Issue 1.5, August 1926

“Impossible” Facts, editorial by Hugo Gernsback

A Columbus of Space, chapters 1-8, by Garrett P. Serviss

The Empire of the Ants, by H.G. Wells

The International Electro-Galvanic Undertaking Corporation, by Jacque Morgan

Doctor Ox’s Experiment, by Jules Verne

The Talking Brain, by M.H. Hasta

High Tension, by Albert B. Stuart, M.D.

Station X, chapters 7-14, by G. McLeod Winsor

OUR COVER illustrates an episode in this month’s story, “The Talking Brain,” by M.H. Hasta. Here we see the rash, famous scientist at his wits’ end listening to the live brain, contained in the skull, by means of the Morse code.

Short Stories Really Don’t Need Further Shortening

by K.W. Leslie

If you compare what I’ve posted online, to scans of the original issues, you’ll notice some slight differences. Mostly stylistic—spellings are changed to American spellings, Harvard commas are inserted where appropriate, numbers changed to digits, titles capitalized yet over-capitalization diminished.

And, starting in issue 1.2, Hugo Gernsback started breaking up the stories into smaller sections, and adding headings to them. I’ve removed them, and left the narratives unbroken like their authors intended.

There are good reasons why you’d want to split the stories into sections. The main one is if you’re a casual reader who’s easily distracted. For example, if you’re reading Amazing Stories on the light rail or subway and you have to look up from time to time to check out your surroundings, or maybe get off at your stop, you’re easily going to lose your place. Not everyone is going to think to bring a bookmark with them—or want to dog-ear their magazine’s pages to mark their spot. But break your stories into smaller segments and give each segment a unique title, and people can usually find their place.

In your case, you’re reading Amazing Stories on the internet. You can bookmark the webpage. You can find your spot with a word search. You can just leave the page open at your spot, and pick it up later. You don’t need the continual, unnecessary interruption of Gernsback’s new section titles. If you like that kind of thing… well okay, some do! But many don’t. I don’t. So they’re gone.

I found a copy of Garrett P. Serviss’s A Columbus of Space (1909) on Project Gutenberg, but the version published in Amazing Stories is considerably different. My guess is Gernsback took it from its previous serialization in The All-Story Magazine in January through June 1909. Serviss then published the full novel in September 1909, and obviously edited it before publishing. So you’re reading its first draft. Feel free to check out the version on PG.

Anyway, the title A Columbus of Space is apt; Serviss tells of an inventor who builds an atomic-powered space car to go to Venus, which isn’t insanely hot like real life; they discover a breathable atmosphere and furry natives. And they shoot a few, and boss others around. Nothing remotely as bad as Christopher Columbus; no thieving, murderous genocides here. But they definitely have that white supremacist—well, earthling supremacist—mindset.

“The Empire of the Ants” (1905) is H.G. Wells’s tale of an expedition which discovers superintelligent ants in the Amazon. I still think we could take ’em.

“The International Electro-Galvanic Undertaking Corporation” (1912) brings back Mr. Fosdick, who electroplates a friend. For science.

Doctor Ox’s Experiment (1872) is a Jules Verne novella in which a peaceful Flemish town inexplicably starts acting like rage monkeys. In fact there is an explanation; the newly-arrived Doctor Ox is up to something..

This month’s cover is a spoiler for M.H. Hasta’s horrifying story “The Talking Brain,” first published here. A scientist figures out how to keep a living brain alive, but it’s just torture for the consciousness still in that brain.

“High Tension,” first published here, tells of a mystery-solving physician who stumbles across a murderer with an interesting scientific secret. Author Albert B. Stuart was a physician himself, so… write what you know, I guess.

G. McLeod Winsor’s 1919 novel Station X continues: Now that we’ve established the Venerians are communicating with Earth, and the Martians aren’t to be trusted, whom do you think contacts Station X next?