Amazing Stories 1929-11 v04n08

Amazing Stories

Library - Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine Science Fiction _bleiler _noisfdb

Published: Nov 13, 1929

Magazine: Amazing Stories, November 1929

Description:

1572. MICROCOSMIC BUCCANEERS. Amazing Stories, November 1929. Ill. Morey. Short story. 
*  Time: the thirty-third century, but there are some time difficulties. 
*  Civilization is high; gravity was overcome a thousand years earlier, and interplanetary flights are now commonplace. There seems to be a world government. 
*  Minott V8CA, the great scientist who is director of physical research of the Eighth Terrestrial District, explains his researches to his young friend Grayson R36B. He has developed an ultramicroscope that shows subatomic worlds, including one with human inhabitants. Minott now has plans of visiting this world. 
*  After several false starts, Minott settles on the fourth dimension as a means of translating himself and Grayson down to the atomic world. Actually, the technique of rotating small objects into a hyperdimension has been known for a time. 
*  Minott sets a timerecall mechanism, and he and Grayson are dumped down onto the electron world, but not exactly where they planned. 
*  In a trice the two men are captured by humanoids with goggle-eyes, no ears, and a certain ability at telepathy and will-control. 
*  Background: The little atomic pocket universe which the men have entered is inhabited by several different peoples, human and humanoid. One group, the Prags, who captured the explorers, are piratical overlords of the other worlds, raiding for slaves and materials. The Prags have a superscience, perhaps not much ahead of that of the macrocosm, but different. Another group, the totally human Elsians, have been enslaved by the Prags. 
*  The Great Ones, giant brains who rule the Prags, are quite interested in the knowledge of the macrocosm that they have extracted telepathically from Minott's mind, and plan an invasion. Minott is forced to serve as a consultant and is treated honorably, so far as the Prags can do this. Grayson is put into the slave quarters as a laborer. 
*  While Minott is working with the Prags, Grayson becomes aware of an (Elsian) slave underground that plans insurrection and destruction of the Prag power. The chief weapon is an ultrasonic projector that will kill Prags. Grayson also acquires an Elsian sweetheart named Lola. 
*  The excitement begins. The Prags are experimenting with sending ships to the macrocosm, but since their fourth-dimensional projector is askew, are not successful. The Prags conduct a slave raid on the Elsians, and Lola is killed (only temporarily; she turns up alive later; it was a misunderstanding). The underground rises and with its supersonic weapons defeats the Prags. And Grayson has the pleasure of killing the Great Ones, at the end even defying their will control. 
*  As Minott, Grayson, and Lola are at the ruins of the Elsian village and the Prag ship, there is a wrench, and all three are translated up to our world. All the events in the microcosm took only two minutes of our time. 
*  There is still a matter of time relativity that Minott must work out. 
*  Miscellaneous: All the microcosmic people, what with their telepathy, can speak perfect English in a matter of hours. 
*  The Prags have pistols that shoot a decomposition ray. 


346. THE BRAIN ACCELERATOR. Amazing Stories, November 1929. Ill. Wesso. Short story. 
*  The narrator, a physician, reminisces on the strange discoveries and mysterious end of Colonel Grigsby, noted soldier, inventor, and reclusive scientist. The two men became acquainted after Grigsby suffered an accident, and after many evenings of friendly scientific discussion, Grigsby reveals his secret projects. He has discovered that the nerve impulse is a peculiar sort of electricity and has a radiation device for reproducing it. Indeed, with his apparatus he can revive the dead, as he demonstrates with a dog. And more, by stimulating neural activity, his apparatus also increases intelligence. The revived dog, for example, displayed a complete understanding of human speech. 
*  After this demonstration the narrator leaves. The next day, he hears that the colonel is dead, his house and laboratory burned. But Grigsby has left a message: He has tried the radiation on himself, with remarkable results, but the increased mentality involves metabolic change, whence the heavy fatigue. 
*  Perhaps the colonel committed suicide; perhaps his death was accidental. 
*  Slow moving, and very heavily larded with scientific exposition of research medicine. 


860. COLD LIGHT. Amazing Stories, November 1929. Ill. McGerr. Short story. 
*  The narrative is divided into two sections. First, rural scares, as a shining man or a glowing head appears around the countryside, to the great consternation of the local folk. 
*  Second, the experiences of old Dr. Hament, as he is trying to duplicate the cold light of the firefly. 
*  Hament is successful, producing a remarkable lighting device that he calls the Hament Colite Luminar. On attempting to market it to the gigantic International Illumination Corporation, however, he is treated scurvily. He is insulted and slandered, and his laboratory is burglarized as the corporation tries to steal his invention. The IIC scientists try to duplicate the Luminar from his stolen notes, but produce nothing of value. 
*  Hament, in a public appearance, denounces IIC, explains their errors (neglect of a catalyst), and demonstrates his remarkable invention. He was also the glowing man who appeared around the countryside. 
*  Disorganized, heavily overladen with technical exposition. 


574. THE UNDERSEA TUBE. Amazing Stories, November 1929. Ill. Wesso. Diagrams, perhaps by the author. Short story. 
*  Time: The near future, when the Channel tunnel is functioning, and subterranean tunnels are becoming an accepted mode of long distance travel. 
*  The New York-Liverpool tunnel has been in operation for about three years. When it was being constructed, a remarkable archeological discovery took place along its route. The miners broke into a small cavern in which was a crystal, liquid-filled coffin containing a beautiful young redheaded woman. When the coffin was opened, the liquid evaporated, and the young woman turned to dust. But this seems to have been a single, chance discovery, for nothing more came of it. 
*  At the moment the narrator is planning to take the transatlantic tunnel to England. His friend, one of the tunnel engineers, urges him to fly instead, for he believes that the tunnel lies across an earthquake fault that shows signs of being active. The narrator rejects his advice. 
*  An earthquake disrupts the tunnel, and the narrator is fortunate to escape with his life. But while he lay unconscious for a time in the wreckage of his car, he had a visionary experience of the end of Atlantis, with fantastic architecture, a gigantic statue, etc. 
*  Miscellaneous: The tunnels are operated by air pressure and suction, much like old-fashioned department store tubes. 
*  Odd, to have the interesting material presented as throwaways. 


652. THE MOON WOMAN. Amazing Stories, November 1929. 111. Walitt. Short story. 
*  Time: The main part of the story is set in A.D. 3014, but see the comment below. 
*  Professor James Hicks believes that he has discovered a serum of suspended animation, but since he cannot persuade anyone to try it, he decides to be his own guinea pig. In the presence of his friend Dr. Blickman, he injects himself with enough serum for a year. Blickman is supposed to take care of his body until awaking time. Blickman, however, is tempted by Hicks's wealth, the use of which he will have while Hicks is asleep, and reinjects him several times. Hicks is placed in a mausoleum. A year later, when he does not revive and his body is obviously not alive, he is declared dead. 
*  Two centuries later (the date 3014 is cited), Rosaria, a young woman flying above the area sees the tomb, which she thinks is a temple. She flies down to it, and manages to squeeze her way in through the roof. At this time Hicks awakens. 
*  He and Rosaria converse. The future people have a flying culture and flit about with small artificial wings. Food tablets offer the taste and nourishment of twentieth-century foods. Disease is unknown. When the Earthmen reached the Moon in 1930, the Moonmen began to descend and mingle with the terrestrials, sharing their superscience. Rosaria herself had a Lunarian mother. 
*  As Hicks is declaring his love for Rosaria, he awakens. The serum did not work, but he had a good night's sleep and a pleasant dream. 
*  Miscellaneous: The frame situation, no matter what date Rosaria quotes, is not around 2800, but our own time. 
*  Below routine.