Museums in a Digital Age 1st Edition Ross Parry

(Editor) - PDF Download (2025)

https://ebookultra.com/download/museums-in-a-digital-age-1st-
edition-ross-parry-editor/

Visit ebookultra.com today to download the complete set of

ebooks or textbooks
We have selected some products that you may be interested in
Click the link to download now or visit ebookultra.com
for more options!.

Documentary in the digital age Baker

https://ebookultra.com/download/documentary-in-the-digital-age-baker/

The Paperless Hospital Healthcare in a Digital Age 1st

Edition Russell C. Coile

https://ebookultra.com/download/the-paperless-hospital-healthcare-in-
a-digital-age-1st-edition-russell-c-coile/

Preserving digital materials 2nd Edition Ross Harvey

https://ebookultra.com/download/preserving-digital-materials-2nd-
edition-ross-harvey/

Adult Learning in the Digital Age Neil Selwyn

https://ebookultra.com/download/adult-learning-in-the-digital-age-
neil-selwyn/
Postal Services in the Digital Age 1st Edition M. Finger

https://ebookultra.com/download/postal-services-in-the-digital-
age-1st-edition-m-finger/

Legal Education in the Digital Age 1st Edition Edward

Rubin

https://ebookultra.com/download/legal-education-in-the-digital-
age-1st-edition-edward-rubin/

History in the Digital Age 1st Edition Toni Weller

(Editor)

https://ebookultra.com/download/history-in-the-digital-age-1st-
edition-toni-weller-editor/

Brain Based Teaching in the Digital Age 1st Edition

Marilee Sprenger

https://ebookultra.com/download/brain-based-teaching-in-the-digital-
age-1st-edition-marilee-sprenger/

Historical Dialectology in the Digital Age 1st Edition

Rhona Alcorn (Editor)

https://ebookultra.com/download/historical-dialectology-in-the-
digital-age-1st-edition-rhona-alcorn-editor/
Museums in a Digital Age 1st Edition Ross Parry (Editor)
Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Ross Parry (editor)
ISBN(s): 9780415402620, 041540262X
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 6.05 MB
Year: 2009
Language: english
 Museums in a Digital Age

The influence
fl of digital media on the cultural heritage sector has been pervasive and
profound. Today museums are reliant on new technology to manage their collections.
They collect digital as well as material objects. New media is embedded within their
exhibition spaces. And their activity online is as important as their physical presence
on site.

However, ‘digital heritage’ (as an area of practice and as a subject of study) does not
exist in one single place. Its evidence base is complex, diverse and distributed, and its
content is available through multiple channels, on varied media, in myriad locations
and in different genres of writing.

It is this diaspora of material and practice that this Reader is intended to address.
With over forty chapters (by some fi fifty authors and co-authors), from around the
world, spanning over twenty years of museum practice and research, this volume
acts as an aggregator drawing selectively from a notoriously distributed network
of content. Divided into seven parts (on information, spaces, access, interpretation,
objects, delivery and futures), this book presents a series of cross-sections through the
body of digital heritage literature, each revealing how a different aspect of curatorship
and museum provision has been informed, shaped or challenged by computing.

Museums in a Digital Agee is a provocative and inspiring guide for any student or
practitioner of digital heritage.

Ross Parry is Senior Lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, a

scholar of digital heritage and a historian of museum media and technology. He is the
author of Recoding the Museum: digital heritage and the technologies of changee, the
first major history of museum computing.
fi
Leicester Readers in Museum Studies
Series editor: Professor Simon J. Knell

Museum Management and Marketing

Richard Sandell and Robert R. Janes

Museums in a Material World

Simon J. Knell

Museums and their Communities

Sheila Watson

Museums in a Digital Age

Ross Parry
Museums
in a
Digital
Age
Edited by

Ross Parry
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2010 School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester for editorial
matter and selection; individual contributions, the contributors
Typeset in 11.5/12.5pt Perpetua by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 10: 0-415-40261-1 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-415-40262-X (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-40261-3 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-40262-0 (pbk)
In memory of Charles ‘Bill’ Pettitt
(1937–2009)
first chair of the Museums Computer Group
 Contents

Series Preface
Acknowledgements

1 The Practice of Digital Heritage and the Heritage of

Digital Practice 1
ROSS PARRY

PART ONE
INFORMATION: DATA, STRUCTURE AND MEANING 9

Introduction to Part One 11

ROSS PARRY

2 A Brief History of Museum Computerization 15

DAVID WILLIAMS

3 The Changing Role of Information Professionals in Museums 22

ANDREW ROBERTS

4 What is Information in the Museum Context? 28

ELIZABETH ORNA AND CHARLES PETTITT

5 The World of (Almost) Unique Objects 39

ROBERT CHENHALL AND DAVID VANCE
viii CONTENTS

6 Standards for Networked Cultural Heritage 48

DAVID BEARMAN

7 Database as Symbolic Form 64

LEV MANOVICH

8 The Museum as Information Utility 72

GEORGE F. MACDONALD AND STEPHEN ALSFORD

9 Museum Collections, Documentation and Shifting

Knowledge Paradigms 80
FIONA CAMERON

10 Semantic Dissonance: do we need (and do we

understand) the semantic web? 96
ROSS PARRY, NICK POOLE AND JON PRATTY

11 Building a Universal Digital Memory 107

PIERRE LÉVY

PART TWO
SPACE: VISITS, VIRTUALITY AND DISTANCE 117

Introduction to Part Two 119

ROSS PARRY

12 On the Origins of the Virtual Museum 121

ERKKI HUHTAMO

13 From Malraux’s Imaginary Museum to the Virtual

Museum 136
ANTONIO M. BATTRO

14 Virtual Spaces and Museums 148

ANDREA BANDELLI

15 The Virtual Visit: towards a new concept for the

electronic science centre 153
ROLAND JACKSON

16 Empowering the Remote Visitor: supporting social

museum experiences among local and remote visitors 159
ARETI GALANI AND MATTHEW CHALMERS
 CONTENTS ix

