Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 124: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

122 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION is, admittedly, an anomalous occur- rence. The phenomenon is not part of the normal-average-common universe of ordinary human talents. One of the most serious errors one can make is to decide that a truly anomalous oc- currence is a mere statistical irregu- larity, and try to treat it as such. Any anomalous performance can be called a statistical irregularity, or statistically unimportant, and ruled out of consideration. Statistically speaking, there is no significant quan- tity of cobalt in the human body— but you'll die of pernicious anemia without the cobalt-based vitamin B-12. Statistically speaking, averaging the total mass of the Earth’s crust, there is no gold—merely a minute statistical irregularity. And Mercury’s orbit was only forty seconds of are per century off the Newtonian predictions. Slight statistical error, possibly— But because physicists don’t work that way, Einsteinian factors were sought out and a-new cosmology appeared. Some individuals have displayed telepathy. But that’s a mere statistical irregularity, of no significance. Ignore it. Pay no attention. You can see it’s statistically insignificant, and besides, all we know of the human mind and the nature of communication shows the idea is nonsense. You wouldn’t want to have to revise all. your thinking about the nature of thought, would you? THE Epiror. 1 TAN NR 4 MODERN STYLE ROCKETS Witty Ley’s account makes it clear that the hand-craftsman style of pro- duction would not make rockets practicable in modern use for any purpose other than entertainment. Too much hand labor, and waiting around for things to dry—too much judgment and experience and skill of the workman required. Pounding the powder home is possible—but it isn’t something for happy little morons to play with. The mass-produced military rockets of today do the job differently. The fuel load in the airplane-carried attack rockets, for instance, is a solid stick of a special plastic material. It may be an injected molded plastic, or a cast material. [t may be four feet long, and have a cross section like a Maltese Cross, or some other complex multilobed shape. Several such plastic rods may be used in one rocket. The rocket chamber is made of steel, and has a more or less conventional rocket throat. The plastic rod is a very special, exceedingly combustible compound, based on a highly nitrated organic compound, of the general family of TNT or picric acid. They can. be made fast, by machine, and don’t require skilled human fabor; they are also quite reliable and thoroughly destructive. CoOnnicloooks com