The Way They Thought of this Future

Prior to the possibility of space flight, we as Americans had only imagined the beautiful, odd or scary creatures that may inhabit the universe beyond the power of our telescopes and science.  The hoax War of the Worlds was an example of this, as well as the reaction by radio audiences everywhere.  I believe there was a scientific spirit, and a burning desire to know whether or not we truly are the only planet here in our galaxy that has the blessing of living organisms.  Are we alone?  This question was apparently entertained quite often in the years following the legendary broadcast that claimed we would be invaded by aliens since the following year (1939) someone would make a prediction about such matters.  This prediction was that "The force of gravity on Mars is one-third of that on the earth and therefore we would seem to be three times stronger.  Ten-foot high jumps, forty-foot long jumps and lifting 300-pound weights would all be possible.  This would be of great advantage if any creatures of Mars attacked us, for we should be the equal of three of them.  And if there were too many of them to fight, we should also be able to run faster than they can" (1).  I get the feeling that this was the result of someone pondering the circumstances of an extraterrestrial invasion, and if we would be able to defend ourselves in such the case.

 I suppose since Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1959, scientists had sought to prove that if evolution could appear here, it was possible elsewhere.  What better place to assume this theory than Mars?  After all, Mars is the closest planet to us but not closer to the sun where it might be a bit TOO hot.  What is the atmosphere like there?  Astronomers and philosophers, various cultures, had long known about the planet, but it was not until telescopic observations had become advanced enough in the 18th and 19th Century that began to fuel this possibility.  British Astronomer William Herschel in 1784 addressed the Royal Society about Mars, declaring that he had observed by his telescope some clouds, and "considerable but modest atmosphere, so that its inhabitants probably enjoy a situation in many respects similar to our own" (2).  Nearly a century later in 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli introduced a map based on observations of the planet that detailed "canali", or canals that were Earth-like.  Later, American astronomer Percivial Lowell would be influenced by his canali and establish an observatory that took the first photographs of Mars that "proved" canali (2).  So if Mars had features that were indeed Earth-like, as what had supposedly been observed by the technology of the time, then there would be evolution!  There should be inhabitants on Mars! Of course, these canals would later be discovered to be an error in observation (as the telescopes at the time were not as advanced), however, that did not stop a flurry of Earthlings imagining life on the planet.

Along with the general consensus of paranoia that plagued the United States throughout the Cold War, "unidentified flying objects" (UFO's) flavored even more so the idea that Martians could indeed invade our planet.  We had yet to make it to space when the Roswell alien invasion had supposedly occurred in the 1940's.  The "Race to Space" was the acceleration of our obsession with not only space, but what also we could do with technology to explore space.  Surprisingly enough, although it took until a few decades later, people were already entertaining the idea of space ship rockets by 1928, when according to Fritz von Opel (a German automaker) there was a scientific possibility to the "construction of man-carrying rockets capable of crossing the millions of miles of outer space and researching planets" (4).  The 1960's saw the Apollo 11 mission to the moon (first man on the moon) as well as the first surface photos of Mars by the Mariner expeditions, which successfully made it to the red planet and gave the people of Earth our first close up observations of its atmosphere (3).  By the late 1970's, we were sending rovers to Mars for additional photos, and today we continue to collect data from the planet's surface by way of rovers such as the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.  Although we do not generally believe anymore in Martian invasions or even probably other life within our galaxy (since we have observed a great deal more with our space missions over the second half of the twentieth-century and first decade of the twenty-first), we are still determined to know what life might exist or has existed on Mars.  We are still obsessed!  We would not have sent as many missions to the planet if we were not still determined to know if the theory of evolution is applicable outside of our own planet.  Now, of course the 1939 prediction of Martian weaklings seems almost completely ridiculous (since science is still discovering the planet, of course), but I chalk it up mainly to the fever that was an after thought caused by the previously mentioned legendary broadcast War of the Worlds, as well as the scientific research (in the field of astronomy) that had been possible up to that point.

References

(1)  Benford, Gregory. "Chapter 6 This Unfinished World." The Wonderful Future That Never Was. New York, NY: Hearst, 2010. 172. Print.

(2)  Plaxco, Jim. "Mars Timeline of Discovery:1800 Thru 1962." Mars Timeline of Discovery. N.p., Dec. 1999. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://www.astrodigital.org/mars/timeline2.html>

(3)  Williams, David R. "The Mariner Missions." The Mariner Missions. NASA, 06 Jan. 2005. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mariner.html>

(4)   Benford, Gregory. "Chapter 6 This Unfinished World." The Wonderful Future That Never Was. New York, NY: Hearst, 2010. 194. Print.

The Way of the Future as They Once Thought of it...

The 1939 World's Fair was filled with many wondrous works of the technological imagination.  On lookers were often encased in class bubbles, or glass walkways to over look "advances" in science.  Model cities were built with the idea that they would soon be constructed by "levels", including the buildings, depending on the purpose that they served.  This included skyscraping walk way; both of these are shown in the first pictures of 1939's 'World of Tomorrow' Shaped our Today (Snyder, John. "1939′s ‘World of Tomorrow’ Shaped Our Today." Wired.com.), as well as in the first chapter of The Wonderful Future That Never Was.  General Motors' Futurama just sounds like a science fictional wonderland with robots and flying cars.  So much progress had been made over the century prior, and America was moving at such a rapid rate, one could only fathom the types of technologies that would be available soon.  To be modern fueled the formation of the mass consumer culture in America.  Making a life at home on the farm was slowly becoming obsolete to many people as the more technology that came to be with a wider variety of professions that were offered to people in the cities.  And progress was not just related to space, plastic and glass seemed exciting and new as well.  Mass production was becoming more and more important, and more common with the use of synthetic materials.  It seemed to be that anything could have been made out this stuff!   Homes could be constructed in a day and filled with mass produced furniture.  Electricity, as pointed out in chapter 2 of he Wonderful Future That Never Was, was an invention that was transforming homes across America.  Appliances would be able to wash clothes and keep food cool.  Artificial lighting and radios were becoming a staple as well.  These discoveries were promising for the future and all anyone had to do was dream it, and that would be the future of technology.  With the way things were going, who could say no to a future where cars flew, or robots trimmed your hair, styled your make up or whatever else might make life a tad bit better.  The video "All's Fair at the Fair" is a peek into how people of the 1930's were imagining possibilities of the future.  Only a handful of actual people were present throughout the video, and the rest was dominated by robots that had personalities of their own.  There was no need to hire someone to pay the piano, when you could make from patrons sliding a nickle or so into a robot to do the job.  Technological innovations would hopefully become cheaper and more widely accessible by 2000 A.D. 

As for the broadcast that made history on Halloween 1938, The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles, it was a piece of science fiction presented as fact.  The actors did announce, I believe twice, that it was an entertainment piece derived from the 1898 H.G.  Wells novel.  However, to the average person, family, or gathering that naturally tuned into the radio in those days, you might not have tuned in at the right time to catch this disclaimer.  The play sounded exactly as a normal radio news broadcast in the day, so an unknowing listener would take it just as serious a real one.  Also, Welles uses a great deal of scientific terms in the broadcast, and speaks with a few "professors" from well known and respected universities, such as the Natural Science Museum Astronomical Division's "Dr. Grey", who supposedly records an earth quake, or Mr. Richard Pierson, an astronomer reporting from the Princeton Observatory.  They discuss the distance of Mars from earth (40,000,000 miles), a description of the planet, and what has been observed via the telescopes there, including "explosions". Taking the same individuals (the commentator Carl Phillips, and Mr Pierson) out to the sight of the "invasion" of the Martians to speak with other individuals and discuss further scientific occurrences, such as heat rays, make the radio broadcast that much more believable.  They just sound so professional that in today's world, I would be jumping on the computer or turning on the television to confirm truth in the matter.  The fact is, though, that people did not have other means of communication in the day and I could easily see how this whole broadcast could have fooled them and caused panic.  The broadcast uses real locations, as well as what sounded like credible professors using prominent school names, and used scientific terms to describe what was going on.  Anyone could easily believe this is fact.  In my opinion, the broadcast really shows the generation's fascination with science fiction at the time and what people thought could be possible at the time.

 

So the Hoax Continues...

Last week I decided to make the trip to the state fair in Oklahoma City on Friday.  In spite of the gloominess, we not only ventured into my typical shopping spaces, but my boyfriend and I decided to see what else the fair had to offer.  Walking through the gaming portion of the fair (I should have known), I heard over a loud speaker the voice of a man announcing the arrival of the world's most famous modern oddities.  My  boyfriend rolled his eyes, but I figured it might be worth seeing since the weather had kept the rest of the fair from being any kind of interesting.  Of course once I paid my two dollars and made my way inside, I noticed instantly that the majority of the "oddities" were easily identified as paper machet or wood and poorly painted.  I mean, come on!  If you are going to claim this stuff is real, the least they could do was give the damn things a descent paint job.  I was quickly losing interest until I caught the above image from the corner of my eye.  Lo and behold, it was the FEEJEE ISLAND MERMAID!  My boyfriend laughed at me, and almost seemed disgusted when he noticed I was taking pictures of the thing.  "You're retarded, that is so fake", he said.  So then I had to explain to him the history behind the Fiji Island Mermaid and how it is said that when the hoax originally had taken hold, they used the Japanese technique of sewing a fish tail to a monkey body and tried to pass it off as a beautiful mermaid.  He still had little interest but I, of course, took delight in the fact that I actually knew the story behind the oddity, and find it quite hilarious that the thing still circulates in our own hoax culture today.  I suppose we still have an interest in items too good to be true but insist on paying $2 to see whether it's actually real or not.  Really, we know this stuff is not authentic, but it still bugs the imagination and piques interest.  Just thought I should share this! :)

Barney and Friends

Barney and Friends

 

 

As what has previously been discussed, the 19th Century was a very exciting time in science.  I just feel as though there were so many leaps forward in all areas of science, whether it be astronomy, biology or paleontology.  Part of these leaps though, like in any period of experimentation, were some pretty inaccurate or darn right silly assumptions and theories.  Today we have such incredible technology, and are far more educated and sophisticated in science that it is difficult to imagine why or how individuals could have thought otherwise about this stuff.  A place like the Crystal Palace came to be to put into perspective the discoveries of the time for enjoyment of the public.  I feel like art, as with certain stories like the Moon Series, were less concerned with factual information and honest detail than they were concerned with capitalizing on these areas of science to feed the imagination and draw more attention.  This was probably easy to do at the time, especially since the general population knew very little or had little access or care for the details.  An artist could paint dinosaurs in whatever shapes and colors they wished because people at the time did not have anything else to compare it to.  Elaborate stories were easily made entertaining since they could only use their imagination to understand new scientific concepts.  I feel another contributing factor to the public's view of dinosaurs was probably linked to the religious barrier that science often faced, as well as resistance to a pretty controversial issue at the time that would be known as Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, the evolution theory, as was pointed out in Wrongosaurus.  The artist was not concerned especially with the scientific detail, but instead with somewhat modernizing the idea of these creatures and probably hinting that these were in fact God's creatures.  Perhaps this is why the dinos of Crystal Palace were quite different than what we would come to know today.  Essentially, I believe capitalizing on the unkown frontier, however, was an easy and probably popular game many artists and writers of the time were playing.  As for my first encounter with Dinosaurs, I am pretty sure it may have started with America's beloved childhood purple dinosaur, Barney!  For as long as I can remember, I held onto my stuffed purple friend and sang-a-long with the infamous but outrageously annoying tune that stirred the hearts and minds of so many children of the early 90's.  I still feel the need to defend him when he is made the object of discrimination (ok, maybe not really, I am in my mid-twenties here...I DO NOT love Barney anymore, I just consider it to be nostalgia in terms of my childhood).  Anyway, having grown up in the California public school system, I remember having studied dinosaurs and although I cannot tell you what grade I was in, or what the teacher taught aside from their extinction, I do remember my class learning how to make a fairly large dinosaur out of paper machet patched onto some type of wire that had been preshaped.  As with so many others, I find the pursuit of dinosaurs quite meaningless today since it cannot help me in my every day life, and I am too old to believe that they walked, talked, and hugged each other.  Now how did the image of the dinosaurs in the lives of children become so important, when in fact the first pieces of art representing a child's encounter with dinosaurs suggested they should be afraid of them?  I think dinosaurs are just so far fetched in terms of our imaginations that it is easy to fabricate stories of them.  They lived millions of years ago and the closest creatures we can consider to relate to them today are birds and maybe crocodiles.  Popular culture art, even today, has had a habit of turning into entertainment things that we do not or cannot understand.  We can learn about these animals and look at what we believe to be pictures of them, but none such creatures have existed in our human history really, so we can create these childish fantasies because we have nothing else to go on (I guess that means we do still relate to people of the 19th Century in some ways).  And who is the easiest target to introduce these kinds of stories and fantasies to?  Young, impressionable children!  Maybe in the end it may have set out to make children more interested in science as well.



Franklin and His Friends Exibition: David Rittenhouse

David Rittenhouse (1732-1796)

 

Post American Revolution, the United States was determined to exercise the minds of their best and brightest individuals.  American scientists were not limited in their creative power, much as what European philosophers had previously been as a result of religious authourity.  The country was a free nation, which meant freedom from religion and freedom to think, freedom to explore, even without the luxury of all of the best and newest tools created by the Europeans.  A 1792 coin that was to be put into circulation (ultimately deemed too heavy, however), inscribed the words "Parent of Science and Indust: Liberty".  This reflected the nation's idea that it was determined to be the leader of science and industry.

 

Of this fascinating time in American History came the brilliant David Rittenhouse.  He was an American astronomer who was often compared to the the likes of the revered European philosopher, Isaac Newton.  Rittenhouse served as President of the American Philosophical Society, succeeding the successful Benjamin Franklin, and would later be succeeded by American President Thomas Jefferson.  Rittenhouse's clothing depicted in two of his paintings seen in the exhibition mirror a similar banyan that Franklin himself wore in a portait.  This particular painting is believed to have been completed postmortem in memory of Rittenhouse and it is suggested that this represents the connection of the brilliant minds of the gentlemen. 

 

The telescope depicted in the portrait signifies the important work Rittenhouse did in terms of building his own telescopes, and probably as to his inclination towards astronomy.  His papers and maps laid before him in the picture are more than likely the representation of his zeal for comets, and/or a diagram of the solar system he so loved to study. 

 

David Rittenhouse appears to have been the poster child for American scientific studies.  He proved that a college education was not necessary to become successful or well respected in the eyes of the scientific community at that time.  After all, America was not concerned with formal education as much as it was concerned with its passion for paving the way to achievements they could call their own.