I've been reading old science fiction stories from the 1920s and 1930s and trying to imagine the process by which the young
Isaac Asimov became both a fan of science fiction and a biological scientist. I've previously commented on several stories by
Miles J. Breuer, M.D. including "
The Man Without an Appetite" (~1916), "
The Girl from Mars" (1929) and "
The Gostak and the Doshes" (1930).
Today I went in search of two other stories by Breuer that attracted my attention simply because of their titles. I've long been intrigued by the many unrealistic science fiction stories that have been published which depict living organisms on every planet, moon and stray asteroid of the galaxy. "A Baby on Neptune" was published by Breuer in the December 1929 issue of Amazing Stories and I wanted to find out if this was a story similar to "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting" by Clarke. Clarke's story concerned the first human baby born on the Moon.
Flying Plants. However, before I could get to "A Baby on Neptune", I ran into "
Vampires of the Desert" by A. Hyatt Verrill. I'm not interested in vampires, so I would not normally have been distracted by a story called "Vampires of the Desert", but I recently read an old ghost story by Isaac Asimov ("
Legal Rites") that was set in the Desert Southwest. Thus, I was distracted by the word "desert".
Also, I had previously read "The Ultra-Elixir of Youth" and "The Voice from the Inner World", both published in 1927 by Verrill, two stories which I've labeled as "silly", so I had no expectation of finding interesting fictional science in "Vampires of the Desert". "Vampires of the Desert" was constructed as a painfully long and tedious mystery story in which readers only slowly learn the cause of the "Night Death".
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| excerpt from "Vampires of the Desert" |
Dangers of Climate Change. "Vampires of the Desert" begins with a shift in ocean currents off the coast of Chile. When heavy rains fall on the coastal desert, strange plants begin to grow... plants unlike any others existing elsewhere on Earth, some with odd four-foot-long "flowers". Then the mysterious "murders" begin, occurring only at night. The murder victims have tiny puncture wounds and appear to have been strangled. Finally, the narrator of the story (Barry) witnesses one of the giant "flowers" detach from its stem and drift through the air, dangling tentacles.
Flying Flowers. That floating "flower" attacks Barry, but he is able to survive and tell the tale. You might wonder how these large "flowers" are able to float through the air, but Verrill assures readers that their tissues are full of some gas that makes them lighter than air. The end of the story concerns efforts to eradicate the blood-sucking plants. The solution: coat the entire coastal region of Peru and Chile with petroleum. Tanker planes are deployed "
spraying every square foot of the country with heavy oil". Problem solved.
Fictional Plant Evolution. In "Vampires of the Desert", Verrill advanced the theory that that these blood-sucking plants evolved from marine invertebrates such as hydrozoans. In an ancient geological age, the ocean floor was thrust upwards to form the coast of South America and sea creatures evolved into blood-sucking plants.
Time Travel. Having just completed a four part series of blog posts on
science fiction stories about doctors, I could not resist reading Verrill's "The Astounding Discoveries of Doctor Mentiroso" which was published in the
November 1927 issue of
Amazing Stories and concerns time travel.
Peru is both the setting of "Vampires of the Desert" (above) and the home of Doctor Mentiroso. A mathematical physicist, Dr. Mentiroso is an expert on the works of Albert Einstein and Mentiroso refers to himself as the discoverer of the 4th dimension.
Vibrostink. While explaining what makes time travel possible, the brilliant Dr. Mentiroso assures us that everything is "
merely the result of vibratory waves" including our sense of smell. In "The Ultra-Elixir of Youth" Verrill coined the term "
Juvenum" as a new chemical element that proves to be the secret of youthfulness. For Dr. Mentiroso's theory of vibration, I was inspired to coin the term "vibrostink". But what does this have to do with time travel? Dr. Mentiroso explains, "
time itself must be the mere expression, in arbitrary terms, of some electronic force or vibratory waves".
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image from Amazing Stories
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Dr. Mentiroso does not take
full credit for discovery of the 4th dimension. He discovered ancient ruins in Peru and found that the ancient inhabitants had already long ago mastered the 4th dimension. At the end of "The Astounding Discoveries of Doctor Mentiroso", Dr.
