Editor’s Note: Moments in Time is a collection of recovered newspaper briefs and other publications, compiled by local historian, Steve Hathcock, that offer a look back at the history of the Rio Grande Valley and the rest of the world.
TRIP TO MOON ON RAYS OF LIGHT PREDICTED BY PROFESSOR AUGUSTE PICCARD NANCY-FRANCE,
April 28. (AP)- A trip to the moon on rays of light generated by the disintegration of a few pounds of lead was prophecied Saturday by Prof. Auguste Piccard, world famous stratosphere balloonest.
“I am not crazy” the Swiss physicist added. “Rockets are impractical for inter-planetary traveling because they have to carry 20 tons of explosives for the return trip,” Piccard told a lecture audience, “but the disintegration of matter offers immense possibilities.”
Matter dematerialized and transformed into light rays of tremendous energy might permit trips between planets,” he went on to say. “A round trip from the earth to Mercury would require the dematerialization of 100 pounds of lead.”
He failed to explain how this could be accomplished.
“The utilization of light is mathematically possible,” Prof. Piccard said, but he did not elaborate on the theory except to say that it would greatly facilitate the study of the astronomic system.
A stratosphere plane trip from New York to Paris in eight hours at the rate of 500 miles an hour and 20 miles in the air is not far off, he asserted, adding that the trip would be made in the absence of fog and storms and in the greatest security. (Editor’s note: This was originally published in the Brownsville Herald on April 29, 1934.)
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