17 Museums Outside Walls: mobile phones and the museum

in the everyday 170
KONSTANTINOS ARVANITIS

PART THREE
ACCESS: ABILITY, USABILITY AND CONNECTIVITY 177

Introduction to Part Three 179

ROSS PARRY

18 Access to Digital Heritage in Africa: bridging the

digital divide 181
LORNA ABUNGU

19 My Dream of an Accessible Web Culture for Disabled

People 186
KEVIN CAREY

20 My Dream of an Accessible Web Culture for Disabled

People: a re-evaluation 189
KEVIN CAREY

21 Implementing a Holistic Approach to E-Learning

Accessibility 193
BRIAN KELLY, LAWRIE PHIPPS AND CARO HOWELL

22 Usability Evaluation for Museum Websites 204

DANIEL CUNLIFFE, EFMORPHIA KRITOU AND DOUGLAS TUDHOPE

23 Culture as a Driver of Innovation 220

RANJIT MAKKUNI

PART FOUR
INTERPRETATION: COMMUNICATION, INTERACTIVITY
AND LEARNING 225

Introduction to Part Four 227

ROSS PARRY

24 The Web and the Unassailable Voice 229

PETER WALSH

25 When the Object is Digital: properties of digital surrogate

objects and implications for learning 237
OLIVIA C. FROST
x CONTENTS

26 Learning by Doing and Learning Through Play:

an exploration of interactivity in virtual environments
for children 247
MARIA ROUSSOU

27 Interactivity and Collaboration: new forms of participation

in museums, galleries and science centres 266
CHRISTIAN HEATH AND DIRK VOM LEHN

28 Visitors’ Use of Computer Exhibits: findings from five

gruelling years of watching visitors getting it wrong 281
BEN GAMMON

PART FIVE
OBJECT: AUTHENTICITY, AUTHORITY AND TRUST 291

Introduction to Part Five 293

ROSS PARRY

29 Museums and Virtuality 295

KLAUS MÜLLER

30 When All You’ve Got is ‘The Real Thing’: museums and

authenticity in the networked world 306
JENNIFER TRANT

31 Authenticity and Integrity in the Digital Environment:

an exploratory analysis of the central role of trust 314
CLIFFORD LYNCH

32 Why Museums Matter 332

MARC PACHTER

33 Defining the Problem of Our Vanishing Memory:

background, current status, models for resolution 336
PETER LYMAN AND HOWARD BESSER

34 Curating New Media 344

MATTHEW GANSALLO

PART SIX
DELIVERY: PRODUCTION, EVALUATION AND
SUSTAINABILITY 351

Introduction to Part Six 353

ROSS PARRY
 CONTENTS xi

35 Managing New Technology Projects in Museums and

Galleries 355
MATTHEW STIFF

36 Rationale for Digitization and Preservation 365

PAUL CONWAY

37 ‘Speaking for Themselves’: new media and ‘Making

the Modern World’ 379
FRANK COLSON AND JEAN COLSON

38 The Evaluation of Museum Multimedia Applications:

lessons from research 391
MARIA ECONOMOU

39 A Survey on Digital Cultural Heritage Initiatives and Their

Sustainability Concerns 406
DIANE M. ZORICH

PART SEVEN
FUTURES: PRIORITIES, APPROACHES AND
ASPIRATIONS 417

Introduction to Part Seven 419

ROSS PARRY

40 Making the Total Museum Possible 421

TOMISLAV ŠOLA

41 Museums in the Information Era: cultural connectors of

time and space 427
MANUEL CASTELLS

42 The Shape of Things to Come: museums in the

technological landscape 435
SIMON J. KNELL

43 Digital Heritage and the Rise of Theory in Museum

Computing 454
ROSS PARRY
 Series Preface

Leicester Readers in Museum Studies provide students of museums – whether employed

in the museum, engaged in a museum studies programme or studying in a cognate
area – with a selection of focused readings in core areas of museum thought and
practice. Each book has been compiled by a specialist in that field, but all share the
Leicester School’s belief that the development and effectiveness of museums relies
upon informed and creative practice. The series as a whole reflects the core Leicester
curriculum which is now visible in programmes around the world and which grew,
forty years ago, from a desire to train working professionals, and students prior to
entry into the museum, in the technical aspects of museum practice. In some respects
the curriculum taught then looks similar to that we teach today. The following, for
example, was included in the curriculum in 1968: history and development of the
museum movement; the purpose of museum; types of museum and their functions;
the law as it relates to museums; staff appointments and duties, sources of funding;
preparation of estimates; byelaws and regulations; local, regional, etc. bodies; build-
ings; heating, ventilation and cleaning; lighting; security systems; control of stores and
so on. Some of the language and focus here, however, indicates a very different world.
A single component of the course, for example, focused on collections and dealt with
collection management, conservation and exhibitions. Another component covered
‘museum activities’ from enquiry services to lectures, films, and so on. There was
also training in specialist areas, such as local history, and many practical classes which
included making plaster casts and models. Many museum workers around the world
will recognise these kinds of curriculum topics; they certainly resonate with my early
experiences of working in museums.
While the skeleton of that curriculum in some respects remains, there has been
a fundamental shift in the flesh we hang upon it. One cannot help but think that the
museum world has grown remarkably sophisticated: practices are now regulated by
 S E R I E S P R E FA C E xiii

equal opportunities, child protection, cultural property and wildlife conservation

laws; collections are now exposed to material culture analysis, contemporary docu-
mentation projects, digital capture and so on; communication is now multimedia,
inclusive, evaluated and theorised. The museum has over that time become intellec-
tually fashionable, technologically advanced and developed a new social relevance.
Leicester Readers in Museum Studies address this change. They deal with practice as it is
relevant to the museum today, but they are also about expanding horizons beyond
one’s own experiences. They reflect a more professionalised world and one that
has thought very deeply about this wonderfully interesting and significant institu-
tion. Museum studies remains a vocational subject but it is now very different. It is,
however, sobering to think that the Leicester course was founded in the year Michel
Foucault published The Order of Things – a book that greatly influenced the way we
think about the museum today. The writing was on the wall even then.
Simon Knell
Series Editor
 Acknowledgements

