The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1920-02-26
ROCKETS MAY EXPLORE ETHER
Shooting the Moon" Idea Altogeth-
er Speculative, Says
Popular Mechanics Magazinel


A third dimension, an entirely new
direction, has just been added to
mans range of exploration. Now it is
going to be possible to establish ply
sical contact with whatever it may be
that lies straight up, in the highest
strata of earth's atmospheric ocean
and beyond. Any radial line of the
! globe may become the pathway to
new scientific records-a pathway
continued as far as the investigator
cares to pursue it. So powerful, in
deed, is the new instrument of ascen-
sion, that its projection to the very
disk of the motion is declared within
the limits of reasonable speculation,
if anything were to be gained by so
spectacular an effort.
However glibly students may speak
of astronomical distances, actual hu-
man experience, SO far, has practical
ly been debarred from the vertical
plane. The "farhest up" of physical
attainment is bare six miles, and
that only for a brief breathless period.
The highest altitude ever explored,
with an ingenious arrangement of re-
cording instruments on free balloon.
does not exceed "a miles-a mere
commuters morning jaunt. The up
per reaches of the atmosphere remain
today unexplored, actually less known
than the deepest soundings of the
seas. The science Of meteorology, and
all the other sciences that wait upon
it, are limited to mere film upon the
earth's surface.
Whether or not the time will ever
come when man can travel as far
straight up as he may 60 horizontal
ly in a days journey, is a question
that has now become immaterial. All
the facts a traveller in that strange
direction could gather have become
suddenly available. The instruments
for recording these facts may be sent
up to the very point where air dis
solves in space. They may 60 even
farther than that, farther than the in
fluence of gravitation extends, if there
were any way of getting back.
The instrument by which this won
der is to be accomplished is nothing
more mysterious than a rocket scien-
tifically designed, of course, extraor-
dinarily efficient mechanically, but
still intimately related to the familiar
paper cartridge that swishes its
cometlike tail of sparks through the
night air of Independence Day. Upon
this simple mechanism, Prof. Robert
H. Goddard, of Clark College, Wor-
cester, Mass, has turned the engineer
ing care that might be devoted to the
design of a steam turbine.
To design so remarkable machine
is in itself a noteworthy accomplish
ment. But the really startling feature
of the new rocket is still more in
genious. The perfected instrument
will contain a series of powder charg-
es that will explode in relay, each
ignited in turn just as the preceding
charge is exhausted. Then the height
which the whole machine can reach is
found by simply adding the altitude
to which each charge will carry it
from the point of the explosion
There is no guesswork about this
computation. Figuring fixed weight
of one pound for the recording in
struments carried, it is calculated that
an initial weight of only 3.6 h., in
cluding rocket shell and charges, will
lift the whole equipment to a height
of practically 35 miles; 81 h., would
carry it up over 70 miles; 6.4 h., 115
miles; 9.S h., over 230 miles; and
1913 lb., nearly 438 miles.
AS already seen in the hypothetical
bombardment of the moon, the new
apparatus lends itself to speculation.
The inventor himself has mentioned,
merely as a distant possibility, ats
use for taking photographs in space,