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