In its scope, its opening essay, its choice of texts and its interleaved introductory
commentaries, a publication of this kind will always be the result of clear and distinct
research activity, and a product of a particular research focus. However, in spite of
the single editor’s name that appears on the front cover, a volume of this complexity
is never entirely the work of one individual. Instead, it represents the contribution of
a range of people, groups and institutions over a long period of time.
For their role as research assistants, and aiding in the sourcing of some of the
original texts for this volume, I am grateful to Konstantinos Arvanitis, Areti Galani,
Lena Maculan and Alex Whitfield. My thanks also go to Paul Marty for his incisive
and encouraging review at the inception of this project, as well as Andy Sawyer for
working closely with me (over the last two years) on how a volume of this kind could
not only be wired into a new Masters degree programme in digital heritage but also
for reminding me how it must also stand alone as a ‘critical edition’. Simon Knell and
Richard Sandell have not only steered me through the challenging process of selec-
tion and ordering but also, as heads of school, have provided vital financial support
for the research and compiling of this volume.
I am also grateful to the successive groups of students (campus-based and,
increasingly, via distance learning) who have taken my classes in the School of
Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, and particularly the first cohort of
Digital Heritage Masters students. These course members have been the first to read
some of these chapters in these particular combinations and the first to respond to
the pathways and linkages that I have suggested exist within them. In the assignments
they have written and the arguments they have built (drawing upon the evidence
base presented in this book and, indeed, in earlier drafts of other selections), these
postgraduates have helped to test and shape this compilation into what I hope is now
a coherent and useful Reader for any student or researcher of the subject.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xv

Leading up to publication, I have also been fortunate to share the typologies and
narratives expressed in this volume at several international events and symposia at
which the subject and curricula of digital heritage has been the focus. In particular
my thanks go to the organisers of: Locating the Past: Ownership of and Access to Cultural
Heritage, a joint symposium between the Arts and Humanities Research Council
(AHRC) and BT Innovate, Adastral Park, Ipswich (22 November 2007); Technolo-
gies for Cultural Heritage, held at the University of Oxford, with Microsoft Research
Cambridge and the Italian Embassy (1 October 2008); Fiamp 2008, hosted at Univer-
sité du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, Canada (16 October 2008). I am grateful
to all these organisations for their kind invitations and for allowing me to use those
events as a means to work through publicly my reasoning for this project.
Owing to the logistical complexity of choreographing the sourcing, rights and
printing of over forty articles, involving some fifty authors, published over twenty
years, the skill and role of the publisher has been invaluable throughout this project –
but perhaps most so in the last stages of production. In particular, my deep gratitude
goes to Matthew Gibbons, Lalle Pursglove and Geraldine Martin at Routledge (for
their encouragement, but particularly for their patience), as well as to Fiona Cairns
for her excellent work on negotiating the permissions for the works included here.
However, most of all, I am indebted to all the authors themselves included in this
volume. Thanks are due not only for granting permission to reproduce their work
here but also for the insight, knowledge and creativity exhibited by each of them in
the chapters that follow.
The following are reproduced with kind permission. While every effort has been
made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission, this has not been possible
in all cases. Any omissions brought to our attention will be remedied in any future
editions.
Ross Parry

1. Information: data, structure and meaning

Williams, D. (1987) ‘A brief history of museum computerization’ in Williams, D., A Guide
to Museum Computing, American Association for State and Local History, 1–5. Repro-
duced by kind permission of the American Association for State and Local History
(www.aaslh.org), Nashville, TN.
Roberts, A. (2001) ‘The changing role of information professionals in museums’ MDA
Information, vol. 5, no. 3, 15–17. Cambridge © Collections Trust, 2001. All rights
reserved. Reproduced with kind permission.
Orna, E. and Pettitt, C. (1998) ‘What is information management in museums?’ in Orna,
E. and Pettitt, C. Information Management in Museums, Aldershot & Broomfield, Gower,
19–32. Reproduced by kind permission of Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Chenhall, R. and Vance, D. (1998) ‘The world of (almost) unique objects’ in Chenhall,
R. and Vance, D. Museum Collections and Today’s Computers. ©1998 Robert G. Chen-
hall and David Vance, 3–13. Reproduced by permission of Greenwood Publishing
Group, Inc., Westport, CT.
Bearman, D. (1995) ‘Standards for networked cultural heritage’ Archives and Museums
Informatics: Cultural Heritage Informatics Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 3, 279–307. Reproduced
with kind permission.
xvi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Manovich, L. (1999) ‘Database as symbolic form’ Convergence, vol. 5, no. 2, 80–99.

Reproduced by kind permission of Sage Publications.
MacDonald, G. and Alsford, S. (1991) ‘The museum as information utility’ Museum
Management and Curatorship, vol. 10, 305–11. Reproduced by permission of Taylor &
Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Cameron, F. (2005) ‘Digital futures II: museum collections, documentation and shifting
knowledge paradigms’ Collections – A Journal for Museum and Archive Professionals, vol.
1, no. 3, February, 243–59. Reproduced by permission of Altamira Press.
Parry, R. Poole, N. and Pratty, J. (2008) ‘Semantic dissonance: do we need (and do we
understand) the semantic web?’ in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds) Museums and theWeb
2008: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics. Reproduced with kind
permission.
Lévy P. (2005) ‘Building a universal digital memory’, report prepared for the Virtual
Museum of Canada in Steve Dietz, Howard Besser, Ann Borda and Kati Geber
(eds) Virtual Museum (of Canada): the next generation, Canadian Heritage Information
Network, 55–62. Reproduced by kind permission of CHIN (Canadian Heritage
Information Network) and Professor Lévy.

