“I woke with a start to find myself floating in mid-air. The earth beneath us was a well-defined ball.” Illustrations by Frank R. Paul.
The illustrations are in Bob Olsen’s story titled “Four Dimensional Transit” in “Amazing Stories Quarterly,” Vol. 1, No. 4 (Fall, 1928).
In the story, Professor Banning and three associates install rockets and a “four-dimensional rudder” on their airplane, the “Spirit of Youth,” which allow them to fly beyond the gravitational field of the earth, out into space and beyond. The story certainly impressed the magazine editor who has this to say:
“We have published many “Four Dimensional” stories both in the Quarterly and the Monthly, but we unhesitatingly state, that the present story is, without exception, the best one we have ever published along these lines.
“This is the sort of story you will read and re-read during the months to come, and you will never get quite enough of it. And what is more, this is a story that will make you think.
“Every high school and every physics teacher and professor will wish his class to read this story, due to the most excellent astronomical data contained in it. This story not only contains excellent astronomy, but excellent physics as well.
“The theme is as good or even better than Jules Verne’s famous classic, “Around the World in Eighty Days.” Indeed, it parallels that story in cleverness and in the same sort of unusual clever ending.
“In addition to all of this, it is an unusually good interplanetarian story, and we know that it will be joyfully received by every scientifiction fan.”
[Note: Nobody in this story travels into the fourth dimension or at warp speed, so why the obsession with four dimensions? There may be a reason for this, given when the story was written. Back in the 1920s, one of the world’s most famous people was Albert Einstein, and he did more than any other scientist to popularize the notion of “Four Dimensional” space, with time serving as the fourth dimension.]
“I woke with a start to find myself floating in mid-air. The earth beneath us was a well-defined ball.” Illustrations by Frank R. Paul.
The illustrations are in Bob Olsen’s story titled “Four Dimensional Transit” in “Amazing Stories Quarterly,” Vol. 1, No. 4 (Fall, 1928).
In the story, Professor Banning and three associates install rockets and a “four-dimensional rudder” on their airplane, the “Spirit of Youth,” which allow them to fly beyond the gravitational field of the earth, out into space and beyond. The story certainly impressed the magazine editor who has this to say:
“We have published many “Four Dimensional” stories both in the Quarterly and the Monthly, but we unhesitatingly state, that the present story is, without exception, the best one we have ever published along these lines.
“This is the sort of story you will read and re-read during the months to come, and you will never get quite enough of it. And what is more, this is a story that will make you think.
“Every high school and every physics teacher and professor will wish his class to read this story, due to the most excellent astronomical data contained in it. This story not only contains excellent astronomy, but excellent physics as well.
“The theme is as good or even better than Jules Verne’s famous classic, “Around the World in Eighty Days.” Indeed, it parallels that story in cleverness and in the same sort of unusual clever ending.
“In addition to all of this, it is an unusually good interplanetarian story, and we know that it will be joyfully received by every scientifiction fan.”
[Note: Nobody in this story travels into the fourth dimension or at warp speed, so why the obsession with four dimensions? There may be a reason for this, given when the story was written. Back in the 1920s, one of the world’s most famous people was Albert Einstein, and he did more than any other scientist to popularize the notion of “Four Dimensional” space, with time serving as the fourth dimension.]