The Vocal Apparatus

Robots in the Ekcolir Reality.

 At the end of my previous blog post, I commented on the 1952 story "Robot---Unwanted". In search of other science fiction by Daniel Keyes, I ended up in the May 1952 issue of Marvel Science Fiction where "Precedent" was published. "Precedent" is another robot story by Keyes which I will discuss on this page, below.

The lead article in that May 1952 issue of Marvel Science Fiction was "She Knew the Face of Evil" by Robert Moore Williams, which is a story about telepathic humans. I'm a sucker for stories about telepathy, so I got distracted by Mr. Williams. I noticed that Williams had published "Robots Return" in the September 1938 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction. I'm a fan of science fiction stories about robots and I'm always looking for old Sci Fi stories that might have influenced Isaac Asimov and his stories about positronic robots.

Figure 1. Rocketry research in the Ekcolir Reality.

 

Science in the Ekcolir Reality.

I have not been able to learn very much about Robert Moore Williams. According to Wikipedia, he had a degree in journalism and so it is not surprising that reporters sometimes appeared in his stories. For example, in the June 1939 issue of Amazing Stories was "Lundstret's Invention" which begins with a newspaper reporter who is trying to get the "scoop" on a secretive man who has built a rocket. 

The Secret History of Rocket Science. The reporter calls upon a rocket experimenter named Langley to help confirm the suspicion that a functioning rocket exists. On the second page of "Lundstret's Invention", the reporter is dead and now Langley has to worry that sophisticated rocket technology will fall into the hands of Nazi Germany.

Virginity in the Ekcolir Reality.

 Rocket Science. As shown in Figure 1, the European rocket scientist Lundstret, after being held in a concentration camp for a year, has come to America and built a rocket that flies by means of some Hi Tek™ light beams. To prevent his rocket technology from falling into Evil™ hands, Lundstret sends his test rocket into outer space. The End.

Robert Moore Williams took his readers to the Moon in a story called "The World of Reluctant Virgins": a rocket lands on the Moon in the year 1955. Elon Musk John Holden has financed the construction of a rocket which lands on the Moon. Almost immediately Holden sees an inscription on a nearby cliff face (see Figure 2).

I love the idea that people could have reached the Moon long ago, but how? As told by Williams, the Moon was colonized in the distant past, but sadly no details are given to we readers. 😔

Fig. 2. interior art for "The World of Reluctant Virgins"

 Capes on the Moon. "The World of Reluctant Virgins" by Robert Moore Williams was published in the November 1950 issue of Amazing Stories. Long, long ago, some mysterious Moon colonists dug out vast caverns underground where they built and lived in cites, apparently eating fungus. Yummy. Then those ancient colonists tried to develop a means to attain immortality. They did succeed in greatly prolonging their lives, but in the process they became sterile. Eventually, those residents of the Moon all died off. We never learn much about those long-lost colonists, and I imagine that maybe they were aliens from a distant exoplanet.

Fig 3. Dozens of questions and answers.

 Green Stuff. Then in 1887, a small group of humans traveled to the Moon and discovered the underground caverns. If the first rocket to the Moon arrived in 1955, then you must be wondering... How did people reach the Moon in 1887? The explanation provided for that mystery is shown in the image to the left (Figure 3). Almost as soon as the rocket lands in 1955, a dude named Stinson shows up and provides a big info dump of exposition. The problem is, we can't trust anything that Stinson says. 😞

inside the Moon in the Ekcolir Reality

 Telepathic Ovaries. One of the crew members who arrives onboard the rocket is a woman (Jane Tovara). Jane senses that something is wrong on the Moon. Apparently all women have telepathic ovaries that warn them when they are being sterilized. The sterilization process has something to do with the funky blue light sources inside the underground cities of the Moon. 🔵

Finally, Thaddeus Juvenal, the inventor of the "green stuff" (Figure 3) shows up with the rest of the "men and their wives" who reached the Moon in 1887. They try to hijack the rocket (I guess they were tired of eating nothing but fungus for the past 68 years). The story ends with the idea that older Earthlings will flock to the Moon caverns so as to attain longevity. Sadly, there is no evidence for virgins on the Moon. 😕 "The World of Reluctant Virgins" is fairly jumbled and non-nonsensical, so I have to wonder if it was brutally edited before publication. 

Alien visitors reach Earth in 1875 (watch).