2. Space: visits, virtuality and distance

Huhtamo, E. ‘On the origins of the virtual museum’. Reproduced by kind permission of
Erkki Huhtamo.
Battro, A. (1999) ‘From Malraux’s imaginary museum to the virtual museum’, Xth World
Federation of Friends Congress, Sydney, September 13–18.
Bandelli, A. (1999) ‘Virtual spaces and museums’ Journal of Museum Education vol. 24, no. 1/2,
20–22. © Museum Education Roundtable, available from www.LCoastPress.com.
Jackson, R. (1996) ‘The virtual visit: towards a new concept for the electronic science
centre’, paper presented at the conference Here and Now: improving the presentation
of contemporary science and technology in museums and science centres, Science Museum,
London, 21–23 November. Reproduced with kind permission.
Galani, A. and Chalmers, M. (2005) ‘Empowering the remote visitor: supporting social
museum visits among local and remote visitors’ in Alexandra Bounia, Niki Niko-
nanou and Maria Economou (eds) I Technologia stin Ipiresia tis Politismikis Klironomias
(Technology for Cultural Heritage), Athens, Kaleidoskopio, 2008 (ISBN 978-960-471-
001-0) (articles in Greek and English). Reproduced by permission of Kaleidoscope
Publications.
Arvanitis, K. (2005) ‘Museums outside walls: mobile phones and the museum in the
everyday’ in IADIS International Conference: Mobile Learning 2005, Qawra, Malta.
Reproduced with kind permission.

3. Access: ability, usability and connectivity

Abungu, L. (2002) ‘Access to digital heritage in Africa: bridging the digital divide’ Museum
Internationall vol. 54, no. 3, 29–34. Reproduced by permission of Wiley-Blackwell.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xvii

Carey, K. (2004) ‘My dream of an accessible web culture for disabled people’, UK
Museums and the Web Conference, University of Leicester. Reproduced with kind
permission.
Carey, K., ‘My dream of an accessible web culture for disabled people: a re-evaluation’.
Reproduced with kind permission.
Kelly, B., Phipp, L. and Howell C. (2005) ‘Implementing a holistic approach to e-learning
accessibility’ in Cook, J. and Whitelock, D. Exploring the Frontiers of E-Learning:
Borders, Outposts and Migration, ALT-C 2005 12th International Conference Research
Proceedings, ALT Oxford. © Association for Learning Technology. Reproduced by
kind permission of the Association for Learning Technology.
Cunliffe, D., Kritou, E. and Tudhope, D., (2001) ‘Usability evaluation for museum web
sites’ Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 19, no. 3, 229–52. Reproduced by
permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals.
Makkuni, R. (2003) ‘Culture as a driver of innovation’, ICHIM (Paris, France, Archives &
Museum Informatics Europe, 2003). Reproduced with kind permission.

4. Interpretation: communication, interactivity and learning

Walsh, P. (1997) ‘The web and the unassailable voice’ Archives and Museum Informatics vol.
11, no. 2, 77–85. Reproduced with permission.
Frost, O.C. (2002) ‘When the object is digital: properties of digital surrogate objects and
implications for learning’ in Paris, Scott G. (ed.) Perspectives on Object-centered Learning
in Museums, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 79–94. Reproduced
by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals.
Roussou, M. (2004) ‘Learning by doing and learning through play’ Computers in Entertain-
ment, vol. 2, no. 1, 1–23. Reproduced by kind permission of ACM Publications.
Heath C. and vom Lehn, D., Interactivity and Collaboration: new forms of participation in
museums, galleries and science centres. Reproduced with kind permission.
Gammon, B. (1999) ‘Visitors’ use of computer exhibits. Findings from five grueling years
of watching visitors getting it wrong’ The Informal Learning Review w 1112-a. Repro-
duced by kind permission of the Informal Learning Experiences Inc.

5. Object: authenticity, authority and trust

Müller, K. (2002) ‘Museums and virtuality’ Curator, vol. 45, no. 1, 21–33. Reproduced
by kind permission of Altamira Press.
Trant, J. (1998) ‘When all you’ve got is ‘The Real Thing’: museums and authenticity in
the networked world’ Archives and Museum Informatics, vol. 12, 107–25. Reproduced
with kind permission.
Clifford, L. (2000) ‘Authenticity and integrity in the digital environment: an explora-
tory analysis of the central role of trust’ in Authenticity in a Digital Environment ed. by
Council on Library and Information Resources. Reproduced with the kind permis-
sion of the Council on Library and Information Resources, Washington, DC.
Pachter, M. (2002) ‘Why museums matter’, keynote address to Common Threads, MDA
Conference. Reproduced with permission.
xviii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Lyman P. and Besser, H. (1998) ‘Defining the problem of our vanishing memory: back-
ground, current status, models for resolution’ in Margaret MacLean and Ben H.
Davis (eds) Time and Bits: managing digital continuity, Los Angeles: Getty Conserva-
tion Institution, Getty Information Institute and The Long Now Foundation, 11–20.
Reproduced with kind permission.
Gansallo, M. (2002) Curating New Media, Third Baltic International Seminar 10–12 May
2001, Sarah Cook, Beryl Graham and Sarah Martin eds, Gateshead: Baltic, 61–72.
Reproduced with permission.

6. Delivery: production, evaluation and sustainability

Stiff, M. (2002) Managing New Technology Projects in Museums and Galleries, 13–25.
Cambridge © Collections Trust, 2002. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with kind
permission.
Conway, P., (2000) ‘Rationale for digitization and preservation’ in Maxine K. Sitts (ed.)
Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access. © 2000
Northeast Document Conservation Center. Reproduced with permission.
Colson F. and Colson, J., ‘Speaking for themselves: new media’ and ‘Making the modern
world’. Reproduced with permission.
Economou, M.(1998) ‘The evaluation of museum multimedia applications: lessons from
research’ Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 17, no. 2, 173–87. Reproduced
with permission.
Zorich, D.M. (2003) A Survey on Digital Cultural Heritage Initiatives and Their Sustainabil-
ity Concerns, Washington DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, June,
pp. 22–32.

