Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Figure 13. This photograph of the Shirley Lois “The Moon Girl”
rocket car probably dates from late 1929. In the photo Emory
Botsford stands behind the car. The “Open to U.S.A.” sign notes
that Fritz von Opel, who had experimented with rockets in
Germany, arrived to spend a period in the United States learning
about General Motors automobile manufacturing. Notable is
the dearth of windows on the side of the body. With the driver
sitting adjacent to the single opening there, one can only imagine
the difficulty one would have in recognizing any cross traffic
at an intersection.
This figure is courtesy of J. Royce Hunt, Botsford’s grandson.
city directory as an employee of the Willys-Morrow
Company, an automobile manufacturing operation.
After several intervening jobs, Botsford was shown for
1923 as an employee of the Hungerford Brothers, while
boarding with his father on West Church Street. The following
year, still associated with the Hungerford
Brothers, Botsford had a home on Lovell Avenue. Next
his profession was “salesman” with no place of employment
given, although a year later he was the used car
manager at the Blackstone Motor Company, dealers in
Chrysler and Maxwell cars at 259-63 State Street. For
1927, he was an auto mechanic, and later directories
continue to identify Botsford as an auto mechanic.
Those for 1938 and 1940 show “auto rpg Lovell av h do”
[auto repairing Lovell Avenue home ditto].
Eva Taylor quotes Talitha Botsford about the latter’s
brother Emory, “also a mechanic, and that the
Hungerford rocket car was sometimes parked in front
of their [West Church Street] home. As a teenager, she
was embarrassed by this. Now she says, ‘Wasn’t that
silly? Today I would be proud.’ However she may feel
about it now, the youthful reaction is interesting to us as
an indication of the general attitude toward Dan
Hungerford during his busiest years in Elmira.” 104
Botsford’s grandson in the J. Royce Hunt’s website
(2004) claimed his grandfather “modified the chassis
and built the body” while the “four rocket engines” 105
were built by Daniel Hungerford, a pioneering genius
in the newly emerging ‘aeroplane’ industry.” The rocket
car body was “made of very heavy paper (like dense
cardboard, and a material similar to linoleum).
Grandpa once told me that the reason for this type of
covering was so that the occupants could ‘kick their
way out’ in case of fire or explosion.”
Of the lack of general recognition of Botsford’s contribution
to the rocket car, Hunt said his grandfather
“was known as what was called a ‘rascal’ in those days.
He had alienated many in the area, perhaps, including
the Hungerfords. He never really got much credit for
his amazing mechanical and fabricating skills. He
seemed to live in the shadow of his very creative father
[perhaps Hunt had Emory Botsford’s brother in mind,
the architect Hull Botsford] and sister [artist and musician
Talitha Botsford.]” Hunt also noted that his grandfather
invented a means to allow Coleman gas lanterns
burn bottled propane rather than liquid white gas. 106
George Mapes, who worked with the Hungerfords in
the 1940s, has said Botsford was a good friend to him
while Botsford and Hungerford “were like brothers.”
Botsford was an excellent craftsman, and Mapes can
“well imagine that he made the body for the rocket
car.” 107 A friendly exchange of letters between Botsford
and Hungerford in the 1960s would suggest that the
two men had remained cordial.
The banner on the rear of the body in the Botsford-
Hungerford picture, “Welcome Opel to U.S.A.”, refers
to Fritz von Opel (1899–1971), a German automobile
manufacturer and, more importantly for the
Hungerfords, experimenter with rocket power. Opel
arrived in New York on December 23, 1929 with the
expectation of spending “a year in the United States
studying the motor industry.” 108 While still in Germany,
Opel had experimented with both rocket-powered cars
and aircraft. Thanks to his wealth and influence, Opel’s
efforts were well financed, combined efforts of others
interested in rockets, and “slickly organized by the
media savvy . . . Opel.” 109 While dismissive of extra-terrestrial
rocket-powered travel (“What would he [man]
do when he got there [moon], and how would he get
back to earth again?”), Opel saw high speed rocketpowered
aircraft making flights from Berlin to New
York in three hours. 110
One wonders how the Hungerford brothers put aside
their socialist interests (see chapter five) to honor the
work of a member of one of the more successful capitalist
families of Germany. Perhaps avoiding politics
was an overwhelming desire to communicate with
other rocket experimenters. Cliff Towner recalled
Hungerford showing him in the early 1940s “letters
from both Dr. Goddard and Willie Ley, with whom he
had extensive correspondence.” 111
24 Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein