JF Ptak Science Books Post 2906 (Overall post 5110)
In the past of the past of the Thinking Machine, back when Alan Turing was only 15, the prodigious and fabulous Frank R. Paul was creating this image (left) of such a machine for an almost-adventurous story by "Ammianus Marcellinus" called "The Thought Machine". The story appeared in Amazing Stories in February 1927, and for me Ammianus (the name of an historian who live in the 4th century CE and who wrote on the later Roman Empire) just did not have the power of persuasion for his tale--perhaps a lot like his 1600-year-old original, who Gibbon found to be boring and tedious). But the legendary work of Mr. Paul was enough for me, and so I've reprinted his artwork, which in itself is expansive and techo-lyrical in its many ways. In this one, I was intrigued by some of the thought machine's components--the most obvious bit being what very much looks like a "Millionaire" calculating machine at bottom right. That, and the Napier's-Bones-type thing about the bouncing brain of the machine--and then there numerous gears and worms...and what also seems to be like the hints of the power for the whole thing, which are the several belts leading up and away to a larger power conveyer off-picture, which for all I know may have been steam.
I looked around in the pulp/sci fi references I have for some other images of "thought machines" from this early <1930 period and came away with very little, though I did find something hopeful called "The Thought Materializer" which was also supposed to be illustrated by Mr. Paul. The story appeared in Science Wonder Quarterly and was published in the spring of 1930--unfortunately the illustration was just a simple and disappointing portrait of the author. The story was even more disappointing, and the writing was Boy-Wonder-robbed-as-he-knealt-to-pray-about-lonesome-love bad--for example, there is this unpolishable pearl: "Imaginatively, Proctor stepped from the bath". Ouch.
That said, looking for that "missing" Paul illustration let me bump into another interesting bit with a title begging question: "The Revolt of the Atoms".
This brings to mind the possibility of "The Revolt of the Adams", where 17th c Bishop Burnett postulated infinite planets and infinite worlds with infinite people populated by infinite Adams and Eves because as god is perfect each world would be completed with its own A&E.
Getting back to atoms--this story was published in Amazing Stories in their April 1929 issue and was one of the not-many early sci fi bits working around the idea of harnessing the energy of atom. Unlike many, the author, V. Orlovsky, had a go at the dangers of the atoms "rising to power", the new-found energy becoming an agent in the possible demise of the Earth. In any event, Something Happens in the story and the atoms run wild, forming a gigantic firey nucleus of a floating monster atom which "swept away everything that was alive". The giant atom moved across Russia and into Italy, then on to France, destroying everything, threatening the Earth itself with utter destruction. I did not read the whole story, but it does seem as though an eruption of Vesuvius directly beneath the atom and ejected it on an "etherwave" into the Earth's atmosphere, where it spun itself away and harmlessly so, becoming a small satellite. As I said, it is a disappointing story, though the cover art--again by Frank Paul--saves the day with its drawing of the giant atom being approached by enormous electromagnets to try and do such-and thus to it. Frankly, I just liked the idea of the killer atom.
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