7. Futures: priorities, approaches and aspirations

Šola,T. (1997) ‘Making the total museum possible’ in Tomislav Šola (ed.) Essays on Museums
and Their Theory, Finland: Finnish Museums Association, 268–275. Reproduced by
kind permission of the Finnish Museums Association.
Castells, M. (2001) ‘Museums in the information era: cultural connectors of time and
space’ ICOM News, special issue vol. 54, no. 3, 4–7. Keynote Address at the nineteenth
General Conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Barcelona.
Reproduced with kind permission.
Knell, S. (2003) ‘The shape of things to come: museums in the technological landscape’
Museum and Societyy vol. 1, no. 3, 132–46. Reproduced with kind permission.
Parry, R. (2005) ‘Digital heritage and the rise of theory in museum computing’ Museum
Management and Curatorship, vol. 20, no. 4, 333–48. Reproduced by permission of
Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals.
Chapter 1

The Practice of Digital Heritage

and the Heritage of Digital Practice

Ross Parry

The evidence of change

Museums have much to show for their four decades of computing. And like any
professional sector that has learned the hard way to assimilate ‘new technology’,
there is equal measure of factors to rue as there are to celebrate. As institutions they
can reflect upon several decades of caution provoked by a set of technologies that for
a long time, for most museums, were seen as expensive, high-risk, over-hyped and
requiring an unfamiliar up-skilling of the workforce. Just as easily, however, many of
these same museums can today equally point to new directorates, new workflows
and new strategic aims within their organisations, as well as new funding streams and
government priorities externally, that are now shaped and driven by the presence
and push of digital provision. In a similar way – as venues – museums might recall
some of their initial defensiveness to Internet technologies that appeared to encour-
age an arms-length proxy contact with collections and that seemed to threaten even
the primacy of the physical visit event itself. And yet, two decades after the birth
of the Web, museums increasingly see their distributed online audiences as impor-
tant as those physically on site. Ever more these same museums see their remit as
supporting collection-based experiences wherever those experiences may take place
(be it gallery space or domestic space, city centre or school), and through whatever
medium is most appropriate (be it exhibition or publication, blog or documentary).
As exhibitors, museums will remember the reticence and suspicion once showed to
digital resources and to digital interactives, and how problematic it first seemed to
accommodate the ‘new media’ within environments whose credence was under-
stood to come principally from the presence of genuine, material objects.Yet, today,
the contemporary museum sector is one in which digital culture is now actively
collected, where computer-based interpretive media allows exhibitions to support
2 R O S S PA R R Y

experiences in more flexible, creative and empowering ways, and where institutions
are tuning their modes of delivery and audience engagement to the emerging chan-
nels of our evolving digital society. As keepers and researchers of collections, museums
can look back on what (at least with the privilege of hindsight) might appear as the
awkwardness and contrivance of some of the first attempts to make the free-playing
and expressive world of individual curatorship fit into the new standardised systems
and data models that first accompanied museum computing. However, since then,
more vivid and much more important has been the way these new computer-based
systems have buttressed a more efficient approach by museums to fulfilling their
ethical responsibility of managing their collections data. With the case now soundly
made for digital collections management systems (databases in the museum), what
strikes us today is both the growing willingness and the increased ability of museums
to interrogate, inter-connect, share and (even) let go of their collections data within
and without the sector. Today, it is irrefutable that computing has had a profound
effect on how museums manage and make visible their collections. In each of these
cases – as organisation and attraction, as communicatorr and collectorr – there is for the
museum an abundance of evidence (as indeed will become clear in the chapters that
follow in this volume) to illustrate almost a half-century of development enabled by
digital technology.
Unfortunately, sourcing this evidence has tended to be far from straightfor-
ward. The resources and the literature, the examples and evidence, the dialogues
and debates that together constitute ‘digital heritage’ have tended to be dispersed –
located in some quite different forums and media. For instance, a curator attempting
to locate and identify precedent and best practice in digital heritage, might initially
reach for published guides and manuals – much like those represented in Chapter
35 (on project management) or Chapter 36 (on digitisation). However, this prac-
titioner is also likely to turn to the several professional curators groups, such as the
Museum Computer Network (MCN) and the Museums Computer Group (MCG)
and special interest web communities and professional network sites whose activity
and membership is focused on museum technology. Typically, the regular meet-
ings and conferences of these sorts of communities (along with their newsletters and
publications, their email discussion lists and website resources) offer colleagues in
the sector practical and candid advice and support; Carey’s presentation to the MCG
(Chapter 19) is an illustration of one such interaction. It is within the meeting halls
and blogrolls of such groups that an important part of the principles and practice of
digital heritage are shared and (constructively) opened to scrutiny. Alternatively, a
student or scholar attempting to undertake and investigate digital heritage research
may also gravitate towards journals with a commitment to publishing in this area (as
in the case of Cameron’s paper, Chapter 9), or, increasingly, to the growing book-
shelf of volumes now positioned by authors and publishers alike as being distinctively
‘digital heritage’ titles (MacDonald 2006; Cameron and Kenderdine 2007; Din and
Hecht 2007; Kalay et al. 2007; Marty and Burton Jones 2007; Parry 2007; Tallon
and Walker 2008). As an expanding corpus of literature, these texts are testimony
to digital heritage’s maturing identity and intellectual confidence as a subject; as
described, for example, in Chapter 43’s discussion on the ‘cultural turn’ in museum
computing. However, a commercial developer trying to determine the needs and
Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Electron Eat
Electron
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Electron Eat Electron

Author: Noel M. Loomis

Release date: November 5, 2020 [eBook #63638]

Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELECTRON EAT

ELECTRON ***
Electron Eat Electron
 By NOEL LOOMIS

(Editor's note: When we had read through

this in-a-class-by-itself story, we exclaimed,
"Here's PLANET'S scoop on the world!" What do
you think? Does Mr. Loomis answer the
questions: "How will future wars be fought?
Will civilization be destroyed?")

