Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 46 — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION were true it would make our own galaxy the dead centre of the Universe. What a coin- cidence! Shades of Ptolemy! On top of this the latest theories of the age of the Sun conflict so much with the age of the universe as predicted by the expansion theory that it amazes me that anybody would want anything else to do with it. Several alternative theories to account for the red shift have been suggested. I am explaining one to you which may or may not be true. It ties in with cosmic rays, the cosmic ray angle being en- tirely my own original theory. Nobody has yet put forward a theory which adequately explains these particles and their origin; therefore, no theory can be said to be false until another theory is proven otherwise. The universe is so vast and: distances so. tremendous that even light may change on such journeys. It would be strange if it reached us in the same condition as it left its source. The nature of light is still obscure, said to consist of photons, which are classed as electrons with no charge. Whatever light is, it must be matter of some kind, and every light beam reaching us 113 through the depths of space has had to come every mile of the way through all the other paths of light which are on their way from a source to infinity. This must have some effect of friction, however infinitesimal, Does it cause the light to lose some of its energy or to lose some of its momentum ? To say that the speed of light is not constant is enough to give some people apoplexy, but again it is only theory involved, so many people confuse theory with fact. If we postulate, as we are entitled to, that the speed of light is not constant over great distances, then it leads us down many another path of speculation. Cosmic rays, for instance. Can cosmic rays’ have any connection with light? Start with photons. These I visualise as infinitely small particles, a great num- ber of which go to make an electron. When they appear as light they are spaced apart. To make clear what I mean I give an example. A spray of lead grains of about the consistency of castor sugar is hurled at a sheet of half inch plywood at slightly more than the speed of a bullet. On contact it won’t penetrate but only coat itself comiclbooks.corn