The Ray Cummings MEGAPACK ®: 25 Golden Age Science Fiction and Mystery Tales. Ray Cummings
Murray Leinster Megapack
The Second Murray Leinster Megapack
The Macabre Megapack
The Second Macabre Megapack
The Martian Megapack
The Andre Norton Megapack
The Pinocchio Megapack
The H. Beam Piper Megapack
The Pulp Fiction Megapack
The Randall Garrett Megapack
The Second Randall Garrett Megapack
The First Science Fiction Megapack
The Second Science Fiction Megapack
The Third Science Fiction Megapack
The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack
The Fifth Science Fiction Megapack
The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack
The Robert Sheckley Megapack
The Steampunk Megapack
The Time Travel Megapack
The Wizard of Oz Megapack
HORROR
The Achmed Abdullah Megapack
The E.F. Benson Megapack
The Second E.F. Benson Megapack
The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack
The Ghost Story Megapack
The Second Ghost Story Megapack
The Third Ghost Story Megapack
The Horror Megapack
The M.R. James Megapack
The Mummy Megapack
The Pulp Fiction Megapack
The Vampire Megapack
The Werewolf Megapack
WESTERNS
The B.M. Bower Megapack
The Max Brand Megapack
The Buffalo Bill Megapack
The Cowboy Megapack
The Zane Grey Megapack
The Western Megapack
The Second Western Megapack
The Wizard of Oz Megapack
YOUNG ADULT
The Boys’ Adventure Megapack
The Dan Carter, Cub Scout Megapack
The G.A. Henty Megapack
The Rover Boys Megapack
The Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Megapack
The Tom Swift Megapack
AUTHOR MEGAPACKS
The Achmed Abdullah Megapack
The Edward Bellamy Megapack
The B.M. Bower Megapack
The E.F. Benson Megapack
The Second E.F. Benson Megapack
The Max Brand Megapack
The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack
The Wilkie Collins Megapack
The Ray Cummings Megapack
The Guy de Maupassant Megapack
The Philip K. Dick Megapack
The Jacques Futrelle Megapack
The Randall Garrett Megapack
The Anna Katharine Green Megapack
The Zane Grey Megapack
The Second Randall Garrett Megapack
The Dashiell Hammett Megapack
The M.R. James Megapack
The Selma Lagerlof Megapack
The Murray Leinster Megapack
The Second Murray Leinster Megapack
The Andre Norton Megapack
The H. Beam Piper Megapack
The Mack Reynolds Megapack
The Rafael Sabatini Megapack
The Saki Megapack
The Robert Sheckley Megapack
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Raymond King Cummings (1887–1957) was an American author of science fiction, rated one of the “founding fathers of the science fiction pulp genre” in E.F. Bleiler’s Science Fiction: The Early Years.
Cummings was born in New York. He worked with Thomas Edison as a personal assistant and technical writer from 1914 to 1919. His most highly regarded work is the novel The Girl in the Golden Atom (published in 1922 and included in this volume), which was a consolidation of a short story by the same name published in 1919 and a sequel, The People of the Golden Atom, published in 1920. Ovr his career, he produced some 750 novels and short stories (sometimes using the pen names Ray King, Gabrielle Cummings, and Gabriel Wilson).
During the 1940s, with his fiction career in decline, Cummings anonymously scripted comic book stories for Timely Comics, the predecessor to Marvel Comics. He recycled the plot of The Girl in the Golden Atom, for a two-part Captain America tale, “Princess of the Atom.” (Captain America #25 & 26) He also contributed to stories for the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, for which his daughter Betty Cummings also wrote.
Ray Cummings wrote in 1922, “Time…is what keeps everything from happening at once,” a sentence repeated by scientists such as C.J. Overbeck and John Archibald Wheeler.
THE GIRL IN THE GOLDEN ATOM (1919-1920)
This text is taken from the book version of The Girl in the Golden Atom, which combines “The Girl in the Golden Atom” (All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1919) and “The People of the Golden Atom” (All-Story Weekly, Jan 24, 1920 through February 28, 1920).
DEDICATION
TO
MY FRIEND AND MENTOR
ROBERT H. DAVIS
WITH GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF
HIS ENCOURAGEMENT AND PRACTICAL
ASSISTANCE TO WHICH I OWE MY
INITIAL SUCCESS
CHAPTER 1
A UNIVERSE IN AN ATOM
“Then you mean to say there is no such thing as the smallest particle of matter?” asked the Doctor.
“You can put it that way if you like,” the Chemist replied. “In other words, what I believe is that things can be infinitely small just as well as they can be infinitely large. Astronomers tell us of the immensity of space. I have tried to imagine space as finite. It is impossible. How can you conceive the edge of space? Something must be beyond—something or nothing, and even that would be more space, wouldn’t it?”
“Gosh,” said the Very Young Man, and lighted another cigarette.
The Chemist resumed, smiling a little. “Now, if it seems probable that there is no limit to the immensity of space, why should we make its smallness finite? How can you say that the atom cannot be divided? As a matter of fact, it already has been. The most powerful microscope will show you realms of smallness to which you can penetrate no other way. Multiply that power a thousand times, or ten thousand times, and who shall say what you will see?”
The Chemist paused, and looked at the intent little group around him.
He was a youngish man, with large features and horn-rimmed glasses, his rough English-cut