Art by Howard V. Brown

Journey to the Fourth Dimension: 1934-1939

Art by M. D. Jackson (of course)

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The early 1930s continues to use the idea of the Fourth Dimension in various ways. More and more often we see the dimensional elements linked to other ideas such as space travel or time travel. The dimensions are used to prop up what is really another kind of story. There are still more traditional gateways on Earth type stories. What explorers find on the other side ranges from counter Earths to jungles filled with man-eating trees.

1934

Art by Lumen Winter

“To-day’s Yesterday” (Wonder Stories, January 1934) by Rice Ray (Russell Blaiklock) has a time/dimensional anomaly on a movie set that can send you to another dimension. Wilson goes to the other realm and get eaten by a tree.

Art by Leo Morey

“Cat’s Eye” (Amazing Stories, April 1934) by Harl Vincent has a cat’s eye jewel that can take you to the fifth dimension where an Earth-like world exists under a gloomy, stationary sun. The locals are hostile, of course.

Art by Howard V. Brown

“The Blinding Shadows” (Astounding Stories, May 1934) by Donald Wandrei has a section of New York cordoned off because it is inhabited by creatures from the fourth dimension called “Blinding Shadows” though they look like giant, glowing bricks. The invaders came when Professor Dowdson and his assistant did experiments to prove a dimensional theory. Dowdson gets eaten and the Earthmen are helpless to stop the invaders. The story was influenced by Wandrei’s friend, H. P. Lovecraft.

“From Beyond” (The Fantasy Fan, June 1934) by H. P. Lovecraft (reprinted in Weird Tales, February 1938) has a scientist, Crawford Tillinghast, create a bridge between dimensions, has his servants devoured by inter-dimensional beings and dies with a melted brain. Lovecraft influenced several SF writers including Donald Wandrei (above), Henry Kuttner (below), Francis Flagg and Clifford D. Simak.

Art by Leo Morey

“The Fourth-Dimensional Auto-Parker” (Amazing Stories, July 1934) by Bob Olsen gives us the inventor, Thoroughgood, who creates a way to park cars in the fourth dimension. He tries to sell the idea to a marketer but the machine fails.

Art by H. R. Hammond

“Dust of the Gods” (Weird Tales, August 1934) by C. L. Moore is a Northwest Smith adventure with Smith and Yarol the Martian hired to find the dust of the god Pharol. What they find is a tridimensional being that looks like blackness within shadow. The two defeat it by exposing it to light. They find the dust but decide to destroy it rather than give it to their employer.

Art by Elliott Dold Jr.

“Dimension of the Conquered” (Astounding Stories, October 1934) by R. F. Starzl has George P. Simeon invent a machine that can talk to a fourth dimensional version of Earth. The intelligent rulers want to know about weapons so they can defend themselves from the submen who attack them. When Simeon gets the device to show an image, the intelligent ones prove to be giant wasps and the submen are prehistoric humans. The scientist’s associates over-rule him, don’t help the wasps, destroy the machine and throw Simeon into an asylum.

1935

Art by Howard V. Brown

Art by Elliott Dold Jr.

“Star Ship Invincible” (Astounding Stories, January 1935) by Frank K. Kelly has a dimensional portal in space called The Hole. The Star Ship Invincible is rigged with new dimensional devices but fails to navigate the dangers. The ship is sucked in but Captain Moran and Lt. Hansen escape in a dimensional capsule and manage to land on Jupiter. Today, a dimensional rift in space would be replaced by a wormhole or black hole or the classic “spatial anomaly”.

Art by Leo Morey

“The Body Pirate” (Amazing Stories, March 1935) by Ed Earl Repp has surgery using the fifth dimension. The plot is a bran-transfer tale, where the repulsive Dr. Lape plans to take the body of Herbert Strong so he can marry Dot Haversham. The operation fails when Strong wakes too early from the drugs and Lape dies. Lape has left all his wealth to Strong (since he would be assuming that body).

Art by Wallace Saaty

“Death From Within” (Wonder Stories, June 1935) by Sterling S. Cramer has two Americans investigating mysterious deaths on a Caribbean island. The bodies are untouched on the outside but cut up on the inside. The culprit proves to be a vivisectionist from the fourth dimension. The Americans are powerless to stop the intrusion, with one of them getting diced up in the process.

Art by Elliott Dold Jr.