On October 21, 1966 television's The Wild Wild West delivered an episode called "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate". Over on NBC that week, it was "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". In neither show are things as they first appear. For the Star Trek episode, exoplanet archeologist Dr. Roger Korby has been turned into an android. In "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate" viewers were shown a pink blob of light falling from the sky to Earth and the gold-prospecting residents of an Arizona town are made to believe that an alien spaceship has landed. If this is evidence of spaceships in 1875, then why shouldn't Thaddeus Juvenal have gone to the Moon in 1887?

Telepathic sisters from Venus in the wild west.

 Crab Apple Pie. As Scotty might have said, "They're green!" Three women with their faces painted green step out of the pink spaceship and explain that they have run out of fuel. In an amazing stroke of technological foresight, their spaceship is powered by gold and Jim West has just ridden into town with a million dollars worth of gold dust. The Bad Guys™ try to make off with all the gold in town, but Jim West foils the alien plan.

Georgia in the Ekcolir Reality.

I've seen a broad assortment of westerns, fantasy and science fiction stories attributed to Robert Moore Williams. I suppose most writers who were trying to make a living by publishing pulp magazine stories in the 1940s felt a need to branch out into multiple genres. 

 How to Stop a Man from Drinking. I don't generally read fantasy stories, but as an example of a fantasy story by Williams I looked at "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" in the December 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures. I was motivated to read "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" because I've long wondered about the origins of Isaac Asimov's demon-like character Azazel and I have to wonder if Asimov read "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" and was charmed by the demons.

interior art for
"The Reformation
of Joseph Reed"

"The Reformation of Joseph Reed" features a pint-sized demon named Georgia (Joe buys Georgia from a mysterious dwarf for $2.00) who turns around the life of down-on-his-luck reporter Joseph Reed, who drinks too much. With Georgia's help, Joseph captures the city's worst gangster, gets a raise and even gets Janie Rice (she's a redheaded girl with "curves where a girl ought to have them") to marry him. 💕

excerpt from "The Reformation of Joseph Reed"

It turns out that Janie also has her own demon, China Boy, and soon after Joe and Janie move in together, there is the pitter-patter of tiny baby demons around the house. 

China Boy in the Ekcolir Reality

You might question the wisdom of bringing demons into your home, but relax.... Georgia purrs whenever Joe pats her head.

 However, Georgia has a magical tail that can reduce a big tough gangster to tears. Similarly, China can whip Joe into shape. With China and Georgia around, Joe gives up drinking and becomes a model husband.

Mr. If (image source)

I have a problem with fantasy stories: I never know what the rules are. In "The Reformation of Joseph Reed", some people can see the demons and some can't. Also unexplained is why it is that Joe and Janie are able to get demons from the mysterious dwarf who comes to town selling demons. I suppose the answer is: plot. "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" reminds me of a story by Asimov called "What if".

robots in the Ekcolir Reality

I'm fine with wish fulfillment stories, but often they are simply too magical as the author allows the protagonist to effortlessly move ahead from success to success. Are fantasy stories more prone to this problem than science fiction stories simply because there are fewer rules and constraints?

Before moving on from fantasy-land and Fantastic Adventures magazine, I read "Sidney, the Screwloose Robot" by William Peter McGivern which was published in the June 1941 issue. Apparently McGivern worked as a reporter in Philadelphia and judging from "Sidney, the Screwloose Robot", he had a very naive view of science and engineering.  In any case, this seems to be a joke story about a lazy and drunken robot. 🛢+🤖

Yes, Sidney can get drunk by drinking oil. During the months that it took to build Sidney, bills mounted and if Sidney can't be a productive working robot, then all is lost for his cash-strapped builders. 

Sydney at the junk yard.

For a brief time, Nancy, a cute redhead, is able to get Sidney to stop drinking and do some work, but then the robot reverts to his natural laziness. In the end, Sidney gets to sit in front of a junk yard, acting as a novelty display piece and never having to do any work. It is heaven for Sidney. "Sidney, the Screwloose Robot" robot reminds me of Asimov's story "Reason" which was published in April 1941.

Rewbarb Rides Again.

 Sentient Radio. The editor of Fantastic Adventures, Ray Palmer, must have enjoyed McGivern's goofy stories about fantasy technology gone bad. In the December 1941 issue there were two stories by McGivern. In "Rewbarb's Remarkable Radio", Mr. Rewbarb's radio suddenly begins speaking and complaining about all of the awful things it has heard, both on the air and inside Rewbarb's house.

Pyramid Power. The second story was "People of the Pyramids" and appeared under the fake name P. F. Costello. This story could have been called Indiana Jones and the Lost Pyramid.

