Northrup - Zero to Eighty

ZERO TO EIGHTY

BEING MY LIFETIME DOINGS, REFLECTIONS, AND INVENTIONS

ALSO

MY JOURNEY AROUND THE MOON

AKKAD PSEUDOMAN

Afterword by Ron Miller

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

eISBN: 978-1-62579-024-8

Copyright 2013 by Ron Miller

Cover art by: Ron Miller

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

Electronic version by Baen Books

Originally published in 1937

The Ron Miller Science Fiction Classics Collection

PART I: THE CONQUEST OF SPACE

The Archeology of Space Travel

(space travel books from the 18th and early 19th centuries)

The Life and Astonishing Adventures of John Daniel (1751), Ralph Morris, illustrated

Voyage to the Moon (1827), George Tucker

Journeys to the Moon (includes "The Moon Hoax" by Richard Adams Locke, "The Unparalleled Adventures of Hans Pfaall" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Journey...to the newly discovered Planet Georgium Sidus" by "Vivenair", illustrated

Trip to the Moon, Lucian of Samosata

Iter Lunaire (1703), David Russen

A Voyage to Cacklogallinia (1727), "Samuel Brunt"

Gulliver Joi (1851), Elbert Perce, illustrated

The Consolidator (1705), Daniel Defoe

Trips to the Moon

Daybreak (1896), James Cowan, illustrated

The Conquest of the Moon (1889), Andre Laurie, illustrated

Drowsy (1917), J.A. Mitchell, illustrated

The Moon Conquerors (1930), R.H. Roman

A History of a Voyage to the Moon (1864), "Chrysostom Trueman"

The Moon Colony (1937), William Dixon Bell, illustrated by Ron Miller

To the Moon and Back in Ninety Hours (1922), John Young Brown, illustrated

Pioneers of Space (1949), George Adamski

A Christmas Dinner With the Man in the Moon (1880), illustrated

Flights to and from Mars

Doctor Omega (1906), Arnould Goupin (translated by Ron Miller), illustrated

To Mars via the Moon (1911), Mark Wicks, illustrated

A Plunge Into Space (1890), Robert Cromie

A Trip to Mars (1909), Fenton Ash, illustrated

War of the Worlds (includes The Crystal Egg and The Things That Live On Mars), H.G. Wells. Illustrated

Gulliver of Mars (1905), Edwin Arnold

Across the Zodiac (1880), Percy Greg

Journeys to Other Worlds

The Moon-Maker (includes The Man Who Rocked the Earth) (1916), Arthur Train and Robert Wood

A Trip to Venus (includes "Daybreak on the Moon") (1897), John Munro

A Honeymoon in Space (1900), George Griffith, illustrated

The Brick Moon (includes "On Vesta" by K.E. Tsiolkovsky) (1869), E.E. Hale

A Columbus of Space (1894), Garrett Serviss, illustrated

Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (1909), Mark Twain

Zero to Eighty (1937), "Akkad Pseudoman" (E.F. Northrup)

Aleriel (Voice from Another World, 1874 and Letters from the Planets, 1883), W.S. Lach-Szyrma, illustrated

A Journey in Other Worlds (1894), J. J. Astor. Illustrated

Deutsche im Weltall

(Germans in Space)

By Rocket to the Moon (1931), Otto Willi Gail, illustrated

The Shot Into Infinity (1925), Otto Willi Gail, illustrated

The Stone From the Moon (1926), Otto Willi Gail, illustrated

Between Earth and Moon (1930), Otfrid von Hanstein, illustrated

Distant Worlds (1932), Friedrich Mader, illustrated

A Daring Flight to Mars (1931), Max Valier

Space Travel for Junior Space Cadets

Through Space to Mars (1910), "Roy Rockwood" (Howard R. Garis)

Lost on the Moon (1911)), "Roy Rockwood" (Howard R. Garis)

Rocket Riders Across the Ice (1933), Howard R. Garis, illustrated

Rocket Riders in Stormy Seas (1933), Howard R. Garis, illustrated

Rocket Riders in the Air (1934), Howard R. Garis, illustrated

Adrift in the Stratosphere (1937), A.M. Low, illustrated

Jules Verne

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne, translated and edited by Ron Miller. Illustrated

A Journey to the Center of the Earth, translated, annotated and edited by Ron Miller. Illustrated

Off on a Comet!, Jules Verne, edited by Ron Miller, illustrated

From the Earth to the Moon (includes Around the Moon), Jules Verne, translated and edited by Ron Miller. Illustrated

The Purchase of the North Pole, edited by Ron Miller, illustrated

Science Fiction by Gaslight

The End of Books (1884), Octave Uzanne, illustrated by Albert Robida

Under the Sea to the North Pole (1898), Pierre Mael, illustrated

Penguin Island (1908), Anatole France, illustrated by Frank C. Pape

The Crystal City Under the Sea (1896), Andre Laurie, illustrated

The Earth-Tube (1929), Gawain Edwards (G. Edward Pendray)

PART II: FIREBRANDS OF SCIENCE FICTION

Heroines

Three Go Back (1932), J. Leslie Mitchell

The Flying Legion (1920), George Allen England, illustrated

The Island of Captain Sparrow (1928), S. Fowler Wright

Under the Sea to the North Pole (1898), Pierre Mael, illustrated

Fugitive Anne (1904), Rose Praed, illustrated

Lentala of the South Seas (1908), W.C. Morrow

The Girl in the Golden Atom (1923), Ray Cummings

Maza of the Moon (1929), Otis Adelbert Kline

Bad Girls

Atlantida (1920), Pierre Benoit

Out of the Silence (1928), Erle Cox

Swordwomen

The Lost Continent (1900), C.J. Cutcliffe-Hyne

The Legend of Croquemitaine (1874), Ernest L'Epine, illustrated by Gustave Dore

Not Quite Human

The Beetle (1897). Richard Marsh, illustrated

Carmilla (1872), J. Sheridan LeFanu

The Lair of the White Worm (1911), Bram Stoker, illustrated

The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1751), Richard Paltock, illustrated

The Sea Lady (1902), H.G. Wells, illustrated

Angel Island (1914), Inez Haynes Gilmore

The Future Eve (1926), Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, illustrated

The Coming Race (1871), Edward Bulwer-Lytton

ZERO TO EIGHTY

This imaginative story of achievement is gratefully dedicated to Dr. Guilliam Henry Clamer whose vision has brought him a success which he has generously shared with his associates.

PREFACE

IT has been the authors thought in writing this book, first, to familiarize the lay and technical public with the vast possibilities latent in the production of high linear velocities by the use of electrically produced travelling waves of magnetic force; second, to give expression to a long-held conviction that very often a seemingly unattainable achievement may be realized by one who possesses imagination, optimism, fixity of purpose, courage, scientific honesty, and a moderate endowment of intelligenceprovided all these qualities are crowned with unremitting labor.

The reading public is generally more interested in the activities and achievements of individuals than in impersonal matters, however important. For this reason the narrative is presented as the autobiography of a wholly fictitious individual who is born in the year 1920, and who reviews in his eightieth year his lifes career and accomplishments.