Journey to the Fourth Dimension: 1930-1931

If you missed the last one…

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The idea of other dimensions goes back to at least H. G. Wells’s “The Time Machine” but it is in the 1930s that the different ways to use the concept explode. We get machines and journeys to other dimensions, we get monsters from and much more. 1930-1931 is dominated by transcending the barrier and visiting another world. H. P. Lovecraft’s friend, Frank Belknap Long, had experimented with Fourth Dimension Horror, and there will be more small Lovecraftian touches here.

Frank J. Brueckel Jr. wrote a letter for Amazing Stories April 1930 in which he champions Fourth Dimension stories, choosing Clare Winger Harris’s “The Fifth Dimension” (1928) as an exempler. Frank feels an English correspondent who says not much has changed since Wells’s “The Time Machine” is wrong and that there are always good ideas in new stories. He then dissects Harris’s tale to prove this. CWH would later include dimensional tales as one of her Science Fiction themes in her own letter to Wonder Stories, August 1931, her swan song in SF.

“Fourth Dimensional Space Penetrator” (Amazing Stories, January 1930) by Julian Kendig Jr. has Professor Longhorn use the Fourth Dimension to access speed that in turn let’s him and the narrator shrink and enter the solar system of an atom. Really part of the shrinking trope, it has a planet inhabited by friendly humans but the visitors may not return for time is different and millions of years will pass if they come back. They go home with a baby and a dinosaur as a volcano destroys the miniature planet. There will be a sequel in a few years.

“A Matter of Sight” (Weird Tales, January 1930) by August W. Derleth has a man on a train encounter another who is wearing dark glasses. These specs use the fourth dimension to see into the past. The man admits that he saw the Boxer Rebellion in China. He reveals what lies under his glasses–two gaping holes where the Chinese tore out his eyes.

“Phantoms of Reality” (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, January 1930) by Ray Cummings begins with Charles Wilson agreeing to join Derek Mason on a trip to the fourth dimension. They have come to help tip the political scales there. The king must choose between Sensua and Blanca. If he chooses Sensua, there will be revolution. Sensua takes things into her own hands and stabs Blanca to death. The world is torn by strife but all is well when Derek reveals he is the real heir, Prince Alexandre. Nictzin Dyalhis will do something similar in a Fantasy mode in “The Sapphire Goddess” (Weird Tales, February 1934).

“The Red Dimension” (Science Wonder Stories, January 1930) by Ed Earl Repp has two Russian scientists looking int the sixth dimension, known as the Red Dimension, with head gear. They see a jungle filled with weird insectoid creatures. One is more man-like and uses a ray gun to shoot the attackers. The younger scientist, Kherkoff pulls off his helmet and faints. His senior, Korsakoff is dead, his head blasted by a ray beam. Kherkoff is sent to a gulag in Siberia.

“The Ship That Turned Aside” (Amazing Stories, March 1930) by G. Peyton Wertenbaker has a ship cross the dimensions by some mysterious hole in reality. They come out the other side in Paris. This may be one of the first Bermuda Triangle tales. For more on GPW and this story, go here.

“Via the Hewitt Ray” (Science Wonder Quarterly, Spring 1930)  by M. F. Rupert has Lucile follow her father, Professor Hewitt, into the fourth dimension. She is attacked by savages but escapes in a plane. This takes her to an ideal feminist society. This is a culture dominated by women. Men are kept as breeding stock or as neutered sex partners. We learn there are three Evolutionary Groups: the first, the savages that attacked Lucille, the second: the females and a third, aggressive rival males. These enemies have Lucile’s father and want his scientific expertise. The women strike this group, retrieve Professor Hewitt, before the pair return to our dimension. Lucile brings a breeding male with her as a potential romantic partner for she desires true equality, not domination. The author of this story was one of the few women writers of the Gernsback era (along with Leslie F. Stone and Clare Winger Harris). She only wrote this one tale. Francis Stevens wrote of a female society earlier in the soft weeklies with “Friend Island”, All-Story Weekly, September 7, 1918.

“Through the Veil” (Amazing Stories, May 1930) by Leslie F. Stone has Warren visit his old friend, Keller, and they discuss fairies. Warren enters a fairy ring and is transported to the world of the fey. There he learns they evolved from butterflies and that the two worlds are separated by a fourth dimensional barrier. The story is little more than a science fictional explanation of fairies with a sort of apology for Arthur Conan Doyle’s embarrassing The Coming of the Fairies ten years earlier. Keller is a stand-in for Doyle.

“The Voice in the Void” (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Summer 1930) by John W. Campbell has men of the future needing to flee our solar system because the sun is going to go nova. To do this, they use the fourth dimensional tube to create a trans-mat beam to Betelgeuse. The energy beings of that distant planet kill any colonists who cross over. Only when the scientists figure out to how to stop atomic energy from being used can they starve out the locals. Which they do. Again, the fourth dimension is part of another trope, trans-mat technology.

“Murder in the Fourth Dimension” (Amazing Detective Stories, October 1930) by Clark Ashton Smith has James Buckingham invent a device for crossing the dimensions. He leaves an account of this discovery and his murder of Halpin, his rival. Once he transitions to the other side he finds he is trapped near the body of the dead man, waiting for eternity to erase him. very Poe meets H. G. Wells.

