ARTHUR C CLARKES ORIGINAL 1945 ARTICLE, WIRELESS WORLD Geostationary Satellite Comms / Extra Terrestial Relays Start Price USD 345.00 Current Price USD 345.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, July 19, 2008 End Time Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Location TUNBRIDGE WELLS, See more about 'ARTHUR C CLARKES ORIGINAL 1945 ARTICLE, WIRELESS WORLD' Description     Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?     EXTREMELY SCARCE 'MUSEUM CONDITION' COMPLETE & ORIGINAL EXAMPLE OF THE INFAMOUS WIRELESS WORLD ISSUE FROM OCTOBER 1945 (Vol. LI. No 10)   FEATURING THE VERY FIRST ARTICLE -   THE MANUSCRIPT WHICH STARTED IT ALL!     ARTHUR C CLARKE'S   ORIGINAL   1945   PROPOSAL   FOR   Geostationary Satellite   Communications     .::::*::::..::::*::::.     NOBODY BELIEVED HIM   BUT LOOK AT US NOW!     .::::*::::..::::*::::.   WHAT AN EXTRA-ORDINARY FIND! SOMETHING TRULY OUT OF THIS WORLD! .::::*::::..::::*::::.   *TO HELP EXPOSURE I MAY CHANGE/SWITCH CATEGORIES ONE COMPLETE MAGAZINE ONLY OFFERED IN AUCTION A SUPREME ORIGINAL EXAMPLE IN VGC   This is one of three extremely hard-to-find original issues of Wireless World from 1945 associated to Arthur C Clarke's remarkable prediction. I have listed separately an original copy of the 'February 1945' magazine, ARTHUR C CLARKE'S ORIGINAL 1945 LETTER, WIRELESS WORLD  V2 for Ionosphere Research? Artificial Satellites? VGC.  ... as well as an original copy of 'December 1945' which includes a short letter which completely pooh-poohs ACC's quite astonishing foresight! I quote: Telepathy or Radio-Telepathy? What is Wireless World up to? " Telepathy" and "astral phenomena"! What next? Presumably, we shall soon be reading serious attempts to explain "what the stars foretell" in terms of some ultra-electronic energy. It is to be hoped a serious periodical will not lend scientific colour to such beliefs. But granting there is good evidence for telepathy: it is the height of fantasy to look to radio for the explanation. No doubt there are still mechanists who would say "thought" is an "electronic phenomenon," though they would probably think it a little far-fetched to talk of ideas being "radiated." We had better stick to things concrete, and cease joining the hopeful behaviourists who devote their days to finding the explanation for what they think in "brain currents."   .::::*::::..::::*::::.   The 1945 Proposal by Arthur C. Clarke for Geostationary Satellite Communications   Sir Arthur C. Clarke's most famous prediction on the future was his proposal of geostationary satellite communications published in the Wireless World magazine in October 1945. Not considered seriously at the time it became a reality within 20 years with the launching on 1965 April 6th of Intelsat I Early Bird the first commercial geostationary communication satellite marking the true beginning of satellite tv. A satellite in an equatorial circular orbit at a distance of approximately 42,164 km from the center of the Earth, i.e., approximately 35,787 km (22,237 miles) above mean sea level has a period equal to the Earth's rotation on its axis (Sidereal Day=23h56m) and would remain geostationary over the same point on the Earth's equator. In 2002 the Clarke Orbit had over 300 satellites. The first reference to geostationary satellites is Clarke's letter to the editor titled Peacetime Uses for V2 published in the 1945 February issue of Wireless World (page 58). I will also be listing separately an original copy of this 'February 1945' magazine, as well as an original copy of 'December 1945' which includes a short letter which completely pooh-poohs ACC's amazing foresight! Arthur Clarke in his Scientific Autobiography Ascent to Orbit published 1984 admits that he had forgotten about this letter till he was reminded of it in 1968 by the engineering staff of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. He subsequently acknowledged it as his best ever work.  You might like to also look at the copy edited OCR text of Page 58 of the February 1945 issue of Wireless World in HTML (*NB, pictured below, though not included in auction - a copy of this magazine has been listed separately). ARTHUR C CLARKE'S ORIGINAL 1945 LETTER, WIRELESS WORLD  V2 for Ionosphere Research? Artificial Satellites? VGC.  Following the groundbreaking and historic entry above, Clarke privately circulated a proposal titled The Space-Station: Its Radio Applications in six typed manuscripts. The top copy of that is now in the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. It was reprinted in Spaceflight, Vol 10. no 3, March 1968 pp 85-86 and in Ascent to Orbit pp 57-58. In Ascent to Orbit Clarke says the paper with original title The Future of World Communications was written in late June and submitted to the RAF censor on July 7th. It was sent to Wireless World on August 13th 1945 and accepted on September 1st. The editor had changed title to Extra-Terrestrial Relays and published it in the 1945 October issue of Wireless World (pages 305-308)... Yes, this is the very magazine on offer, and you might care to look at the copy edited OCR text in HTML.     