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October 1952 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Hugo Gernsback had a vivid
imagination, creativity, and foresight. Throughout the many decades he penned editorials
for his magazines and authored many books - both fiction and technical - Mr. Gernsback
made scores of predictions which came to fruition (as well as far fewer which did
not). In 1952 he published an editorial in Radio-Electronics magazine entitled
"Our Electric Universe," wherein he postulated the immense amount of energy impinging
upon the Earth being transformed into useable forms like electricity, heating water
for environment conditioning, directly driving machinery, and other innovative scenarios.
Is it sort of a follow-up on "The Celestial Audion" he wrote in a 1922 issue of
his Radio-News magazine which likened the makeup of the cosmos to a vacuum
tube. In this article, capturing cosmic rays and other forms of extraterrestrial
(galactic) energy is considered a major source to supplement and/or replace petroleum.
At the time, nuclear electricity generation was still in the developmental stages.
The USSR commissioned the
first
nuclear plant in 1954, two years after Gernsback wrote this. The first nuclear
energy plant disaster occurred two years later (not the 1986
Chernobyl meltdown).
Mag Tag: Cosmic ray energy generation
Our Electronic Universe - The heavens are the major producer of
all electrons...
 By Hugo Gernsback
Exactly 30 years ago the writer authored an article entitled "The Celestial Audion"
(Radio News, July, 1922). This article showed the surprising close parallelism of
the vacuum tube with the solar system. Just as the filament or cathode of the vacuum
tube constantly emits electrons which bombard the "empty" space and the elements
in the tube, so the sun, too, emits electrons on a gigantic scale which bombard
the earth, moon, and other planets, through space.
When, due to sunspots or other atomic activity, the flow of solar electrons is
increased, we, on earth, know it about 26 hours later, for it takes this particular
electronic flow - traveling at the rate of 994 miles a second - that length of time
to bridge the 93 million miles separating us from the sun. Magnetic storms on earth,
which disrupt wire and radio communication, the flaming up of the aurora borealis
- the northern lights - are only a few of the phenomena noted by us when solar electronic
activity increases,
Even without a sudden increase of solar electron radiation, we. are under continuous
electronic bombardment from the sun. Nor is this solar energy which the earth intercepts
trifling. Scientists today are certain that most of the magnetic field of the earth
is created chiefly by solar electronic emission.
That the sun is indeed a gigantic radio transmitter was confirmed again in September
1951 and February, 1952. A French scientific expedition on the African River Niger
made a number of significant radio observations during solar eclipses. It was noted
that with a specially constructed wave guide a considerable amount of radio energy
was intercepted on centimeter wavelengths. Nor did the radio energy originate from
the center or the edge of the solar disc. It appears that the radiation comes from
outside the solar surface. As the scientists put it: "the radioelectronic sun's
diameter is 70% larger than the optical sun." It thus appears that the sun's corona
is also a radio emitter.
But our sun is not the only celestial radioelectronic transmitter. There are
hundreds of millions of other stars in the universe and practically all of them
send us similar radio energy. Naturally, due to the enormous intervening distances,
the intercepted energy received on earth is trifling. Nevertheless, our new radio
telescopes, now springing up all over the globe, collect these celestial radio waves
and measure their frequency and energy accurately.
Not all of the myriad suns in the universe are alike. All vary in age, size,
and composition. Thus our sun is a moderate-size star, fairly young - about four
billion years old, and will probably last 50 billion years more according to cosmologists.
Other stars much larger than the sun have a different life cycle. These, called
super-giants, are colossal in size, but when their hydrogen supply becomes exhausted,
the star shrinks, or begins to collapse rapidly. Now it starts to radiate a different
type of electronic energy - hard, powerful X-rays. Finally the super-giant in its
death throes explodes with a force that would make the detonation of a million man-made
atomic bombs, set off together, seem like a harmless firecracker. The exploding
star has now become a supernova, such as we see flaring up in our skies periodically.
Nevertheless, even after such a massive world-explosion. the supernova lives on
a while. According to Prof. Fred Hoyle of Cambridge University, about 10% of the
original star remains after the explosion. At this point the supernova emits the
most powerful rays known to man, namely: cosmic radiation.
Inasmuch as there are many millions of different types of novae throughout the
whole universe, continuously radiating cosmic rays, our earth intercepts unending
streams of this still little understood electronic super-radiation.
Most cosmologists today are agreed that the universe has neither beginning nor
end, startling as the idea is to most of us. Space and universe are one entity you
cannot well conceive one without the other. Even a truly empty space cannot be conceived
as not having existed at one time.
More surprising still is the theory recently advanced by scientists. It is called
continuous creation. This in its simplest terms means that the universe can never
run down - it will live on forever. It has been shown mathematically that the fuel
on which all suns feed is hydrogen - the most abundant material throughout the universe,
which means throughout infinite space. (Let us not forget too, that hydrogen is
composed of one negative electron, and one positive proton.) Far more startling
is that in order to keep all the billions of stars, big and little, supplied with
fuel, it is only necessary to continuously create one single hydrogen atom in a
space as large as a medium skyscraper, once a year. But we must consider the immensity
of universal space to realize how these lone atoms will nevertheless in the aggregate
add up sufficiently to run the universe composed of millions of galaxies and billions
of stars.
But cosmologists are silent when it comes to explaining how the hydrogen atoms
are created continuously. They are no more concerned with this than to explain what
gravitation is or how it is created. They merely say, as does Hoyle: "Where does
the created material come from? It does not come from anywhere. It simply appears
- it is created."
What practical benefit do we derive from the electronic universe? For one thing
we learn many new electronic facts and we greatly enrich our present knowledge.
We learn that electric radiation can be produced directly from the atom - achieved
only as a laboratory curiosity today - but a commercial possibility tomorrow.
It will also be possible in the future to tap the sun for its electrical energy.
This may be difficult to accomplish on earth for some time, due to our atmosphere
which now hinders reception. But on the moon this obstacle vanishes. As it will
not be very long now before we reach the moon, solar-electric generation stations
are certain to be built for power purposes, to smelt lunar metals, for lighting
and heating and many other purposes.
But it is in the cosmic radiation where our greatest hope in the future centers.
These unbelievably powerful rays have such vast energy that they not only pass easily
through our atmosphere but penetrate far into the earth without difficulty. Cosmic
rays have been detected in mines over a mile below the earth's surface. As it takes
around three billion volts for these rays to penetrate to the bottom of our atmosphere,
an idea can be gained of this gigantic radiation. It seems certain that some day
this stupendous energy will be harnessed for man's use. When that happens it may
well revolutionize our lives.
This sketchy account of our electronic universe does not even begin to scratch
the outer film of the subject. Let us ponder that our infinitesimal knowledge of
this fascinating study is less than one hundred years old, and that the local electronic
universe - our own galaxy - according to the latest researches, has been functioning
uninterruptedly for over five billion years!
Posted December 10, 2021
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