A FAMILY SKELETON (1885) – This short story was written by one of Balladeer’s Blog’s favorite neglected sci-fi authors – Robert Duncan Milne. This time around, Milne’s tale deals with a French nobleman and his wife, who has proven to be sterile.
Experimental fertility treatments at last result in the wife becoming pregnant. On the day that she gives birth, she and her husband are horrified by the resulting offspring. 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
THE GREAT ELECTRIC DIAPHRAGM – This short story was written by neglected American science fiction pioneer Robert Duncan Milne. It was published in the May 24th, 1879 edition of The Argonaut in San Francisco.
The tale features Milne himself, a reporter and fiction writer, as the narrator. He accompanies his friend – called only “C” in the story – to the San Francisco hilltop mansion of a visiting Prussian scientist referred to as “Baron O.”
Milne and C are greeted by one of the baron’s servants and ushered into a dining room where they are treated to a multi-course meal. Baron O. regales the pair with his advances in the study of weather prediction and at meal’s end offers to show them his latest project involving wireless communication across the entire globe. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