The 1945 Wireless World Magazines See history of the Wireless World magazine (1913-1983) since it's beginnings in 1911 as The Marconigraph. From 1925 it was published by Iliffe and sons, Ltd., Dorset House, Stamford Street, London S. E. 1. with H. F. Smith as editor fom 1941 to 1957. 1945 the 34th year of publication had 12 monthly issues (18.5x24.5 cm) Volume LI with a total of 388 text pages numbered from January to December. Each issue also has exactly the same number (32) of pages of advertisements (some regulation ?) which were on separate sheets and independently numbered. The 1945 magazines with the famous proposal by Arthur Clarke on Geostationary Satellite Communications. The interest in radio in general increased enormously during WW2 because of the thousands of telegraphists, service engineers etc. trained up into the Armed Services. In 1945, returning to civilian life, they gave the radio/radar/television industries excellent personnel to develop and exploit the vast technical strides made during the war... although amateur radio was of course 'off the air' in the UK during the war years! Original unbound copies of the magazine are very rare since sadly most would have been discarded as the technology became dated, and most Library copies are probably bound, some with the covers removed and the advertisment pages moved to the back. Some suggest that this magazine might even be more scarce than the First Edition of Clarke's Childhoods End which can make fortunes (indeed one sold on eBay for nearly £4000) and, although I will consider offers, I have priced it realistically.    NOT EVERYONE CAN AFFORD AN ORIGINAL LIKE THIS!   Cosmetic condition is extremely good for a 1940s magazine No foxing, no tears, no scuffs One fold top right cover No creases, no age marks, minimal yellowing No rusting at the staples, with the slightest wear to spine No exposure to light No annotions of any kind Very strong graphics   THE CONDITION IS GUARANTEED   The article itself is likely to be as good as any in existence, a perfect museum copy... a wonderful find for the most discerning of collectors....   AN UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY!    I PLAN ALSO TO LIST WIRELESS WORLD FEBRUARY 1945 ARTHUR C CLARKE'S ORIGINAL 1945 LETTER, WIRELESS WORLD  WIRELESS WORLD DECEMBER 1945 ON eBAY UK   Payment please within 4 days by PayPal, or by Sterling denominated cheque, to arrive with 7 days. Other payment methods may be possible with the seller's discretion. Kindly closely study the images and the description, and ask questions should you need to. I can send higher resolution images if required, and would be happy to do so. New images are normally just a click or two away. Just send me an email address. Please look at my other auctions. There are are lots of bits and pieces. I plan to selectively list more vintage radios, and radio-related items, over the next few months....   USA 'Airmail' - $6  UK 'First Class' - $3 Europe 'Airmail' - $4.50 Rest of World 'Airmail' - $6   All three magazines: USA - £6/$13, UK - £2/$4.50, Europe £3.75/$8      I will happily combine shipping if appropriate... and collection from Tunbridge Wells would be fine.        ********     Here is a tribute to a very special man whio died earlier this year:   Arthur C. Clarke was a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age.   The author of almost 100 books, Clarke was an ardent promoter of the idea that humanity's destiny lay beyond the confines of Earth. It was a vision served most vividly by "2001: A Space Odyssey," the classic 1968 science-fiction film he created with the director Stanley Kubrick and the novel of the same title that he wrote as part of the project.   His work was also prophetic: His detailed forecast of telecommunications satellites in 1945 came more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight.   Clarke's influence on public attitudes toward space was acknowledged by U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, by scientists like Carl Sagan and by movie and television producers. Gene Roddenberry credited Clarke's writings with encouraging him to pursue his "Star Trek" project in the face of indifference from television executives.   In his later years, after settling in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Clarke continued to bask in worldwide acclaim as both a scientific sage and the pre-eminent science fiction writer of the 20th century.   In 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.   Clarke played down his success in foretelling a globe-spanning network of communication satellites. "No one can predict the future," he always maintained. But as a science fiction writer he could not resist drawing up timelines for what he called "possible futures." Far from displaying uncanny prescience, these conjectures mainly demonstrated his lifelong, and often disappointed, optimism about the peaceful uses of technology - from his calculation in 1945 that atomic-fueled rockets could be no more than 20 years away to his conviction in 1999 that "clean, safe power" from "cold fusion" would be commercially available in the first years of the new millennium.   Arthur Charles Clarke was born on Dec. 16, 1917, in Minehead, England. While still in school, he joined the newly formed British Interplanetary Society, a small band of sci-fi enthusiasts who held the controversial view that space travel was not only possible but could be achieved in the not-so-distant future. In 1937, he began writing his first science fiction novel, a story of the distant future that was later published as "Against the Fall of Night" (1953).   Clarke spent World War II as an officer in the Royal Air Force. In 1943 he was assigned to work with a team of U.S. scientist-engineers who had developed the first radar-controlled system for landing airplanes in bad weather. That experience led to Clarke's only non-science fiction novel, "Glide Path" (1963). More important, it led in 1945 to a technical paper, published in the British journal Wireless World, establishing the feasibility of artificial satellites as relay stations for Earth-based communications.   Decades later, Clarke called his Wireless World paper "the most important thing I ever wrote." In a wry piece entitled "A Short Pre-History of Comsats, Or: How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time," he claimed that a lawyer had dissuaded him from applying for a patent.   The year 1945 also saw the start of Clarke's career as a fiction writer. He sold a short story called "Rescue Party" to a magazine - now re-titled Astounding Science Fiction - that had captured his imagination 15 years earlier.   For the next two years Clarke attended King's College, London, graduating in 1948 with first-class honors in physics and mathematics.   But he continued to write and sell stories, and after a stint as assistant editor at the scientific journal Physics Abstracts, he decided he could support himself as a free-lance writer. Success came quickly. His primer on space flight, "The Exploration of Space," was an American Book-of-the-Month Club selection in 1951.   Over the next two decades he wrote a series of nonfiction best sellers as well as his best-known novels, including "Childhood's End" (1953) and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). For a scientifically trained writer whose optimism about technology seemed boundless, Clarke delighted in confronting his characters with obstacles they could not overcome without help from forces beyond their comprehension.   In "Childhood's End," a race of aliens who happen to look like devils imposes peace on an Earth torn by Cold War tensions. But the aliens' real mission is to prepare humanity for the next stage of evolution. In an ending that is both heartbreakingly poignant and literally earth-shattering, Clarke suggests that mankind can escape its suicidal tendencies only by ceasing to be human.   The Cold War also forms the backdrop for "2001." Its genesis was a short story called "The Sentinel," first published in a science fiction magazine in 1951. It tells of an alien artifact found on the Moon, a little crystalline pyramid that explorers from Earth destroy while trying to open. One explorer realizes that the artifact was a kind of fail-safe beacon; in silencing it, human beings have signaled their existence to its far-off creators.   In 1964, Kubrick and Clarke agreed to make the "proverbial really good science fiction movie" based on "The Sentinel." This led to a four-year collaboration; Clarke wrote the novel and Kubrick produced and directed the film. They are jointly credited with the screenplay.   As a fiction writer, Clarke was often criticized for failing to create fully realized characters. HAL, the mutinous computer in "2001," is probably his most "human" creation: a self-satisfied know-it-all with a touching but misguided faith in its own infallibility.   If Clarke's heroes are less than memorable, it's also true that there are no out-and-out villains in his work; his characters are generally too busy struggling to make sense of an implacable universe to engage in petty schemes of dominance or revenge.   Clarke's own relationship with machines was somewhat ambivalent.   Although he held a driver's license as a young man, he never drove a car. Yet he stayed in touch with the rest of the world from his home in Sri Lanka through an ever-expanding collection of up-to-date computers and communications accessories.   All told, he wrote or collaborated on close to 100 books, some of which, like "Childhood's End," have been in print continuously. His works have been translated into some 40 languages, and worldwide sales have been estimated at more than $25 million.   In 1962 he suffered a severe attack of poliomyelitis. His apparently complete recovery was marked by a return to top form at his favorite sport, table tennis. But in 1984 he developed post-polio syndrome, a progressive condition characterized by muscle weakness and extreme fatigue. He spent the last years of his life in a wheelchair.   Clarke kept his emotional life private. He was briefly married in 1953 to an American diving enthusiast named Marilyn Mayfield; they separated after a few months and were divorced in 1964, having had no children.   ******** Please bookmark my seller page, and have a look over the next few days  for some great offers... even on other eBay sites! Look at eBay US, Spain, Italy and Australia... Many of my listings are offered on other forums and/or privately.   Circumstances might change. 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