“The Fifth-Dimensional Catapult” (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, January 1931) by Murray Leinster is the first of two dimensional tales he wrote. Tommy Reames rushes to Professor Denham’s lab. The scientist has invented a machine that allows him and his daughter, Evelyn, to go to the fifth dimension. The Denhams are stranded when some gizmo burns out. Reames can see them through a fifth dimensional viewer. The fifth dimension offers danger both with grotesque jungle monsters but also a political struggle between the people of a golden city and the cruder Ragged Men. Reames saves the pair by fixing the apparatus and sending tommy gun fire at the Ragged Men. Unfortunately, the gangsters who own that weapon attack the lab and take the equipment. The story will continue in 1933’s “The Fifth Dimensional Tube”.

“The World Without” (Wonder Stories, February 1931) by Benson Herbert starts off with Parling, a mathematician, and Klington, a philosopher, getting together for a demonstration. This is of an ancient rod that allows one to pry apart dimensions. The two men enter a world of chlorine gas (with masks) and giant insects. The world has no horizon, sloping up. Later they realize they are inside a giant monster’s mouth. They flee but Parling is lost in the escape. He will return in a sequel that is more miniaturization than fourth dimension, “The World Within” (Wonder Stories, August 1931).

“Hidden in Glass” (Amazing Stories, April 1931) by Paul Ernst is a locked room Mystery, Science Fiction style. Professor Brainard moves his experiment on the fourth dimension to a rival’s lab after a fire. The experiment is a glass box into which Brainard disappears after his rival is killed. A policeman is also killed. To find the missing scientist, Detective Hardy moves the box, causing Brainard to pop out on fire. The sunlight that struck the box lit him on fire. The professor is hopelessly insane.

“Through the Purple Cloud” (Wonder Stories, May 1931) by Jack Williamson has a plane cross a fourth dimensional barrier before it crashes in a strange red world. George Cleland and Juanita Harvel are two passengers. There is also a criminal who pursues them with his gun. The pair get to know this strange world, dotted with purple crystals. Large red drops form and fall from the sky. When these strike the crystal, they produce a purple gas similar to the barrier they crossed in the plane. The pair jump through a new portal in time to escape their pursuer who seems trapped in the hellscape forever. Trust Jack Williamson to write one of the best visits to the fourth dimension. For more on early Jack Williamson, go here.

“The Light Bender” (Wonder Stories, June 1931) by Frank K. Kelly begins with the scientists Hend and Rall creating an invisibility device (for that trope go here) with which they plan to make the Peace Tower disappear. That structure was raised after devastating wars and contains all the weapons of the Earth. The experiment does not go well. Instead of invisibility, a strange darkness covers the building. The men have allowed creatures from another dimension to cross the barrier. Using the machine causes the curtain between realities to thin. They stop the invasion by having their machine and that of the invaders backfire.

“The City of the Singing Flame” (Wonder Stories, July 1931) by Clark Ashton Smith is considered CAS’s great SF masterpiece. It supposes a strange city where people receive a telepathic command to enter a dimensional portal. You can’t stop yourself from following the signal and entering the singing flame that is the portal. Giles Angarth, fantasy writer, crosses the dimensions at some old stone ruins. He finds he can resist the call of the portal if he blocks his ears. He makes a friend in Ebbonly, who succumbs to the lure. Angarth returns to our world, writes a message then returns through the portal. The story continues in the sequel below.

“Between Dimensions” (Wonder Stories, October 1931) by J. E. Keith has Dahn cross over the dimensions by some strange force that surrounds his friend Roger’s Wisconsn cabin. He goes looking for his friend in this strange, new world. He finds a city that is dominated by living machines. He rescues Roger and they escape the robots. When they return to our world they are chased by an invisible monster. Only decades later does Dahn learn why the crossing took place, a scientist nearby had conducted a physics experiment. I really enjoyed this one. It’s too bad Keith hadn’t written more.

“Beyond of the Singing Flame” (Wonder Stories, November 1931) by Clark Ashton Smith has another writer, Hastane find Angarth’s note and goes to the world of the Singing Flame. Hastane finds the city under siege. The surrounding cities want to destroy the flame as it has taken so many of its citizens. The writer makes friends with two moth-men who carry him to the portal. All three enter the flame to find that it does not kill but transports you to a beautiful pocket universe. He finds Angarth and Ebbonly happily living there. Misfortune is not far behind as the besiegers destroy the flame, causing the people inside the pocket reality to go back to the ruined city. Their paradise has been destroyed forever. These two stories were favorites of author, Harlan Ellison, amongst others.

Conclusion

1930-1931 shows us the same ideas that appeared earlier in the 1920 but with far more action. Where previous scientists only glimpsed other world (like Ed Earl Repp’s “The Red Dimension” here), writers are now taking us to other creepy other worlds. Sure most of them are jungles with dinosaurs or robots, but hey, at least there is some action now. We do see several classics here including Jack Williamson’s “Through the Purple Cloud” and Clark Ashton Smith’s “The City of the Singing Flame”. In the next year we will see the return of Lovecraftian monsters from the fourth dimension as Weird Tales becomes more prevalent once again.

Next time…1932-1933

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