Launching Rockets
Cricket Magazine for Kids|September 2017

The Story of Robert H. Goddard

Joseph Taylor
Launching Rockets

THE CLEAR AFTERNOON of October 19, 1899, outside Worcester, Massachusetts, burst with autumn color. Seventeen-year-old Robert “Bob” Goddard was scaling a homemade ladder to prune a spindly cherry tree. As his gaze shifted skyward, the possibilities of the coming twentieth century seemed to float in front of him.

While home ill with bronchitis, Bob had been reading newspaper installments of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. In this science fiction novel, Martians journey to Earth in steel cylinders shot from a giant space gun. How fantastic would it be to travel to the Martians’ world! Bob thought. What might a spaceship that could take humans to Mars look like? How would it work?

After climbing down from his perch, Bob kept on dreaming of space travel. “I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended,” he always remembered, “for existence at last seemed very purposive.”

Born on October 5, 1882, Bob had been fascinated by science since he was five years old, when he discovered that he could generate electric sparks by shuffling his feet on a rug. Learning that electrical power could be stored in a battery, Bob took apart an old-fashioned battery jar. Finding a zinc rod inside it, he waved the rod over his head while shuffling his feet outside, trying to produce enough electrical energy to jump a fence. Though this experiment failed, he was startled when his mother told him to be careful. “Sometime it might work,” she warned, “and then you’ll go sailing away and might not be able to come back.” As a teenager, Bob experimented with turning graphite—a form of carbon—into diamonds. Rather than making him rich, his tube of chemicals exploded, sending jagged pieces of broken glass flying.

この記事は Cricket Magazine for Kids の September 2017 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Cricket Magazine for Kids の September 2017 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

CRICKET MAGAZINE FOR KIDSのその他の記事すべて表示
The Tale Of Paddy Ahern
Cricket Magazine for Kids

The Tale Of Paddy Ahern

THERE ONCE WAS a lad named Paddy Ahern who trod the green hills of Limerick, Ireland, offering to help farmers with their chores in return for food and lodging.

time-read
5 分  |
October 2019
The Pedestrians
Cricket Magazine for Kids

The Pedestrians

EACH TIME HELGA Estby looked over her shoulder, the big cat was there. Crossing Wyoming’s Red Desert on foot, in the dust and heat of August 1896, was tough.

time-read
7 分  |
October 2019
The Magic Gifts
Cricket Magazine for Kids

The Magic Gifts

A Basque Folk Tale

time-read
8 分  |
October 2019
The Dragon's Scales
Cricket Magazine for Kids

The Dragon's Scales

“THREE YEARS I'VE been waiting, when Torquil promised he’d return them in three days. I’m not waiting three more days to get back what’s mine!” The dragon punctuated his remarks with a smoky snort and a lashing tail.

time-read
6 分  |
October 2019
The Water Bucketre
Cricket Magazine for Kids

The Water Bucketre

A Chinese Folk Tale.

time-read
5 分  |
January 2018
Between The Pages
Cricket Magazine for Kids

Between The Pages

One rainy night, while alone in the castle library with her talking gargoyle, Marcus, Princess Audrey finds a book with the odd title Finding Angel. Meanwhile, in modern times, a girl named Angel is celebrating her thirteenth birthday.

time-read
8 分  |
November/December 2017
Swim Buddies
Cricket Magazine for Kids

Swim Buddies

I LEAN OVER the side of the catamaran and peer into the crystal blue water. This is my last chance, I think.

time-read
9 分  |
July/August 2017
The Bushwhackers
Cricket Magazine for Kids

The Bushwhackers

I CAN’T ABIDE living one more day in this pigpen!” I groaned and rolled out of bed to pull on my dress.

time-read
8 分  |
July/August 2017
As American as Appleless Pie!
Cricket Magazine for Kids

As American as Appleless Pie!

NOTHING IS MORE American than the humble apple pie. There’s even an old saying to prove it: “as American as apple pie.” So it may come as a surprise that many early settlers who forged the trails of our expanding nation were often without apples to make this most American of desserts. As pioneers headed west in pursuit of territory and gold, they had to leave many things behind, including apples. Not only did life on the trail make fresh fruit like apples hard to carry and keep, apple trees were native only to the east coast, which made finding apples in the West nearly impossible.

time-read
2 分  |
July/August 2017
The Man Who Built A Better Leg
Cricket Magazine for Kids

The Man Who Built A Better Leg

THE CIVIL WAR was only a few weeks old when seven hundred and fifty Confederate recruits gathered in the fields around Philippi, Virginia. It was early June 1861, and as yet there had been no real battles. The men had eagerly volunteered, but most had no training as soldiers. Their only weapons were the ones they brought from home— old-fashioned flintlock muskets, cap and ball pistols, and a few shotguns.

time-read
5 分  |
July/August 2017