Brown) to pilot the rocket to the Moon. During its flight to the Moon, the rocket was protected by a computerized radar system (built by Clankey) that allowed the rocket to detect and avoid meteors.

Cloukey did not give any dates in "Sub-Satellite", but in the follow-on story "Super-Radio" we are told that sometime after the year 2072, Clankey had invented a Super-Radio, a kind of teleportation device. 

cover art for "Super-Radio" by Frank R. Paul

And now, Clankey is missing along with 1,000,000,000 dollars worth of the Javis diamonds. On the case is crime investigator Harris.

A Super-Radio device was used to send the diamonds out from their vault, evading conventional means of detection. Suspecting that this crime was perpetrated by his arch-enemy known only by the initials M.W., Harris quickly determines the direction that the Super-Radio was pointed. Now hot on the trail of the Evil™ criminal mastermind known as M.W., investigator Harris is flown by Mr. Brown out into the Atlantic Ocean where they quickly find the artificial island of M.W. where Clankey is being held. The Evil™ M.W. is preparing to perform brain surgery that will erase Clankey's memories when Harris and Brown arrive on the island. Clankey is soon liberated from M.W.'s evil clutches and awakened.

Interior art for "Super-Radio".

 The Showdown. M.W., a scientist and inventor, is discovered to be a woman. Inside a Super-Sophisticated radio room that holds the stolen diamonds, she uses her ball lightning machine (see the cover illustration, above) to pin Clankey against a wall. The electrical ball lightning is under the remote control of M.W. It turns out that Mr. Brown had gone to school with M.W. and he recognizes her as Margaret Walters. Margaret is captured and the diamonds are recovered (see the image to the right).

 Happy Ending. Mr. Brown requests that surgeons operate on the brain of Margaret Walters so as to remove her criminal tendencies. As Margaret recovers from the operation, readers are led to believe that she is no longer criminally insane and might now be capable of returning Mr. Brown's affections. 💕

Cover art for "In the Spacesphere".

Another story was published by Cloukey in 1931: "In the Spacesphere". The interplanetary spacecraft of the future have a spherical shape. "In the Spacesphere" takes place on a passenger ship that goes first to Venus and then to Mars. The story concerns a Martian drug smuggling ring. 

Back in the 1970s when I read all of the Lensman novels by Edward Elmer Smith, I was not impressed by the way he depicted trafficking in the illegal drug "thionite". The plant that made thionite grew on only one planet of the galaxy. Similarly, I don't understand why Cloukey depicted the ruler of Mars as a drug trafficker. There is also a thread in the story about the Martian ruler's daughter which leads nowhere. The other female in the story is an undercover agent of the World Secret Service who is killed by the drug smugglers.

interior art by Frank R. Paul

 Rockets and XX-rays. Readers of "In the Spacesphere" are told that, in this future, it is easy to detect smuggled drugs because all spaceship cargo is inspected by XX-ray scans. However, the luggage of the Martian royal family does not get the usual security scan, allowing a shipment of drugs to reach Venus. Not only that, but some of the Martian plants that are the source of the smuggled drug are also taken to Venus. Readers are told that Venus is great place to grow things.

Invisibility. For "In the Spacesphere", Cloukey introduced bineon, a chemical substance created by Martian chemists of the future and used to create invisible structures such as that "shown" in the image to the right. A human arm mysteriously appears from inside an invisible cylinder and the Martian drug ring member is shot.

interior art for "Swordsman of Sarvon"

The only other science fiction story published by Cloukey was a novel called "The Swordsman of Sarvon". Sarvon is on Venus, where the native people are descended from Earthly Atlantis. I have not read "The Swordsman of Sarvon", but apparently it heavily involves a technology that allows the Evil™ Venusians to transfer their minds into the bodies of humans. These "spys" then attempt to disrupt human civilization on Earth in preparation for the people of Venus to conquer Earth. The story is set in the year 2180 when Earthlings are just starting to travel from Earth to nearby planets like Venus and one scientist on Earth has discovered how to harness atomic energy.

in the Ekcolir Reality

The imaginary future of "The Swordsman of Sarvon" seems like a strange jumble of propeller airplanes, sword-fights and brain transplants. I like to imagine that in an alternate Reality, Charles Cloukey survived and had a much long career of writing science fiction stories. In the Ekcolir Reality, the analogue of Cloukey met Catherine Coblentz in 1930, after the death of her first husband. Catherine's astronomical data proved that Mars was too cold and dry for life and the surface of Venus was baked under a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, making it unsuitable for life.

In the Ekcolir Reality. Catherine prevented Charles from writing stories about Martians and humans living on Venus. They collaborated on a series of science fiction stories about alien visitors to Earth from distant exoplanets and became major figures in the "UFO craze" of the mid-20th century in the Ekcolir Reality that led up to first contact with the alien Fru'wu.

In his stories, Cloukey fully adopted the strategy of having Evil™ Badguys who must be defeated by devilishly clever, scientifically-trained Goodguys. Also, Cloukey seemed completely devoted to the absurd idea that Mars and Venus are hospitable planets for human or humanoid life. When he started writing science fiction stories, Cloukey apparently had no clear idea how a rocket works and his infatuation with propeller-driven airplanes was profound. He imagined 80,000 ton propeller airliners that could stop in mid-air, turn their propellers and hover like a helicopter. Another astounding Cloukey idea for advanced futuristic technology was using a sphygmomanometer as a fool-proof lie-detector device.

image source

 Fictional Chemistry and Physics. As silly as many of his fictional science ideas (including his fictional neon chemistry) were, I have to give Cloukey credit for trying and we must wonder how much his science fiction stories would have improved with time and practice. I'm particularly impressed by Cloukey's attempt to imagine "future physics" that would allow for practical teleportation. Cloukey seemed to have the concept of how to use a futuristic device to scan objects to atomic resolution. He also seemed to instinctively understand the possibility of sophisticated computation devices and automated control systems.

Last Words. I've previously blogged about Stanley Grauman Weinbaum and his science fiction. I also wrote a science fiction story (Let's Make a Genre) about how Stanley's analogue in an alternate Reality was used by Interventionists to provide Earthlings with information about the future. I'm tempted to include Cloukey in the science fiction story that I'm currently writing; "The Cythyrya Investigation". Maybe like Stanley, Cloukey was able to tap into the Sedron Time Stream...

Coming Soon: Part 4 of "The Cythyrya Investigation" 

Next: Space 2019

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers