DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fantasmia, issue 1

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of dials and levers, and the brain would do the rest.
"That brain was an enormous spectacle with that huge control board needing merely a flick of the wrist to bring it to life. So I sort of suggested that we turn it on a minute just to see what it looked like all lighted up. Jimmy turned and hollered that he'd lose his scholarship and his girl friend if he messed with it. Then he calmed down and thought it over and finally decided that he'd rather go to another university and his girl friend was giving him the run-around, so he turns it on. 
"Oh, it was a wonderful sight with the meters all lighted up and the levers gleaming in the soft light and a deep humming vibrating everything so it seemed to come up your feet and make you sort of shiver all over.
"I says it's pretty, but what's the use of turning it on unless we give it a problem to mull over. Jimmy sees I got a point so he thinks a minute then says he's got a tough one. Me being a naturally curious man, I ask him what it is. While he's pounding on the typewriter he tells me that a problem he's always wondered about is how a bumble bee can fly. Now I've always known a bumble bee can fly, but Jimmy says that theoretically a bee's body is too large for them wings to support.
"So that's the problem Jimmy fed into the brain. I watched him twist dials and move levers and everything, and it's a sight to see with colored lights flickering and different hums coming as he worked. Now, I'm not a scientific man, but as he was busy I knew that there was great power in that room, and it awed me, sort of, that such power could be controlled by a little man moving little dials and levers. 
"Well, soon everything was ready and Jimmy threw the master switch and the vibrations were deeper, and we sat back and watched the brain working. There's a whole bunch of colored lights to show how far along a problem goes without too much drag. We sat there and watched them lights blink on and off, moving right across the panel as the problem continued form one stage to the next. Once in a while it would flash back a step or two as if it wasn't sure and wanted to make certain. I tell you them brains are almost human!
"Well, there we were, almost hypnotized by the lights, when i comes an engineer, and I could tell by the look on Jimmy's face that it was the chief engineer! He saw the brain's lights blinking, and then he raised the roof! I never SEEN such carryings on! It seems that this was the NEW brain we'd come on, not the old one. New brains have to be broken in on simple problems, just like school kids. And when that chief engineer found out it was the unsolvable bumble  bee problem we had given it he was really mad! He called up a bunch of other engineers, then tried to cut off the problem but it was too far along. By that time Jimmy had scrammed and I had half a mind to, but like I said, I'm a curious man and I wanted to see what'd happen. 
"By this time the rest of the engineers has come, looked at the brain, and departed. Seems they didn't know what would happen if the brain apt stuck and they was in no mood to find out.
"The lights had slowed up considerable and couldn't seem to get past one stage, kept going back for confirmation. The chief engineer was looking sort of white and I expect I was no peach, either. We were standing at the doorway, cause if anything blew up I was going through the doorway, not no plastic wall.
"Finally this single light kept blinking on and off at this one stage, like it didn't believe the answer it was getting. I was all tense inside, waiting to see what'd gave first, me or the brain. 
"Presently this blinking light went out-- not blinking out but just sort of faded out, and somehow I knew something was going to happen quick! 
"The chief engineer had already disappeared when I whizzed thorough

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of dials and levers, and the brain would do the rest. "That brain was an enormous spectacle with that huge control board needing merely a flick of the wrist to bring it to life. So I sort of suggested that we turn it on a minute just to see what it looked like all lighted up. Jimmy turned and hollered that he'd lose his scholarship and his girl friend if he messed with it. Then he calmed down and thought it over and finally decided that he'd rather go to another university and his girl friend was giving him the run-around, so he turns it on. "Oh, it was a wonderful sight with the meters all lighted up and the levers gleaming in the soft light and a deep humming vibrating everything so it seemed to come up your feet and make you sort of shiver all over. "I says it's pretty, but what's the use of turning it on unless we give it a problem to mull over. Jimmy sees I got a point so he thinks a minute then says he's got a tough one. Me being a naturally curious man, I ask him what it is. While he's pounding on the typewriter he tells me that a problem he's always wondered about is how a bumble bee can fly. Now I've always known a bumble bee can fly, but Jimmy says that theoretically a bee's body is too large for them wings to support. "So that's the problem Jimmy fed into the brain. I watched him twist dials and move levers and everything, and it's a sight to see with colored lights flickering and different hums coming as he worked. Now, I'm not a scientific man, but as he was busy I knew that there was great power in that room, and it awed me, sort of, that such power could be controlled by a little man moving little dials and levers. "Well, soon everything was ready and Jimmy threw the master switch and the vibrations were deeper, and we sat back and watched the brain working. There's a whole bunch of colored lights to show how far along a problem goes without too much drag. We sat there and watched them lights blink on and off, moving right across the panel as the problem continued form one stage to the next. Once in a while it would flash back a step or two as if it wasn't sure and wanted to make certain. I tell you them brains are almost human! "Well, there we were, almost hypnotized by the lights, when i comes an engineer, and I could tell by the look on Jimmy's face that it was the chief engineer! He saw the brain's lights blinking, and then he raised the roof! I never SEEN such carryings on! It seems that this was the NEW brain we'd come on, not the old one. New brains have to be broken in on simple problems, just like school kids. And when that chief engineer found out it was the unsolvable bumble bee problem we had given it he was really mad! He called up a bunch of other engineers, then tried to cut off the problem but it was too far along. By that time Jimmy had scrammed and I had half a mind to, but like I said, I'm a curious man and I wanted to see what'd happen. "By this time the rest of the engineers has come, looked at the brain, and departed. Seems they didn't know what would happen if the brain apt stuck and they was in no mood to find out. "The lights had slowed up considerable and couldn't seem to get past one stage, kept going back for confirmation. The chief engineer was looking sort of white and I expect I was no peach, either. We were standing at the doorway, cause if anything blew up I was going through the doorway, not no plastic wall. "Finally this single light kept blinking on and off at this one stage, like it didn't believe the answer it was getting. I was all tense inside, waiting to see what'd gave first, me or the brain. "Presently this blinking light went out-- not blinking out but just sort of faded out, and somehow I knew something was going to happen quick! "The chief engineer had already disappeared when I whizzed thorough