Henry More was a Platonist philosopher at Cambridge. Inspired by Keplers’ work of “ancient science fiction” titled Somnium More wrote a poem titled Insomnium Philosophicum which was published in 1647.
In this work More depicted his astral body departing his physical form to fly into space, rowing “with mine own arms in liquid sky” for fans of the cult movie of that name. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
THE AUTOMATIC MAID-OF-ALL-WORK. A POSSIBLE TALE OF THE NEAR FUTURE (1893) – Written by female author M.L. Campbell. Obviously, I shortened the title for my blog post headline. Balladeer’s Blog’s look at “ancient” science fiction continues with this 1893 robot story.
Well-to-do John Matheson and his wife are having a hard time keeping a maid. To satisfy his hard to please wife, the inventor works away in his laboratory/ workshop to perfect his new idea: a mechanized “Maid-Of-All-Work” hoping this will solve the domestic staff issue. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
THE STEAM MAN OF THE PRAIRIES (1868) – Written by Edward Sylvester Ellis. Before the Frank Reade stories came this work that is often hailed as the first Dime Novel with a science fiction theme.
Ellis seems to have been inspired by the REAL and well-known Newark Steam Man built by Zadoc P. Dederick in January of 1868. That Steam Man was built strictly to pull carts and wagonloads up and down the street. Its human appearance was just a novelty.
Back to Ellis’ novel: In Saint Louis lives Johnny Brainerd, a 15 year old dwarf with a hunchback, who has a brilliant mind in his misshapen body. After a long line of somewhat modest inventions Johnny constructs a human-shaped Steam Man that stands 9 feet tall. It has long legs with spiked feet, has the boilers in its chest, the firepot in its stomach and lets excess steam vent from its hat. (Dederick’s Newark Steam Man also wore a top hat.) The creation’s nose serves as its whistle, like on a tea kettle. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction, FRONTIERADO
THE DEATH-TRAP (1908) – Written by George Daulton, this story was published in the March, 1908 issue of Pearson’s Magazine. It’s once again Ancient Creature Feature time with this story about a monster from Lake Michigan which sometimes enters the Chicago sewer system to prey on unsuspecting denizens of the Windy City.
The tale’s unnamed main character leaves his Chicago gentleman’s club at 2 in the morning after a night of drinking, card-playing and cigar smoking. He refrains from taking a horse-drawn cab since he feels that walking will do him good.
He comes to regret that decision when, on a poorly-lit street, he sees a drunken sailor get dragged down into the sewer and devoured by a slimy, half-glimpsed creature. Our hero flees for his life and doesn’t stop running until he’s reached one of Chicago’s bridges.
It is there that he encounters Hood, an eccentric but courageous Chicagoan who had his own encounter with the sewer monster weeks earlier and has been looking for it every night since. Hood spotted our main character’s headlong flight and figured he had just found another witness to the creature’s existence.
The pair decide against trying to convince the authorities about what they saw and plan to kill the beast themselves. Kolchak should have been so sensible. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
TO THE MOON & BACK IN NINETY DAYS (1917) – By John Y. Brown. Balladeer’s Blog presents more Ancient Science Fiction (or Vintage Science Fiction if you prefer). This story was first penned in 1917 and later published by the Lunar Publishing Company in 1922.
Brown himself pretended to narrate the adventure, which hewed so closely to what was known about the moon back then that it must have both educated and entertained readers. The story says that in 1914 our narrator met Captain Horace Ewald, a brilliant nautical engineer and scientist in Alton, IL.
Captain Ewald invited Brown along on his planned expedition to the moon in what he dubbed his “Ethereal Vessel” but which we would call a spaceship. The craft was 235 feet tall with the shape of a dome fused to prisms. Ewald and his team constructed the Ethereal Vessel out of aluminum plating and used electric batteries to power the anti-gravity pods. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
THE PEOPLE OF THE MOON (1895) – Written by Tremlett Carter. An unnamed narrator, a scientist of some sort, sees a glowing 18 inch object floating in the sky. A bird who makes physical contact with the glowing orb is killed by the object’s electric charge.
Our narrator jury-rigs a means of grounding against the electricity and hauling the orb down to his laboratory. The object slowly reaches room temperature and ejects from its interior a book written in an unearthly alphabet.
The anonymous narrator’s friend Professor Hector Goss visits him in the midst of all this and excitedly tells our protagonist about a secret society that he belongs to. Goss and his fellow society members have been performing scientific research by directing the astral/ spiritual bodies of hypnotized human guinea pigs.
Before dying, their most recent test subject visited the moon in his astral body and saw a city on the dark side of Earth’s satellite. He also spotted life – humanoid AND dragon life. Professor Goss jumps to the conclusion that the unearthly book that Nameless Narrator holds came from the moon.
Conveniently, Nameless and Goss had previously devised a fool-proof system of deciphering any and all languages so they translate the mysterious book and learn all about the beings on the moon.
The moon’s interior is a network of labyrinthine caverns lit by glowing materials. These vast underground caverns contain water, plant, animal and humanoid life. The humanoids – who do not need to breathe – are intelligent and are called Saravas. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
THE ABLEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1879) – This short story was written by American author Edward Page Mitchell. The central figure – but not the title figure – is a wealthy bespectacled man named Fisher. Because of his scholarly appearance Fisher is mistakenly addressed as “doctor” and “professor” while staying at a spa in Baden, Germany.
That misunderstanding results in the spa staff rushing Fisher to the room of Russian Baron Savitch when his personal physician is unavailable at the moment. Savitch is a rising VIP in the Tsar’s court and the staff members are frantic to help him.
The roguish Fisher stops trying to deny being a doctor and just tries some common sense first aid to try curing Baron Savitch’s sudden illness. A glass of bourbon makes the Baron feel much better for a time.
Presently, Savitch begins to feel worse, complaining of intense pain in his head. He begs Fisher to remove the black silk skullcap on his head and beneath it Fisher discovers a silver plate. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
MR. GHIM’S DREAM (1878) – This anonymous work is set in the autumn of 1877. Mr. Ghim is a poor American who dreams of ending the “current” unemployment crisis through a massive construction project that will employ thousands. Ghim tries to enlist some of the most well-known tycoons of his day – William Vanderbilt, Robert Roosevelt, Jay Gould and others – in his scheme.
Ghim envisions the construction of first one, then many more gigantic vessels which we would today call cruise ships, except his designs make them more like floating islands. Our narrator feels that not only would the construction of these massive ships employ countless numbers of laborers but would serve as an entire industry for the investors since these vessels might attract millions of passengers who want to travel across the Atlantic Ocean (or elsewhere) in just seven days. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
Two more Robert Duncan Milne short stories. This pair features his recurring character Philip Hall.
PHILIP HALL’S AIR SHIP – This tale was first published in the October 11th 1879 edition of The Argonaut. Inventor Philip Hall has constructed a steam-powered flying machine that also uses controlled explosions from compressed cartridges.
The vessel is part helicopter and part airplane. Vertical takeoff and landing are achieved via sixteen propellers that operate separately on a central shaft. Additional propellers positioned horizontally allow for forward motion through the air.
The aircraft is boat-like in design, but with enclosed decks. Hall’s first trial flight ends in disaster but after some slight redesigns the second flight goes smoothly. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
Here is a work of “ancient” science fiction which features pollution-free technology and the elimination of racial tensions by centuries of intermarriage among the races. Plus more.
ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE INTERIOR OF NEW HOLLAND (1837) – Written by multiple parties, with Lady Mary Fox, Richard Whateley and Lord Holland the likeliest authors. “New Holland” was an old name for Australia. In 1860 the novel was reissued under the title preface The Southlanders.
The story centers around an expedition that travels hundreds of miles into the interior of Australia, where the off-course explorers find a fictional chain of lakes and rivers with a Lost Civilization founded by English Dissenters during the Protestant Reformation.
This Lost Civilization is called Southland by its mixed-race inhabitants. The major language is English as it was in the 1500s when Southland was established, so some words and expressions differ from the English spoken by our expedition members. Otherwise, they can communicate with each other just fine.
Southland boasts a population of roughly four million and is divided into eleven distinct regions which, though under one overall parliamentary government, enjoy a large amount of internal sovereignty. Some regions are republics and others live under a hereditary monarchy. In several of the republics, however, their chief executive figure is still called a king despite being elected.
The citizens are nearly all mixed-race now after three centuries of intermarrying among the white population and the aborigines. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
Balladeer's Blog 