Brown Mentiroso disappears with his time machine, planning to go visit the 1800s.
Long Road to Neptune. Having been sent back in time from 1929 by Alpheus Verrill, I decided to read Breuer's story "The Appendix and the Spectacles" from the December 1928 issue of Amazing Stories.
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Figure 2. Gernsback's memory phantoms.
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However, before I could get to "The Appendix and the Spectacles", I ran into Hugo Gernsback's essay "
An Amazing Phenomenon". Gernsback suggested a "theory" to account for the odd sensation that you have seen a location previously, before you actually get there (see
Figure 2).
I don't know what Gernsback was imagining as a "brain particle" that could transmit information that was once inside a dead person's brain and send it on into another living person. In my own stories, I like to imagine that we humans are composite creatures and our brains have both biological cells and nanoscopic
endosymbionts. If so, then maybe after a person dies, their brain
nanites could carry some of their memories to another person.
I like to imagine that in the Ekcolir Reality, these sorts of ideas were "in the air" during the early 20th century of Earth due to the activity of Interventionist agents on Earth. As Edison put it, "...these infinitesimally small units live forever. When we 'die' these
swarms of units, like a swarm of bees, so to speak, betake themselves
elsewhere and go on to function in some other form or environment."
I'm currently writing a new story called The Nanites of Love and wondering if there might be a limited number of Phari nanites on Earth that keep getting recycled from generation to generation. If so, might they carry useful information from one person's mind to another?
The Bookstrom Solution. In "The Appendix and the Spectacles", a practical method is found to temporarily move people into a 4th spatial dimension, allowing surgical removal of a bodily organ without first having to cut through the skin at the surface of the body. This great discovery is made by Bookstrom, who while attending medical school, ran out of money and had to satisfy himself with becoming Professor of Applied Mathematics.
Take the 4th. You'll have to read "The Appendix and the Spectacles" to learn how a pair of spectacles and a money-hungry banker come into the story. As for the imaginary physics in this story, maybe there is a special law of conservation of mass that applies to 4th dimensional physics... if you take out a man's appendix by means of 4th dimensional surgery then something has to be left inside the patient?
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interior art for The Fifth Dimension
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On to the 5th. The December 1928 issue of Amazing Stories had a silly transmutation story called "The Metal Man" (see Figure 1 for related cover art) and also "The Fifth Dimension" by Clare Winger Harris. In the story by Harris, time is counted as the 4th dimension. In the story, Harris advances the "theory" that all sequential events in time are eventually repeated. "Premonitions" are occasional memories from past cycles of the universe. However, there is opportunity to change the course of history and we can account for that flexibility and freedom from determinism by positing a 5th dimension.
Sea Monsters of Neptune. Returning to the
December 1929 issue of
Amazing Stories and "A Baby on Neptune", there on the cover (see
Figure 3) we see the living creatures of
Neptune, surface temperature less than −200 °C. The story was apparently written as a collaboration between Breuer and Clare Winger Harris. For the story, they invented a future history for
SETI which included radio contact with the planets Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the late 20th century, but there was no progress on understanding the received signals from aliens until the year 2099. By 2300, there were "fluent" radio communications with aliens on Mars and Venus, but the faint radio signals from Neptune were a mystery. By 2345 interplanetary travel by spaceship began and visitors from Earth got their first chance to see the worm-like natives of Venus.
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Corrigan blasting off from Earth
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We are the Scalosians. Then, finally Patrick Corrigan decodes the radio messages from Neptune (they are veeeery sloooow), revealing that they are being sent by a Neptunian physicist named Elzar. Every thing on Neptune is very cold and moves very slowly. Elzar invites Corrigan to visit Neptune, providing assurance that "
You will find no lovelier spot in the universe" although sometimes monstrous creatures come out of the ocean to "
prey upon our people".
The Baby. In 2347, Corrigan sets off for Neptune in a "geodesic space flyer". Arriving at Neptune, he finds the temperature to be a chilly −260 °C upon dropping below the clouds and reaching the icy surface. In order to view Elzar and the other life forms of Neptune, a special device (an "infrared visual transformer") is constructed which reveals the slow-moving natives (see Figure 3) who are composed of gas, not liquid-containing cells. Fortuitously, Corrigan is on Neptune when a sea monster attacks the child of Elzar. Corrigan saves the baby alien's life. Elzar is pleased. The End.