“The Plane Compass” (Astounding Stories, June 1935) by Harl Vincent has another girl friend-stealing older scientist in Hannishaw. He plans to steal the research of the younger Bill Sherwood and his gal, Cora. Sherwood’s new knowledge is around dimensions in a multiverse of dimensions. The older man plans to trap Bill in another dimension but Cora flips the script and save herself and her beau. Hannishaw is killed in an accident. Will these research scientists never learn?

Art by M. Marchioni

“The Far Way” (Astounding Stories, July 1935) by David R. Daniels has Bill Stuart, a man who jumps through time. This is because of something hinky in the fourth dimension because of the sixth dimension. What it means for Bill is he can disappear at any time then reappear years later. On one of his jumps he falls in love with Queen Eryl and they marry. But he jumps away, again and again until he is on a dying Earth where the air is almost used up. Before he dies, Queen Eryl appears, thanks to a scientist in the far future, so they can die together.

Art by M. Marchioni

“The Man With the Fourth Dimensional Eyes” (Wonder Stories, August 1935) by Leslie F. Stone has blind scientist, Professor Gayle, create a way to go through hyperspace to the fourth dimension. He sends a rabbit, then asks his millionaire buddy, Fellows, to send him. Gayle’s blind eyes can see into the fourth dimension, which is much better than ours. Gayle goes to meet the furry woman he has fallen in love with.

Art by Elliott Dold Jr.

“The Blue Infinity” (Astounding Stories, September 1935) by John Russell Fearn has a wandering sun pass the Earth safely but it damages the corona so that random hot spots will eventually kill everything. The scientist John Morgan finds a solution through Miss Eunice Banks. Her father has created a machine that can transfer the planet to another star. He never told anyone because he didn’t want to be ridiculed. The Earth is transported to Alpha Centauri but something goes wrong. One of the gravity triplers fails because of shoddy work. The planet goes through a dimensional portal to another blue sun and everyone survives. Eunice gets a statue but has a disappointing love life. E. F. Bleiler calls the story ‘rubbishy” but points out it has one of the first important female scientists in SF.

Art by Frank R. Paul

“The World of Mist” (Wonder Stories, September October 1935) by Laurence Manning has three rich men build a spaceship so they can look for neutronium in outer space. With this dust they create a ring that acts as a dimensional gate. They decide to not go through but when their ship is about to crash on Earth, they go into the other dimension. Everything is reversed, with solids being gases and gases being solid. This creates the pink mist of the title. They are in danger from the neutronium, which is eating the ship’s hull, so they fly back through the gate, which is now a volcano on earth. Two of three men survive. Like “Star Ship Invincible”, Manning ties the dimensional travel to space travel. There was to be a sequel but it never appeared.

1936

Artist unknown

“The Cosmo-Trap” (Astounding Stories, April 1936) by D. L. James has the hermit scientist, Voorland, create a machine that produces a true vacuum. This in turn cuts a tunnel between our dimension and another. Voorland and the narrator, Mac, venture into this world where inanimate material is alive, like a rock that sprouts legs. The two men flee back to our world when things get hostile. Voorland is pulled back into the other dimension and the machine is broken. It is up to Mac to fix the machine and rescue him.

1937

Art by Virgil Finlay

“World of the Dark Dwellers” (Weird Tales, August 1937) by Edmond Hamilton has Eric North transcend from our world through the dimensions to another with a machine, where he is the long-foretold redeemer. Plant monsters and dinosaurs, oh my!  For more on this story, go here.

1939

Art by Frank R. Paul

“The Invaders” (Strange Stories, February 1939) by Keith Hammond (Henry Kuttner) combines SF and Lovecraft with Michael Hayward opening a dimension through which terrible things emerge as well as time traveling to the distant past. Kuttner makes reference to Ludvig Prinn’s Vermis Mysteriis (from Robert Bloch) as well as his own Vorvadoss of Bel-Yarnak, The Troubler of the Sands. A clear Cthulhu Mythos tale.

Conclusion

By the late 1930s, the idea of “the fourth dimension” had run its course in the SF magazines. The concept has become the province of the Horror publications like Weird Tales and Strange Stories. Readers of these magazines were perhaps a little less concerned with mathematics and pure Science than they were about a good scare. They didn’t really care if there was a fourth or fifth or even sixth dimension as long as a good squidgy could come from there and eat people. The writers of the Cosmic Horror school, following H. P. Lovecraft, found the idea of gates between dimensions good for monster stories.

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