3.4 Early Astronautical Societies and Historical Merits
137
of the audience reacted to this spectacular vision of the future, but it certainly made
a lasting impression upon me”. As learned about the establishment of the American
Interplanetary Society and its related activities from the magazine Science Wonder
Stories, Cleator immediately contacted its Secretariat to inquire about the status of
its establishment and membership. Meanwhile, a prediction from a researcher of the
U.S. Academy of Naval Science, that humanity would be able to make a rocket flying
to the Sun, was reported in a local newspaper Liverpool Echo, which greatly inspired
Cleator.
In January 1933, Cleator published an article entitled “The Possibilities of Interplanetary Travel” in Chambers Journal, which was subsequently picked up by the
Editor of the Liverpool Echo and eventually by the national press in the form of the
Daily Express, leading to a front-page feature. At the same time, Cleator also advertised in the Liverpool Echo for anyone interested in the interplanetary idea to get in
touch with him. As a result, some local responders and enthusiasts, who dreamed of
using rocket propulsion to fly to the Moon and the planets, frequently visited Cleator
to discuss how to found a learned group about interplanetary travel. Eventually,
on Friday 13 October 1933, Cleator with Leslie J. Johnson, H. C. Binns and other
four responders together held the founding conference of the British Interplanetary
Society (BIS) at Binns’s office on the second floor of No. 81 Dale Street, Liverpool.
Cleator was elected as the first president and Johnson as the first executive secretary
in the founding conference. Like Cleator, many of the first members were young,
intelligent and avid science fiction fans. Cleator worked hard to promote the group’s
development and soon created the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. In
1934, Cleator made a special trip to Germany to visit Willy Ley. At this time, the
German Interplanetary Society had been nearly defunct, and Ley introduced to him
the developments and experiments of German liquid rockets, as well as the relevant
researches carried out by other countries. The Society grew from those early foundations and some of the earlier members included people like Arthur C. Clarke, Les
Shepherd, Archibald M. Low, Eric Burgess, Ralph Smith, Harry Ross, Kenneth W.
Gatland, Val Cleaver and Patrick Moore. At Cleator’s invitation, the German Willy
Ley, the Soviet Y. I. Perelman and N. A. Rynin, the French R. Esnault-Pelterie, the
Austrian G. von Pirquet and the American George Ed. Pendray were also enrolled as
foreign members. For anyone who knows their space history, all of these people have
had huge impacts on the development of space technology or in helping to communicate and advocate for the exploration of space. However, due to the limitation of
the Explosive Act 1875, a law amended in the UK in 1875, forbidding individuals
to manufacture, keep, sell, carry and import gunpowder, nitro-glycerine and other
explosive substance, the Society could only conduct purely theoretical researches
while did not carry out actual rocket experimentation, though of high level as many
scientists and engineers had become its members. The teenage member Burgess was
going to launch a solid-fuel rocket from his hometown in Manchester while was
promptly charged.
For the BIS, 1936 was proved to be a landmark year. In the same year, Cleator
published his book entitled Rockets through Space, which introduced the public to
basic spaceflight idea and attracted some public notice; a film, Things to Come, also
137
of the audience reacted to this spectacular vision of the future, but it certainly made
a lasting impression upon me”. As learned about the establishment of the American
Interplanetary Society and its related activities from the magazine Science Wonder
Stories, Cleator immediately contacted its Secretariat to inquire about the status of
its establishment and membership. Meanwhile, a prediction from a researcher of the
U.S. Academy of Naval Science, that humanity would be able to make a rocket flying
to the Sun, was reported in a local newspaper Liverpool Echo, which greatly inspired
Cleator.
In January 1933, Cleator published an article entitled “The Possibilities of Interplanetary Travel” in Chambers Journal, which was subsequently picked up by the
Editor of the Liverpool Echo and eventually by the national press in the form of the
Daily Express, leading to a front-page feature. At the same time, Cleator also advertised in the Liverpool Echo for anyone interested in the interplanetary idea to get in
touch with him. As a result, some local responders and enthusiasts, who dreamed of
using rocket propulsion to fly to the Moon and the planets, frequently visited Cleator
to discuss how to found a learned group about interplanetary travel. Eventually,
on Friday 13 October 1933, Cleator with Leslie J. Johnson, H. C. Binns and other
four responders together held the founding conference of the British Interplanetary
Society (BIS) at Binns’s office on the second floor of No. 81 Dale Street, Liverpool.
Cleator was elected as the first president and Johnson as the first executive secretary
in the founding conference. Like Cleator, many of the first members were young,
intelligent and avid science fiction fans. Cleator worked hard to promote the group’s
development and soon created the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. In
1934, Cleator made a special trip to Germany to visit Willy Ley. At this time, the
German Interplanetary Society had been nearly defunct, and Ley introduced to him
the developments and experiments of German liquid rockets, as well as the relevant
researches carried out by other countries. The Society grew from those early foundations and some of the earlier members included people like Arthur C. Clarke, Les
Shepherd, Archibald M. Low, Eric Burgess, Ralph Smith, Harry Ross, Kenneth W.
Gatland, Val Cleaver and Patrick Moore. At Cleator’s invitation, the German Willy
Ley, the Soviet Y. I. Perelman and N. A. Rynin, the French R. Esnault-Pelterie, the
Austrian G. von Pirquet and the American George Ed. Pendray were also enrolled as
foreign members. For anyone who knows their space history, all of these people have
had huge impacts on the development of space technology or in helping to communicate and advocate for the exploration of space. However, due to the limitation of
the Explosive Act 1875, a law amended in the UK in 1875, forbidding individuals
to manufacture, keep, sell, carry and import gunpowder, nitro-glycerine and other
explosive substance, the Society could only conduct purely theoretical researches
while did not carry out actual rocket experimentation, though of high level as many
scientists and engineers had become its members. The teenage member Burgess was
going to launch a solid-fuel rocket from his hometown in Manchester while was
promptly charged.
For the BIS, 1936 was proved to be a landmark year. In the same year, Cleator
published his book entitled Rockets through Space, which introduced the public to
basic spaceflight idea and attracted some public notice; a film, Things to Come, also