Pyramids in the Ekcolir Reality.

In "People of the Pyramids" there is no Indiana Jones, but Neal Kirby must pretend to be an archeologist and save the fetching Jane Manners (she's the daughter of the real archeologist in the story).

Desert Adventure. There is a lost civilization out in the desert. To escape their war-like neighbors, they hide behind an invisibility screen. They live underground, below a pyramid.

Brought to the big screen in the Ekcolir Reality.

in an alternate Reality

Maybe in some alternate Reality, such as the Ekcolir Reality, there could have been an alternate version of this story in which Jane Manners was an archeologist and the star of a movie about discovering a lost civilization out in the Sahara desert. Since I prefer science fiction stories, why not imagine that space aliens provided the invisibility screen?

I've never seen Stargate Origins or any of the Stargate shows. I wonder if they could be viewed as developing the same kind of "lost civilization" plot that McGivern created for "People of the Pyramids".

In the March 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures there was an autobiographical essay by McGivern. That essay was written comically and provides little factual information about McGivern. 

Menace of the Thought Robot!

In that March 1941 issue were three stories by David Wright O'Brien including "The Thought Robot". Roy and Mike have built a telepathic robot, but they can't figure out how to control it. The robot seems to be tuned into subconscious thoughts.

Mary - damsel in distress

The plot of "The Thought Robot" is very similar to that of Forbidden Planet. Beware the horrid thoughts that lurk in the human subconscious! Along for the ride is Miss Mary, the third leg of a love triangle with Roy and Mike. 💕 Both inventors are hot for Mary. Can the evil-doing thought robot be controlled? Can Mary be saved? Who will end up with Mary, Roy or Mike?

Fish Men of Venus.

The cover story for that March 1941 issue was "Slaves of the Fish Men" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. With Burroughs having "used up" all of the planets such as Mars and Venus for his planetary adventures, other writers such as Ray Cummings (see his "Onslaught of the Druid Girls", below) had to go the extra mile to find new locations for their adventures. For "Onslaught of the Druid Girls", Cummings invented a second moon for Earth.

I could not bring myself to read "Slaves of the Fish Men", but I confess having some curiosity about how the fish men of Venus could have kept human slave girls under water. With stories such as "Slaves of the Fish Men" being published in 1941, I guess I can understand why a young Isaac Asimov wrote his own adventure story set on on Venus.

interior art for "The Floating Robot"

In the January 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures, was "The Dynamouse" by McGivern, but the cover story was "The Floating Robot" by David Wright O'Brien. I'm surprised by how many silly robot stories there were in this fantasy magazine. 

tormented by the radio robot!

 Terror of the Radio Robot. In "The Floating Robot", Sally has a magical voice that summons the titular floating robot (Yolan) from an alternate dimension, the world of radio waves. After much travail, with Yolan threatening to kill Sally, she screams and Yolan is sent back to his parallel universe.

how do you keep a mouse from exploding?

Judging from the letters column in Fantastic Adventures, "The Dynamouse" was a popular story. It features a mouse, Nelie, inside Professor Waldo's laboratory. Nelie eats uranium. Now the city of Chicago is in danger of being destroyed by a nuclear mouse explosion.

Before moving on from Fantastic Adventures, I must note that the June 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures had as its lead story "Onslaught of the Druid Girls" by Ray Cummings. There was also a biographical article about Cummings which says, "Mr. Cummings is reticent in talking about himself".   

fantastic biography

 "Onslaught of the Druid Girls" features an inhabited second moon for Earth, Zonara, perpetually hidden by it magical atmosphere that does strange things to light. If you read "Onslaught of the Druid Girls", also read this.

Aurita, Druid Princess of Zonara.

Lee Blaine builds a spaceship using anti-gravity technology and goes off to visit Zonara. Bad News. His spaceship crashes and he's stranded on Zonara. Good News. He instantly meets Aurita, one of the Virgins of Dreen. Worse News. Aurita and Lee must escape from an evil Nonite. Better News. The Virgins of Dreen can fly by riding on Aerites, giant birds. 

The city of Dreen is in the tops of trees in the forest of Zonara. The plot of "Onslaught of the Druid Girls" is very similar to that of "The Cloud Minders", an episode of Star Trek. The Nonites are in a similar social situation as the Troglytes.