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Planet Stories Spring 1946.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Supreme General Hoshawk, chief of staff, watched with piercing gray
eyes while the President of the United States of the Western
Hemisphere, Jeffrey Wadsworth, lay relaxed under a cosmic-ray lamp,
with no covering but a towel over his loins.
The surgeon-general of the Hemispheric Armies raised his hand, and
the lamp receded.
"Is that enough?" Hoshawk asked dryly.
"It's the maximum, even for him," said the surgeon-general. "His
reflexes will be faster than light itself."
Hoshawk grunted, his eyes narrow. As far as he could see, the speed
of a man's reflexes, even of a man who was about to champion
seven hundred million persons, wasn't as important as the man's
loyalty or his sense of personal responsibility. And Hoshawk did not
have much use for Wadsworth.
Augusto Iraola of Brazil, deputy president for South America, stepped
forward from the group of forty men. He asked the President
anxiously, "How do you feel?" Iraola was old and bearded.
"Not bad," said the President, and his voice squeaked a little as it
changed pitch.
The Minister of State, with a big portfolio under his arm, said,
"Shouldn't we prepare the vice president?"
Morrison, vice president for Canada, spoke pedantically, "It would be
a tragedy to lose President Wadsworth. Last month his I.Q. was 340,
nearly twenty points above any other member of the Mutant
College."
Hoshawk barely caught himself in time to repress a snort. A boy of
sixteen, no matter what his I.Q., was just a kid. You couldn't expect
him to exhibit initiative or even to take things seriously. That was why
Hoshawk had almost broken with the Hemispheric Congress thirty
years before—almost two of President Jeffrey's lifetimes, Hoshawk
reflected wryly.
The voice of the President, slightly amused, came to them. "I'm all
right now," he said. "I think I ate too much ice cream last night. Nine
dishes."
There were gasps. Hoshawk held back his sarcasm, but he could not
refrain from a triumphant glance at the ancient Minister of State, who
avoided his eyes.
Iraola was volatile. "Sabotage!" he said.
President Wadsworth licked his lips with the tip of his tongue. "No,
the new pineapple-avocado. Very good, gentlemen. I recommend it."
The neuro-analyst whipped a graph from his machine. Hoshawk
barely looked at the graph. "Speed of reaction down to zero, point,
nine zeros, three, four—three times normal speed. Let's get on with
the war."

The President's eyes had been fixed hopefully on Hoshawk's grizzled

face, and at Hoshawk's words he relaxed. His muscles rippled an
instant, and then he was standing.
It was always a little shock to Hoshawk to see him move. It wasn't
right that any man, even a Superior Mutant, should be able to move
faster than light-speed. You didn't dare to trust a man like that.
Forty august heads—all but Hoshawk's—inclined as the President
stood there, but the President just smiled at them and yawned and
stretched luxuriously.
Hoshawk was annoyed, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The Hemispheric Congress had set up the Mutant College two
hundred years ago, and every child with I.Q. above 200 and physique
to match, became a member, for the sole purpose of selecting a
President whose primary duty would be to fight a war, if it should
come in his term, on one of the giant keyboards. This had been a
concession to left-wing agitation that, if there was to be another war,
it should be fought by the leaders and not by the ranks.
The Mutant College had been established when the Hunyas had
overrun Europe and Asia, and now for two centuries there had been
no war, but only preparation for war, East against West, through
systems of selection and training closely parallel, but with a
difference that was forever in Hoshawk's mind—if he was a capable
man, the Hunyas kept him for twenty-one years. And obviously you
could depend a lot more on a man of thirty-five than you could on a
boy of sixteen.
Forgacs, president of the Hunyas, was thirty-three—an old man for a
mutant, and smart and clever as only a mutant could be at that age.
Yesterday the Hunyas had challenged.
It was sudden, but not unexpected. There was no reason for delay.
At six o'clock tonight the two hemispheres would match force, and by
eight o'clock it would be over.

Jeffrey Wadsworth moved. One instant he was before them with a

towel around the middle of his bronze body, the next instant he was
standing there dressed in light plastic slippers, red trunks and a
sleeveless blue shirt. If Hoshawk hadn't been so old, he would have
been envious of the President's physique.
"Gentlemen," Jeffrey said, "I am ready to go to the Chamber." He
rubbed his bare midriff in the region of his stomach.
"Are you ill?" Hoshawk asked quickly.
"No," Jeffrey watched the forty statesmen file out.
"Sire," said Hoshawk, and his manner was respectful, for this boy of
sixteen was his commander-in-chief, "I still wish we had trained a few
thousand men in the use of weapons. I don't see how we can fight a
war with electronic tubes."
Jeffrey looked at him gravely. "War with men is primitive. Lives can't
be replaced."
Hoshawk sputtered. "There's never been any civilized war."
"This time there will be," Jeffrey said confidently.
"But—"
"We'll win," Jeffrey repeated. "We must win." And Hoshawk caught a
flash of something deep in his eyes. Hoshawk could not quite identify
it, and yet he knew it spoke of the inner wisdom and conviction of
the young. And in that direction, Hoshawk reasoned, lay their
weakness.
"There'll be trickery from Forgacs," Hoshawk predicted.
"Quite possible," said Wadsworth. "I don't trust him, myself. He
challenged on a technicality."
Hoshawk was gratified to hear a worried note in the President's voice.
"He claimed we violated the Agreement of 2118," he said, probing,
"by keeping scientific discoveries to ourselves."
Wadsworth answered quietly, "Then he challenged because he
himself had secrets that he believed more potent."
"Nevertheless," said Hoshawk, "a few hundred men trained in the use
of tanks—"
Jeffrey shook his head. "And revert to the primitive," he pointed out.
"If the world is ever to get away from that kind of war, this is the
time to prove it."
"And if we lose, we do so at the expense of a hemisphere."
"That's true," Jeffrey said calmly. "But if we should win by using men
and destroying lives, we would do so at the expense of a civilization.
By the act of reverting to the use of human fighters, we would
convince the world that war could not be fought electronically."
They reached the door of the Chamber. The President shook hands
with Iraola and with Hoshawk.
"Wish me luck," he said lightly.
They inclined their heads, and when they looked up, the President
was seated on a beryllium stool that traveled a three-quarter circle
before the great bank of keys like the keyboard of a giant organ. He
pulled on a glass helmet and adjusted the sonic amplifiers to his
mastoids. He flicked the oxygen valve open and shut, and then
looked at it and listened intently.
Hoshawk saw an instant's doubt on the President's face. Hoshawk
wondered if the valve was leaking, and frowned. The Chamber had
been tested exhaustively, but with hundreds of thousands of circuits,
cut-backs, by-passes, and relays, it was possible the oxygen valve
had been overlooked.

