DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Jinx, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, June 1943

Transcribe
Translate

Jinx, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, June 1943

Page 6

6     JINX

which they call forth. The character development followed the conventional lines of an amazingly endowed central character, a similarly endowed heroine and a villain with no good in him at all. The stories roar about in their swash-buckling way. Anything that pleased the reader of twenty years ago but is most certainly passe today.
Incidentally, Wollheim published the finest weird since 1935 in Smith's "Coming of the White Worm". I admire him for that. It was a Weird Tales reject.

BOB TUCKER     Li'l Winchell
Milton A. Rothman is "James B. Settle"! Yup. You see, some years ago Palmer approached Rothman with the proposition of doing a series of back covers for AMAZING. Now at that time it was unheard of for a fan to be in a pro. So Palmer handily tacked various pen names on Rothman's stuff and ran it. Rothman also is, you may know, Henry Gade. At the moment I am busily tracing down a report that Rothman is likewise known at Frank R. Paul, an artist, and expect to have a report on this momentarily. If what I suspect is true, that arch-fiend of a corporal covers the entire back cover situation all by himself; he must rake in a lot of dough. (He once sent 50¢ for a subscription to LEZ, which, in itself, is proof that Rothman is fairly lousy with dough.

CORPORAL MILTY, suh     Rockets
Tucker, you liar. I am not James B. Settle. When I was writing under the name of Stanley G. Weinbaum (that was before I got too busy with defense work to write) I wrote a story called "The Red Peri", in which I used a ship of tetrahedral shape, using the same principle. I painted it for the Astounding cover, using the name Howard V. Brown.
Speaking of rockets, something has me worried. I've been doing mathematical calculations on the theory of rockets, deducing the basic formulas of rocket motion from Newton's laws. Very pretty formulas they are, too, but we'll let that go for the moment until I get finished with the paper I am writing about it. Anyhoo, , I went and figured out how much power you would get from one of these rockets where you change matter completely into radiant energy and shoot it out through the nozzle. That's the most efficient rocket you could possibly obtain. And that's the trouble with it. It's too damn efficient. Suppose you have a ship weighing 1000 kilograms — no, that's too light, make it 1000 metric tons; that's 1100 English tons. That's a fair size for a space ship. But if you wanted to give it an acceleration of only one gravity it would require only 0.000068 grams per second fuel. You'd have trouble controlling such small quantities of fuel!
It's a funny thing about the Irrelevant. It is a perfect example of a story which changed the course of history. Because of the fact that the story was published no scientist from then on could make the error which the scientist in the story did, because since the paradox had been brought to everybody's attention there could be no chance of anybody's slipping on it.
For the sake of those who did not read the Irrelevant, since it was quite a few years ago, now that I think of it, the idea was this: A rocket burns a constant amount of fuel each second. This constant amount of fuel gives up energy — an equal amount of energy each second. However, the velocity of the rocket is increasing constantly. And the force upon the rocket is remaining the same. Since power equals force x velocity, apparently, the power being expended by the rocket is increasing. But the chemical power of the fuel is constant. So there is a paradox. The answer to apply to a rocket, since it is not pushing against a stationary object from which you measure the distance or velocity, as you do with an automobile or airplane. The thing you have to consider is that the rocket is pushing against its exhaust gases — and work from that idea.

GLANCING AT OUR SCRAPBOOK: An original poem by Lee B. Eastman, first completed copy of one of the fragments to Helen... The first-written (I suppose) script of "Legion of Legions", presented at Boskone II, typed in the pollcat's red and blue ribbon, and on the reverse map, a crudely drawn map showing the directions to the Swisher abode.

Saving...

6 JINX which they call forth. The character development followed the conventional lines of an amazingly endowed central character, a similarly endowed heroine and a villain with no good in him at all. The stories roar about in their swash-buckling way. Anything that pleased the reader of twenty years ago but is most certainly passe today. Incidentally, Wollheim published the finest weird since 1935 in Smith's "Coming of the White Worm". I admire him for that. It was a Weird Tales reject. BOB TUCKER Li'l Winchell Milton A. Rothman is "James B. Settle"! Yup. You see, some years ago Palmer approached Rothman with the proposition of doing a series of back covers for AMAZING. Now at that time it was unheard of for a fan to be in a pro. So Palmer handily tacked various pen names on Rothman's stuff and ran it. Rothman also is, you may know, Henry Gade. At the moment I am busily tracing down a report that Rothman is likewise known at Frank R. Paul, an artist, and expect to have a report on this momentarily. If what I suspect is true, that arch-fiend of a corporal covers the entire back cover situation all by himself; he must rake in a lot of dough. (He once sent 50¢ for a subscription to LEZ, which, in itself, is proof that Rothman is fairly lousy with dough. CORPORAL MILTY, suh Rockets Tucker, you liar. I am not James B. Settle. When I was writing under the name of Stanley G. Weinbaum (that was before I got too busy with defense work to write) I wrote a story called "The Red Peri", in which I used a ship of tetrahedral shape, using the same principle. I painted it for the Astounding cover, using the name Howard V. Brown. Speaking of rockets, something has me worried. I've been doing mathematical calculations on the theory of rockets, deducing the basic formulas of rocket motion from Newton's laws. Very pretty formulas they are, too, but we'll let that go for the moment until I get finished with the paper I am writing about it. Anyhoo, , I went and figured out how much power you would get from one of these rockets where you change matter completely into radiant energy and shoot it out through the nozzle. That's the most efficient rocket you could possibly obtain. And that's the trouble with it. It's too damn efficient. Suppose you have a ship weighing 1000 kilograms — no, that's too light, make it 1000 metric tons; that's 1100 English tons. That's a fair size for a space ship. But if you wanted to give it an acceleration of only one gravity it would require only 0.000068 grams per second fuel. You'd have trouble controlling such small quantities of fuel! It's a funny thing about the Irrelevant. It is a perfect example of a story which changed the course of history. Because of the fact that the story was published no scientist from then on could make the error which the scientist in the story did, because since the paradox had been brought to everybody's attention there could be no chance of anybody's slipping on it. For the sake of those who did not read the Irrelevant, since it was quite a few years ago, now that I think of it, the idea was this: A rocket burns a constant amount of fuel each second. This constant amount of fuel gives up energy — an equal amount of energy each second. However, the velocity of the rocket is increasing constantly. And the force upon the rocket is remaining the same. Since power equals force x velocity, apparently, the power being expended by the rocket is increasing. But the chemical power of the fuel is constant. So there is a paradox. The answer to apply to a rocket, since it is not pushing against a stationary object from which you measure the distance or velocity, as you do with an automobile or airplane. The thing you have to consider is that the rocket is pushing against its exhaust gases — and work from that idea. GLANCING AT OUR SCRAPBOOK: An original poem by Lee B. Eastman, first completed copy of one of the fragments to Helen... The first-written (I suppose) script of "Legion of Legions", presented at Boskone II, typed in the pollcat's red and blue ribbon, and on the reverse map, a crudely drawn map showing the directions to the Swisher abode.