JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

I was very curious about the cover illustration for the Hugo Gernsback sci fi story, “Ralph 129 C 41 +”, in Modern Electrics for December 1911 (volume 4 #9).  “129 C 41 +” was the name of a scientist who was working on the discovery by another “famous scientist” named “1246 41”–it seems that they were all involved in looking for a particular “space flyer” (first discovered by “famous scientist” 96929 in the year 2210), but then there was a kidnapped woman involved and talk of an anti-graviton antigravity engine of some sort, and then the whole thing gets a little misty. (It looks like those semi-sphere around the perimeter of the pace ship were the anti-gravity devices.)  All I really want to do here is share the cover, which I think is the best part of the story. Modern Electrics isn’t that familiar a magazine to me, but there seems to be plenty of real stuff in it, not the least of which is a pretty good article on the Bleriot flyer just a few pages after the Gernsback.  

The entire issue is available at Hathi Trust.