A Prehistory of Outer Space

摘要

It would be interesting to know in what film it was, in the mid-1920s that triggered the young Philip Cleator's interest in spaceflight with its vision of a radium-powered spaceship lifting off towards the stars. Whatever it was, that inspiration would lead to Cleator's search for like-minded individuals and eventually to the foundation of the British Interplanetary Society. Phillip E. Cleator was born in Wallesey, Cheshire, in 1908, the son of a structural design engineer. Following his father into the engineering contracting business, the interest in space travel and rocket experimentation kindled by that early film led him to want to make contact with others of a similar persuasion.