 Flying Virgins of Zonora. After an army of flying Virgins win a big battle against evil forces, Lee and Aurita can settle down together and rule the moon Zonara.💕

cover art by Harold W. McCauley

Hi Tek™ Vibrators. There are some technological wonders on Zonara that exist in some hybrid zone between magic and science. Aurita's brother, Raalt, has a laboratory at Castle-Cliff where he is perfecting a magic vibration-beam that is intended to "greatly benefit the Virgins" because it can defend Dreen against the evil ground-dwelling Nonites who often kidnap Virgins.

Aurita's image in a crystal.

 Hi Tek™ Crystals. Also, there are magic crystals that can capture a person's image like a photograph (see the image to the left).

 Fantasy Mush. In the September 1938 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction was letter from Isaac Asimov in which he welcomed the inclusion of some fantasy stories inside Astounding. However, he also added his voice to those who had expressed opposition to the inclusion of romantic "mush" and virgins in the pages of Astounding. 

featuring "Robots Return"

 Vocal Apparatus. In that September 1938 issue of Astounding was "Robots Return" by Robert Moore Williams, a story that was later re-published in several anthologies. A group of robots is searching for their mysterious origin. Arriving on Earth, with its ancient cities, all in ruins, the robots also puzzle over the mystery of why it is they can speak, but usually they simply communicate via radio signals. They are rather disgusted by the idea that living biological creatures might have once created the first robots 8,000 years previously. The animals of Earth were all killed off by a biological plague, but humans sent robots out into space. There is mention of an attempt to preserve some humans in suspended animation, but we reader see no evidence that any humans survived.

It is easy to imagine Lucas having read "Robots Return" at the age of 19 and then nearly 30 years later drawing on memories of that old story to craft the Star Trek episode that was called "The Changeling".

Figure 4

 Flying Robots. I've always been puzzled by Nomad's ability to float. As depicted in the interior art for "Robots Return" by Charles Schneeman (Figure 4), the robots can fly. They are powered by atomic energy and they have the ability to control gravity. While exploring the ruins of Earth, they find elevators and conclude that the residents of Earth were primitive and lacked the ability to cancel gravity and fly through the air.

image source

In "Robots Return", there is a scene featuring an ancient crumbling statue on Earth that is pointing towards the sky. That scene imagined by Williams may have inspired Asimov to include a similar scene in Foundation and Earth. See the Michael Whelan cover art that is shown to the left. I wonder if "Robots Return" helped to inspire Asimov's 1943 story "Death Sentence".

Reprogramming: the fate of androids in the Ekcolir Reality.

 Androids. After being distracted by Williams, McGiven and O'Brien, I finally was able to read "Precedent" by Daniel Keyes in the May 1952 issue of Marvel Science Fiction.

At the end of my previous blog post I mentioned the Daniel Keyes story "Robot---Unwanted" from the June 1952 issue of Other Worlds Science Stories. In that story, readers see the travails of the first "free robot". In "Precedent", the story begins with lamentations from two "freed androids", one of them quite drunk.

android worries

 Discrimination. The freed androids live in segregated android settlements and they have to wear an "A" on their clothing. There are only a few saloons that are open to the androids who are "second class citizens"

 Earth-Venus War. Earth's androids are being re-programmed so that they can fight in the war against Venus. Some androids, originally programmed so as to be unable to kill others, are killing themselves to avoid being sent off to war.

Ellen has a plan.

 Mush. You might wonder why "Precedent" ended up in a magazine like Marvel Science Fiction and not Astounding. I'll blame it on "mush" 💕. At the center of "Precedent" is the precedent-setting android, Laedo, who has a human girlfriend, Ellen. Laedo dreads being reprogrammed to have the ability to hate, but Ellen thinks Laedo will also gain the capacity to love her.

neofuturism

 Is It Sci Fi? You'll have to read "Precedent" in order to see how Keyes ends the story. The androids in "Precedent" seem to be biological constructs, not computerized robots. These androids eat food and can get drunk and in order to give Laedo the capacity to experience hate, a doctor operates on Laedo while he is under the effects of an anesthetic. I suspect that Keyes was imagining his androids as artificial life-forms along the lines of the robots in Karel Čapek's play "R.U.R.". As a science fiction fan, I find "Precedent" a source of frustration. There is no description of how or why these androids were constructed or how their emotions can be altered during a brief operation. I can't stop myself from thinking that in writing "Precedent" Keyes was working in the literary tradition of stories such as Frankenstein and Pinocchio.

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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) accesses 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...

Jump to: Part 4 of "The Cythyrya Investigation" 

Next: Space 2019

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