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Figure 4. time travel
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Tempium. Also in that issue of
Amazing Stories was "
The Time Deflector" by Edward L. Rementer. Professor Melville discovers that when the element "tempium" is heated then it emits a "ray" that can "
move objects about in time". There in
Figure 4 is the dramatic event, the first trip into the future. A man is sent 5000 years into the future and then brought back to his starting point in time. The time traveler writes his account of the future, including women who dress in mini-skirts and automated traffic control that automatically synchronizes the movements of all vehicles. You'll have to read "The Time Deflector" to learn more about the amazing future of Humanity.
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A new chemical element!
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Back From the Future. However, by the end of "The Time Deflector", the world's supply of "tempium" has been exhausted (or something), so no further trips to the future are possible. In case you are wondering about how the time traveler was brought back from the future, that involved using reflected tempium rays which naturally reverse the direction of time travel.
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interior art for "The Space Bender"
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4D Bend. The only other story listed at the ISFDB by
Edward L. Rementer is "The Space Bender" (1928). The Space Bender is a machine that can bend space, and its inventor, Professor Jason T. Livermore, uses it to bring the planet Venus in contact with Earth. Livermore wants to go to Venus because he suspects that it has a breathable atmosphere.
After bending space and arriving on Venus, Livermore discovers that it is populated by humanoids who are more like cats than apes. Eventually, a memoir from Livermore is discovered back on Earth in a subway construction site. Did he try to return to Earth or was he satisfied to remain on Venus and simply send back to Earth an account of his adventure? You'll have to read the story and decide for yourself because the story is written as a kind of joke story with cute names for the aliens and it seems like Rementer lost interest in his own plot before terminating the story.
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Figure 5. Mr. White teleported to Mars. Martian swords.
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The December 1928 issue of
Amazing Stories also had "
Flight to Venus" by Edwin K. Sloat. As described by
G. W. Thomas, Sloat began publishing science fiction stories in 1928, but eventually went on to publish about 50 stories in the
Western genre. The ISFDB lists
11 of his stories published between 1928 and 1940.
Teleportation. Sloat's second published Sci Fi story was "The World Without Name" and was published in the March 1931 issue of Wonder Stories.
While "Flight to Venus" made use of fairly conventional rocketry for space travel and to make possible first-contact with the green-skin aliens of Venus, the world "without name" is actually Mars. Nothing as mundane as rockets are used to go to Mars. After the technological wizard Steinhilde builds a teleportation device, he discovers that the Martians have long been using teleportation technology. However, Sloat was seemingly influenced by
Edgar Rice Burroughs, "The World Without Name" also features sword-wielding Martians (see
Figure 5).
For the type of teleportation imagined by Sloat, you need a teleportation terminal at both ends of your journey. When Steinhilde and his assistant teleport to Mars, they end up being tortured by the Martians (
Figure 6). However, Sloat was familiar with the concept that it is wise to bring a gun to a
sword fight. As shown in
Figure 5, Steinhilde's buddy Mr. White brings a gun to Mars and manages to rescue Steinhilde. The Martians do have
HiTek™ ray guns, but they are reluctant to use them in close proximity to their delicate teleportation equipment.
At the thrilling climax of "The World Without Name", Mr. White has to battle a Martian creature that has been carefully bred for gladiatorial combat. These kinds of stories about Mars and Venus influenced Isaac Asimov and when he began publishing his own stories, some of them featured Martians and folks living on Venus, even though Asimov knew that those planets did not have Earth-like environmental conditions.
1939. Sloat's story "When Time Stood Still" was published in the
July 1939 issue of
Amazing Stories. Simply based on the title, I had hope that this might be a story about time travel. However, there is no time travel, only a magical "ray" treatment of people that stops them from aging.
Lasers did not arrive until the 1960s, so a kind of lightening bolt generator was used to protect the periphery of the utopian village, Futura (Figure 7). Futura is the secret, hidden community created by Dr. Dalmetz. Dr. Dalmetz has perfected an invisibility device which is used to hide Futura in the mountains of Arizona.
