Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Shirley Hungerford Hyde observed that Arthur G.
Hyde, Jr., the older brother of her husband Norman
Hyde, was a “glider/airplane enthusiast, knew my dad
also and ‘hung’ out as a young kid at the garage on W.
Second Street. . . .” 124 A Hyde family home (at 738 West
First Street in 1944), only a few blocks from the
Hungerford shop, facilitated Arthur’s visits. In the mid-
1930s, the Hyde family had lived on the same block as
Shirley Hungerford, her mother and grandmother. 125
Other young men who found life interesting at the
Hungerford garage and machine shop included Cliff R.
Towner (1929–1998). Among objects given to Marvin
and subsequently donated by him to the New York
State Museum was a mimeographed publication,
Rockets New Trail to Empire, Review & Bibliography, by R.
L. Farnsworth (copyrighted 1943 by the United States
Rocket Society, Inc. in Glen Ellyn, Illinois). A handwritten
notation was signed by Farnsworth in the book
recording “Number 384” sold to Clifford R. Towner. 126
A few entries in the Farnsworth bibliography have been
highlighted. One wonders if that was done by Towner
or even by Hungerford.
Towner noted that he first met Hungerford in the
early 1940s “when I was in High School and started a
combination Astronomy and Rocket Club. Our Class
Advisor suggested Dan as a possible Sponsor . . . . Dan
didn’t feel he could take the responsibility of
Sponsoring our little club, but he extended a very
warm and friendly invitation to visit his home and
workshop any time and I was quick to accept his gracious
invitation.” 127
Of course in those days, before “Buzz Bombs’ and
V-2’s, Dan was considered by most Elmirans as a
local, but harmless eccentric. Elmira College. . . .
was still a Women’s College . . . and Dan was often
invited to lecture there on his theories of Space
Travel through Rocketry. In retrospect, I believe
his lectures were intended by College officials to
offer a “humerous” [sic] interlude to the serious
courses. . . .
Our club members were experimenting with solid
fuel rockets at the time, mainly using a formula of
potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur [sic] and
Dan’s experiments with liquid oxygen as a propellant
fascinated me. 128
Clara McCann, a genealogy volunteer at the New
York State Library, speaking to the author by telephone
in 1994, said she accompanied her father, Newman
Worden, in 1932 or 1933 on a trip from Hammondsport
(where he built engines for the Curtiss aircraft operation)
to visit the Hungerford brothers in Elmira. Worden
was building a “strange car of his own. Sort of pointy at
the front. He drove it to Elmira that time.” And,
McCann added, he traveled to Elmira several other
times without his daughter. What engine type powered
Worden’s car unfortunately is unknown here. 129
A Hungerford friend to date only identified as “Ed”,
although likely Erwin D. French (1890–1969) 130 wrote to
Daniel Hungerford in the mid-1960s the draft of a letter
to the mayor of Elmira as well as to Elmira newspapers
protesting the city’s eviction of Hungerford from his
home on West Second Street. In the course of delineating
Hungerford’s contributions to the world, Ed noted
that “Dan Hungerford, who, in his entire life gave so
much time to youth. Many youngsters hung around 823
W. Second St., Dan was their ideal and many went on to
success.”
Among the youthful aides to the Hungerford brothers
in the early 1940s was George Mapes (born 1927).
His uncle Rolla Dickson was a plumber with a home
and shop on West First Street in Elmira on property
abutting the Hungerfords land to the north on Second
Street. Floyd Hungerford worked with Dickson as a
plumber’s assistant, and Mapes spent time with the
Hungerfords in their house and shop. While most high
school students “were chasing girls”, Mapes says he
worked with the Hungerfords until late in the evenings
repairing automobiles. Since he was interested in electricity
and radio, Mapes once repaired the radio in
Shirley Hungerford’s car. With the work done for the
night, the Hungerford crew sometimes would go to an
Elmira restaurant for pie with ice cream with Mapes,
even as a high school student, paying the check. He
reports that he also lent the Hungerfords “a little
money.”
Mapes’ generosity was rewarded. After navy service
at the end of World War II, Mapes enrolled at
Champlain College in Plattsburgh and traveled in his
freshman year via motorcycle. When the Hungerfords
learned that Mapes had no car to drive to the college for
his second year, they lent him Shirley Lois “The Moon
Girl.” When Mapes was asked if he had ever tried rocket
propulsion, Mapes replied that he did once on a rural
road near Plattsburgh. The experience “scared him half
to death.” But in spite of noise and flames, the rocket’s
push was minimal and on hills ineffectual. Mapes
thinks the rocket car basically demonstrated the principle
of rocket power. And he said Daniel Hungerford
would have been more successful in his experiments
with a better education.
The rocket car as Mapes recalls it had leather padding
on a left-side window ledge so that the driver could rest
his head there while looking out. While vision on the
28 Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein