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Tympani, v. 1, issue 18, December 29, 1947

Page 6

MOHAMMED ULYSSES FIPS PROFILED IN MAGAZINE DIGEST. Mohammed Ulysses Fips, who writes an annual column for Radio-Craft magazine, is the subject of an article, "His Pipe Dreams Are Tomorrow's Inventions" by Eric Hutton, in the January 1948 Magazine Digest. "Fips", who celebrates each All Fool's Day by describing, "in scientific doubletalk", a fantastic gadget quite impossible at the time, is really Hugo Gernsback, 63-year-old editor-publisher of Radio-Craft, who is known to fandom as the "father of science fiction". The article, however, is mainly concerned with Gernsback's "fabulous career" as inventor and "father of radio-listening", from the time in 1904 when his apparatus for transmitting and receiving radio-waves was placed on sale at $7.50 each. He is mentioned as the publisher of the first radio magazine, Modern Electronics, and the inventor of several basic radio and hearing-aid parts. These latter achievements place him, according to the article, with Volta, Morse, Hertz, Tesla and other greats of the electronics field. The article mentions in passing that Gernsback wrote the trail-blazing science fiction story, "Ralph 124C41-Plus", and that he is "no less than the inventor of science fiction", but it fails to describe his most important contribution to the field -- the founding of Amazing Stories, which inaugerated the era of pulp science fiction.  --STAN WOOLSTON.

NEW DANGER SEEN FOR MOON EXPLORERS. Dr. Harlan True Stetson in his new book, Sunspots in Action, calls attention to the possibility that explorers on the moon may face a hazard which so far does not seem to have been emphasized. The moon has no atmosphere and therefore high-energy solar rays beat down directly on the naked surface. That is, the sun acts as a sort of giant cyclotron, hurling ionizing radiation at the moon as a target. A given region on the moon is exposed to this bombardment for about two weeks at a stretch. This may cause some of the elements on the moon to become artifically radioactive. Dr. Stetson thinks that a considerable area in the dark half of the moon near the sunset line could be emitting radioactive products such as gamma rays. -- R. S. RICHARDSON

BETWEEN OTHER COVERS. Salute magazine for December (pages 32-33) has a spread on M. Doreal, the Denverite who has done something concrete (a $150,000 retreat) about escaping Atomigeddon. Doreal attended the Denvention, has one of the world's foremost fantasy collections. # Bradbury fans should consult the current Cornell University Quarterly for his "Epoch", and see the new literary publication, Touchstone, for his "El Dia di Morte". # Life, 3 November, page 40, carried a photo of Ayn Rand, authoress of the futuristic novella, "Anthem". The issue of 17 November, page 88, had a caricature of H. G. Wells. # The Atomigeddon novella in the November-December Doc Savage Science Detective received recommendations from Forrest J. Ackerman, G. Gordon Dewey (who detected an Unknownish short in the preceding number, "The Big Sneeze") and Arthur Cox. it was "Or The World Will Die", by John D. MacDonald, illustrated by Cartier. # Old news by now, but no one seems to have run across the story before: "To The End", an atom war short by Y. Edith Friede, was published in the February 1947 number of Best Stories. # Two other out-dated items: James MacCreigh (Fred Pohl) had a three-page article, "Trip to the Moon", in Five - Novels magazine for May-June 1947. "The Devil on Apuru", an off-trail yarn by Will F. Jenkins, appeared in the October Adventure. #  December Woman's Day features a fantasy novelet, "Miss Pringle and the Angel", by Margaret L. Manley. # Check the December Blue Book for an interplanetaryarn, and article by old-time stf author Morrison Colladay.
--FORREST J ACKERMAN
-6-

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MOHAMMED ULYSSES FIPS PROFILED IN MAGAZINE DIGEST. Mohammed Ulysses Fips, who writes an annual column for Radio-Craft magazine, is the subject of an article, "His Pipe Dreams Are Tomorrow's Inventions" by Eric Hutton, in the January 1948 Magazine Digest. "Fips", who celebrates each All Fool's Day by describing, "in scientific doubletalk", a fantastic gadget quite impossible at the time, is really Hugo Gernsback, 63-year-old editor-publisher of Radio-Craft, who is known to fandom as the "father of science fiction". The article, however, is mainly concerned with Gernsback's "fabulous career" as inventor and "father of radio-listening", from the time in 1904 when his apparatus for transmitting and receiving radio-waves was placed on sale at $7.50 each. He is mentioned as the publisher of the first radio magazine, Modern Electronics, and the inventor of several basic radio and hearing-aid parts. These latter achievements place him, according to the article, with Volta, Morse, Hertz, Tesla and other greats of the electronics field. The article mentions in passing that Gernsback wrote the trail-blazing science fiction story, "Ralph 124C41-Plus", and that he is "no less than the inventor of science fiction", but it fails to describe his most important contribution to the field -- the founding of Amazing Stories, which inaugerated the era of pulp science fiction. --STAN WOOLSTON. NEW DANGER SEEN FOR MOON EXPLORERS. Dr. Harlan True Stetson in his new book, Sunspots in Action, calls attention to the possibility that explorers on the moon may face a hazard which so far does not seem to have been emphasized. The moon has no atmosphere and therefore high-energy solar rays beat down directly on the naked surface. That is, the sun acts as a sort of giant cyclotron, hurling ionizing radiation at the moon as a target. A given region on the moon is exposed to this bombardment for about two weeks at a stretch. This may cause some of the elements on the moon to become artifically radioactive. Dr. Stetson thinks that a considerable area in the dark half of the moon near the sunset line could be emitting radioactive products such as gamma rays. -- R. S. RICHARDSON BETWEEN OTHER COVERS. Salute magazine for December (pages 32-33) has a spread on M. Doreal, the Denverite who has done something concrete (a $150,000 retreat) about escaping Atomigeddon. Doreal attended the Denvention, has one of the world's foremost fantasy collections. # Bradbury fans should consult the current Cornell University Quarterly for his "Epoch", and see the new literary publication, Touchstone, for his "El Dia di Morte". # Life, 3 November, page 40, carried a photo of Ayn Rand, authoress of the futuristic novella, "Anthem". The issue of 17 November, page 88, had a caricature of H. G. Wells. # The Atomigeddon novella in the November-December Doc Savage Science Detective received recommendations from Forrest J. Ackerman, G. Gordon Dewey (who detected an Unknownish short in the preceding number, "The Big Sneeze") and Arthur Cox. it was "Or The World Will Die", by John D. MacDonald, illustrated by Cartier. # Old news by now, but no one seems to have run across the story before: "To The End", an atom war short by Y. Edith Friede, was published in the February 1947 number of Best Stories. # Two other out-dated items: James MacCreigh (Fred Pohl) had a three-page article, "Trip to the Moon", in Five - Novels magazine for May-June 1947. "The Devil on Apuru", an off-trail yarn by Will F. Jenkins, appeared in the October Adventure. # December Woman's Day features a fantasy novelet, "Miss Pringle and the Angel", by Margaret L. Manley. # Check the December Blue Book for an interplanetaryarn, and article by old-time stf author Morrison Colladay. --FORREST J ACKERMAN -6-