Jeffrey strapped himself into the chair. The chronometer showed five
minutes before the Hour. The President looked at the huge curved
map of the Atlantic, now aglow with light above the big keyboard. His
eyes swept the thousands of ivory keys and he rubbed his hands
together for a final limbering of his fingers.
He spoke, and his intent voice came to them through the amplifier:
"HHQ."
"North America is completely evacuated, Sire, to the Polar ice-cap.
There is now no human being on the continent. The Hunyas refused
our request to declare New York an open city, and it was evacuated
thirty minutes ago."
The President called for a chronometer check. The instrument in the
Chamber had lost two hundredths of a second, and Hoshawk could
see that Jeffrey was making a mental note of that. He was forced to
admit that the young mutant was thorough.
There were two minutes left. Jeffrey sat straight before the great
keyboard, poised an instant, and then his incredibly facile fingers
played the keys, flashing from one bank to the next, shooting the
chair to right and to left, while he watched the map above him and
the great bank of lights on each side. Then he leaned back, relaxed.
Hoshawk was glad now they were playing it safe. Jeffrey had insisted
on the Midwest Chamber in preference to the Pacific or Atlantic
station. For this was modern war. There would be only one person
killed. This was a war of electronics, deadly and final, but no one
would be actually killed but the losing President. That was decreed by
the Six-Continent Council.
It was one minute before the hour. The President pressed a key.
The Starter answered: "President Wadsworth, are you ready?"
"Ready," said Jeffrey in a high voice.
Hoshawk heard the Starter's voice: "President Forgacs, are you
ready?"
"Ja," came the deep voice of the Hunyas president.
Jeffrey flicked the oxygen valve for a second, snapped it off, and
Hoshawk saw him glance down at it. Then Jeffrey sat poised, all the
alertness of his incredible mind bearing intently on the map before
him.
A bell sounded. The war was on!
Jeffrey did not move. He waited, and watched. Ten trillion electronic
tubes would flash their information on the Map. He waited—one
minute, two minutes, five minutes. The Map was dark.
So Forgacs wanted him to move first.
Jeffrey flicked the oxygen and his chair shot to the left. His fingers
blurred into movement. He shot back to the center of the keyboard
and focused his entire intellect on the Map.
A dozen tiny red lights rose off the coast of Newfoundland and raced
eastward. Each light represented a thousand rockets loaded with
thirty tons of DTN. One of those rockets would wipe Berlin from the
earth—if it struck.
But Hoshawk knew the President did not expect them to reach
Europe.
They did not. Near the coast of Holland they began to wink out. One
got as far as Cologne.
If the Chamber had been above ground instead of three hundred feet
deep in solid rock, they would have felt the concussion, for DTN's
powerful waves traveled at the speed of light.
Still there was no answer.
Jeffrey's fingers played for an instant on the keys. Red lights rose
from Labrador, from near Boston, from Florida, and streaked east—
not for Berlin this time, but for Marseilles.
Jeffrey was testing Forgacs' explosive screen. It was wholly effective;
one after the other, the trains of red lights winked out.
But now there was an answer. From the Bay of Biscay red lights with
black dots on them began to wink on as the mammoth tabulating
machine in the room below recorded the information from thousands
of hidden electronic tubes, totaled it, and presented it on the Map.
The President hardly watched them. His screen with its principal
power-plant in Philadelphia would stop the rockets, up to a total of
some seventy-five octillion macro-ergs.
On the off chance that Forgacs would forget to close his screen after
his rockets had passed it, Jeffrey fired a salvo from the Bahamas.
Forgacs answered with three salvos from Brest, and Jeffrey gave him
back ten from Long Island, then Hoshawk frowned as he saw the
President rub his stomach. Hoshawk had always opposed that
abominable atavistic confection called ice cream.
It was a game of incredibly swift calculation and rapier thrusts from
strong point to strong point in the effort to break through the screen.
Once the screen should be broken, anything might happen.

Jeffrey could see when his own screen was up, but their science had
devised no way to detect the enemy's screen except by firing into it.
Jeffrey pressed a pedal with his left foot, and a thin golden line
flashed on in a flattened arc from Greenland down through the
Atlantic and curved around the Falkland Islands.
Jeffrey's screen was up. The Biscay salvos began to wink out against
it. Jeffrey's hands began to flash. Red lights winking up along the
coast of Europe and from North Africa showed that Forgacs was
opening up.
Jeffrey cut in the oxygen for a second and flicked it off, then his left
foot slashed at the pedal as he cut his screen to let his own rockets
through and then threw it on again to stop the enemy.
Forgacs was beginning a drive on Philadelphia, the site of the power
plant. Jeffrey was watching for an opening to Marseilles, vulnerable
for the same reason.
Jeffrey kept firing rockets, but his mutant mind would be racing
ahead, calculating with infinite precision the times of discharge and
times of arrival.
It was apparent by now that Forgacs' most powerful defenses were
centered around Marseilles, because Forgacs was not using them.
This meant he was not taking a chance on opening the Marseilles
sector of the screen.
Jeffrey calculated the probable interchange of batteries for some sixty
moves ahead, Hoshawk knew, then he began to fire the Philadelphia
batteries at intervals.
The firing rose in intensity, and Jeffrey's faster-than-light fingers
played the great keyboard like a master organ. A bell sounded and
his right foot threw on the western screen with its automatic cut-out.
And all the time Jeffrey fired his big Philadelphia batteries at intervals
with a definite rhythm—five, three, and six seconds.
He shot to the right and manipulated a bank of keys and was back in
the center almost instantaneously.
He did not pause in his rocket salvos, but in three minutes and eight
seconds his first salvo of one-ton atom bombs would reach the
Marseilles screen. If he had calculated correctly, the Marseilles screen
would be open for an instant just as the atom bombs reached it. He
didn't think Forgacs could resist the temptation to blast Philadelphia
with his Marseilles batteries.
Presently a thousand red lights winked up from the screen at
Marseilles. But Forgacs overlooked the atom bombs. They were
slower than the rockets, and there was no way to tell, from the Map,
which was which.
Jeffrey shot a look at the chronometer, and Hoshawk saw the atom
bombs go through. A few seconds later the glow in Marseilles began
to redden, and Hoshawk exulted. The atom bombs had done their
work. The Marseilles screen was weakening.
Jeffrey played the keys with fantastic speed. The war would soon be
over. Thousands of little red lights began streaking toward Marseilles.
At first they exploded in air as they hit the screen, but as the
explosive force of the DTN began to drain the screen, those behind
began to pour through.
But there was a flash from Philadelphia, and a shock went through
Hoshawk. Something was wrong there. Jeffrey hadn't intended that.
Forgacs had used atom bombs and had broken through when the
screen was down.
Jeffrey's fingers snatched at the oxygen valve. He tore it off and
threw it on the floor. He still held one important advantage. He was
ahead of Forgacs by forty seconds.
Philadelphia went out and the golden defensive screen began to fade,
but Jeffrey, tensely erect, stayed on the attack. Hundreds of green
lights began to rise around Marseilles—great submarines, controlled
by electronics and carrying tanks and guns and explosives.
The green lights converged on Marseilles. They got through the
screen. Now was the big gamble. Jeffrey guessed that Forgacs would
operate from an underground chamber near Marseilles itself.
It wasn't a logical thing to do, and so Forgacs would do it, believing
that Jeffrey would pass Marseilles and go inland to find the Chamber.
Jeffrey let him believe that. He sent eight thousand giant electron-
controlled bombers through the Marseilles gap and straight for Berlin.
The green lights started winking on the coast of France, showing the
submarines were unloading amphibious tanks. Jeffrey started them
out across France at high speed. Near Paris they met heavy
resistance from Forgacs' tank-killers.
But now Jeffrey had more trouble. Forgacs had slipped a salvo of
atom bombs into the Labrador power station, and the entire north
quadrant of Jeffrey's screen was down. And just at that instant, the
automatic breaker failed and a tube burned out in the Montevideo
power station, and the southern half of South America was exposed.
Green lights began to wink up at the open spaces.

