Imperial Valley press., 1935-11-30
IMPERIAL VALLEY PRESS
RESEARCH IN DEAD EARNEST,
NOT IDLE CURIOSITY

DR.. r. H. Goddard, rocket expert and
physicist of Clark University, is engaged
near Roswell, n. NJ, in experiments pre-
paratory to planned attempt in 1886
to send a 12-foot rocket, equipped with
cameras and temperature devices, into
the uper-StratoSphere. If successful,
the rocket would return to earth with
data on the greatest height to which
man-made contrivances have ever as
cended. The featS of aerial explorers in
stratosphere balloons would be more
sensational only because men rode in
the balloons.
Men have dreamed and experimental
for years, trying to perfect rocket de-
vice to reach the uneXplored atmosphere.
Like the submarine and the flying ma
chine it is thing which is bound to be
done eventually. The fact that the pres
ent experiments are carried on under the
wing of the Guggenheim Foundation, by
an accredited expert, lends to the belief
that the goal is not very far off.
There are many who question the good
that can come from what they describe
as fantastic plan. Communication be-
tween planets? Impossible! Then it
must be idle curiosity, they say. 1t is
not. It is research in dead earnest, re-
search which might lead to as yet un-
dreamed of knowledge and accomplish
ment.
Jules Verne, the man who imagined
submarine travel and aerial navigation,
was credited during his time with being
a man of great imagination, but little
else His readers did not believe that his
novels might be forecasts of what was
to come. Even later, another novel,
Looking Backward,' foretold in fiction
form many of the now commonplace de-
velopments. Telephone communication,
electric lights and many other still un-
accomplished items were limited at in
the book 1t was considered a highly
imaginative work, little more.
The most astute of men, in Columbus
day. would have scoffed unmercifully
at a serious prediction that men would
ever fly through the air in a machine of
their own invention. 1t was almost un-
believable then that a ship built by eX-
perts of the day, could traverse the ocean
to find a new continent. To men of
that day, flying was as unbelievable as
inter-planetary communication, is to
many persons today.
If there were no possibility of such a
thing, however, such experiments as that
planned in New Mexico still would be of
inestimable value to civilization. Not so
far in the future-noW almost an as
sured facts travel in the sub-strato-
sphere that area of rarified air far
above the earths surface There fly
ing machines will be able to generate tre-
mendous speeds over long distances, safe
from the storms to be encountered near
er the earth Linked with the data al
ready gathered by scientists in several
stratosphere ascents, details that might
be learned by such a project as the pro-
posed rocket flight would do much to
advance the cause of sub-stratosphere
travel.
If the rocket ascension fails, other
men will try again. In theory, such an
ascent is possible. Before this, men
have done things thought to be impossi-
BILE. so there is cause to believe that
other men will accomplish things which
are generally believed capable of accom-
plishment.
Those who scott may have to retract
their iibes. 1t is best to watch with an
open mind, and knowledge that man
still is going ahead on new frontiers.
-O-