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Figure 8. Dorothy, a robot and Kent.
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"When Time Stood Still" concerns secret agent Kent Rider who visits Futura. He's on a mission to obtain "shield" technology that might be able to protect the people of Europe from air-raids in the coming war.
As shown in Figure 8, the citizens of Futura make use of robots as their mechanized workmen. Dorothy is the daughter of Dr. Dalmetz, and by the end of "When Time Stood Still", Kent has resigned from the Intelligence Service and is ready to live with Dorothy in Futura, where he can begin a new career using the new 300 inch telescope being built there. At the end of the story, readers are left wondering about what the future holds for the technologically advanced residents of Futura.
There Should Have Been a Sequel. I was hopeful that Sloat may have written a sequel to "When Time Stood Still" with more futuristic technology from Dr. Dalmetz, so I took a look at "The Deadly Swarm" which appeared in the
August 1940 issue of
Astonishing Stories. "The Deadly Swarm" was a bit of military science fiction that anticipated the precise targeting of
cruise missiles.
Fake News. In that August 1940 issue of Astonishing Stories was a short item (see the image to the left) by Donald Wollheim about The Invasion From Mars by Hadley Cantril (you can read the book here). In 1938, there was a radio broadcast version of The War of the Worlds. I've never quite been able to believe that people were actually tricked into believing that an alien invasion of Earth had taken place.
Sex with Aliens. Also in the August 1940 issue of
Astonishing Stories was a short letter from Isaac Asimov saying that he was thinking about a sequel to his story "
Half-Breed". Even Asimov was caught up in the industry of creating Sci Fi stories about alien people from Mars and Venus. That new story did eventually get published as "
Half-Breeds on Venus" right at the end of 1940.
One More Magical Chemical. Along with alien invaders, another ever-popular Sci Fi plot concerns the discovery of a means to shrink people. For "The Element of Logic", R. R. Winterbotham imagined the discovery and practical application of a new chemical element that when brought into contact with people could cause them to shrink (see Figure 9).
Asimov's Imaginary Molecule. In 1948 Asimov published his first in what became a series of
thiotimoline stories. His fictional substance "thiotimoline" was inspired by his on-going
research in the chemistry lab. An imaginary chemical such as thiotimoline (that is able to dissolve in water
before it touches the water) might seem like harmless Sci Fi fun, but how could you possibly control and work with a chemical element that had the power to shrink you to microscopic size (as imagined by
Winterbotham)?
Keep Your Cool. In the hands of Winterbotham, the answer to this problem was obvious: simply cool the dangerous chemical element to a very low temperature and that will render it inert. Warm it up, and then it will begin to exert its amazing power to shrink objects. In the case of thiotimoline, its amazing properties only became apparent when it was available in purified form.
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chemical bonds for endochronic carbon
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Imaginary Chemistry. In his second story about thiotimoline (
1953), Asimov described the properties of endochronic carbon atoms (see the image to the right) which have some of their chemical bonds aligned with the time axis. Asimov suggested that this unique temporal alignment of endochronic carbon atoms within the structure of thiotimoline is what allows it to interact with water molecules in the future.
In "Thiotimoline and the Space Age" (1960), Asimov imagined the military applications of thiotimoline. So horrible were the theoreticl military applications of thiotimoline that Asimov was forced to call a world-wide ban on all further production of thiotimoline. Clearly, Asimov was playing off of the fears of nuclear warfare that had grown during the 1950s.
Published in 1973, "Thiotimoline to the Stars" (you can read it here) takes the form of a speech given to the graduating class of '22 at the starfleet pilot training academy. In this future time (2122?), polymers of thiotimoline have been developed that can be used to construct interstellar spaceships. The lecturer emphasizes how important it is that spaceship pilots not try to turn their spaceships into time machines.
No Spoilers. However, at the end of the story, the crusty old lecturer is tricked into believing that a spaceship has traveled far into the past. Will all of Earth's historical timeline suddenly be altered? You'll have to read "Thiotimoline to the Stars" in order to find out.
Next: I finally read the first draft version of Asimov's novel The End of Eternity.
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