London of 1985. The world has enjoyed 36 years of peace, interrupted by a war which lasted only 20 days. This brief war however had dire but entirely unforseen consequences.
One of the warring nations has developed a gas against which there was no protection whatever, consequently the loss of life was frightful. Then came the aftermath: From the bodies of the gas-killed victims a disease developed which was absolutely fatal to women.
The disease sweeps the world, killing off all the women of all ages leaving the world to the men. Hopelessness reigns supreme in this futureless world, and the men resign themselves to the inevitable. Science is helpless. Then comes the last ray of Hope: England announces that they have found one live woman. A Miracle. One woman was immune against the disease. It seems that this miraculous female some years ago, disgusted with life through a love affair with a thoroughly worthless male, offered herself as a subject to the experiments of a doctor- scientist, who was working on a universal serum, which would give immunity against every disease.
The entire future of the world rests upon this woman, who is of sturdy peasant stock and has a mind of her own. She vows that she will devote her life to the prevention and abolishing of war, and having the world at her mercy she taboo's everything that could be interpreted as warlike activity or leading to a possible conflict. She imposes her will upon the statesmen of the world, and then she proceeds to continue the human race by marrying a very fine young fellow. (Let's hope that all her children will be girls).
The book moves along at high speed, carrying the reader along at such a pace, that he has no time to view a few minor weak points. On the whole, an enjoyable book. I recommend it.
Is Interplanetary Communication possible?
We have printed a great many stories about trips to the moon, the inner planets, the Asteroids, and the outer planets. Even the unthinkably vast distances separating this galaxy from the next nearest one have not been a barrier to some of our authors, who have the heroes of their stories use marvelous vehicles developing speeds of many times that of light in order to reach their far distant goals. Almost all of these imaginary vehicles used in these stories were of the "Rocket" type, and I firmly believe with Professor A. M. Low that interplanetary travel is not wildly impossible but merely at the moment somewhat beyond our knowledge.
Professor Low wrote the preface to:
"Rockets through Space" tells us all about what has been accomplished so far to make interplanetary communication possible. Though it is essentially a scientific book, it is nevertheless comprehensible to all, as it is written in a very simple manner. As the matter stands today it is chiefly a question of fuel and fuel only. All other difficulties seem to be more or less negligible. The available fuels which are capable of developing the utmost in power—Oxygen and Gasoline are still far too inefficient to allow a rocket to reach the required velocity of escape which for this planet is about 7 miles per second, in order to overcome the gravitational pull of the earth. This speed must be attained gradually, as otherwise the friction would quickly burn up the vehicle. Furthermore ways and means must be found to overcome the terrific handicap of weight. With our present limited knowledge of fuels we find that it would take 219 tons of fuel to lift one ton of weight, and this is a proportion not at all in favor of an immediate solution of the problem of space travel. All the familiar drawbacks are discussed in the book, such as acceleration on gravitational attraction of other planets, the danger of friction the menace of collisions in space with meteors, etc., and the present state of science which already is well capable of minimizing all these dangers once thought unsurmountable.
The book contains many interesting illustrations as well as charts and diagrams showing how a course must be plotted by the space traveler of the future in order to reach the moon and other heavenly bodies. The only thing which still remains quite hazy is the question of a return trip, but that probably will be the worry of generations far in the future.
The book also tells of the widespread interest in rocket experiments in various countries and the forming of interplanetary societies, which are all working towards the perfection of the Rocket as a vehicle of escape from fetters of the earth. Happy Landing. "Rockets through Space" is sincerely recommended to all those who take a delight in "Escape" literature (Amazing Stories to you.)