Jeffrey was grim. It was near the end. Dog eat dog. His flying fingers
chose to ignore Forgacs' attack, beyond firing millions of salvos of
small rockets which were little better than a delaying action.
There were only two targets in this war—the Chambers.
Jeffrey released his trump—thirty-five hundred flying robot tanks.
They rocketed through the Marseilles screen and came on the city
from the land side, firing eight-inch rockets and shooting flames out
half a mile ahead.
But this was a feint, too. From the sea now rose a great armada of
robot submarine carriers that spewed out tanks that were little more
than armored tank-cars filled with jellied XPR, which exploded always
down, toward the center of gravitation. They poured out the jelly on
the surface around Marseilles for a distance of twenty miles until
according to Jeffrey's figures the ground was covered a foot thick.
The flame-throwers roared into it and Jeffrey stopped them there.
Then he fired his last salvo of atom-bombs from the Bahamas.
In the meantime, Forgacs' tanks had overrun Boston, searching for
the American Chamber.
The lights began to wink out, and Hoshawk knew that Boston was
being destroyed.
Orange lights, indicating bombers, were heading for Chicago, and
Hoshawk knew that if Jeffrey's guess on Marseilles was bad, he had
not much longer to live.
He looked at the Map. The atom-bombs were at Marseilles. A glow
showed around the twenty-mile circle that he had covered with jelly,
and Hoshawk knew the atom-bombs had landed.
He knew that on the other continent, the most tremendous explosion
in man's history was taking place. And when it was over there would
be a mile-deep crater where Marseilles had been, and anything, no
matter how deep it was buried, would be destroyed by concussion.
Jeffrey still played the keys, but his eyes were on the orange lights
approaching Chicago.
They reached Chicago, perhaps directly over their heads, but
Hoshawk felt no bombs. A moment later the planes were still going
westward.
Jeffrey called the Starter. "Does Forgacs concede?" he asked.
There was a moment's delay, then, "Forgacs does not answer."
The President let out an undignified whoop. He tore off the straps
that held him in the chair, threw his helmet across the Chamber. "We
won!"
The Hemispheric diplomats were gathering excitedly in the corridor.
Jeffrey unsealed the Chamber.
Hoshawk shook hands with him. "You did it," he said gruffly. "I
apologize for ever thinking—"
The Chamber shuddered, and Hoshawk paled, but Jeffrey held up his
hand. He glanced at the chronometer. "That was Marseilles blowing
up," he said.
His feet moved and he was gone. In a moment he was back. "Excuse
me, gentlemen," he begged. "I've got to see the squad. Just figured
out a way to beat the Blues. If you—"
He stopped, frowned.
He had felt it before they did—a distant blast. Then they heard it—a
dull explosion through three hundred feet of solid rock above them.
The floor shuddered under their feet.
It came again, and again, farther away. A pattern. Then off
somewhere else came another string of explosions.
The forty august heads stared at the ceiling. Mouths were open, but
the President's mutant brain in seconds analyzed the possibilities and
came up with the answer:
"Atom-bombs!"
"Impossible!" growled Hoshawk. "Forgacs' Chamber was destroyed."
The President was already back in the Chamber. He pressed a key.
"Starter," came the answer. "Forgacs' Chamber is destroyed. You have
won the war."
Hoshawk was behind him. "But he's still firing, isn't he?"
"No." The President was icily alert. He pointed to the big map. There
were no red pin-points that would indicate rockets or bombs coming
from the European continent. "The Chamber is gone. Undeniably
gone."
A new pattern of bomb-bursts came from above. "Chicago must be
destroyed by now," said the President harshly. He pointed to a
blacked-out area on the ground-glass screen above. "There are no
detector tubes left above us. But look—orange lights. Thousands of
them coming from the sea on the Maryland coast. And look there, to
the right. One—two—fifteen thousand bombers coming!"
Hoshawk nodded as if he had known it all the time. "Sure. He has
men in those planes. Live men who can observe and act
independently. He's throwing hundreds of thousands of planes and
submarine tractors and mobile bomb-throwers at us—all operated by
men. And Forgacs himself is here, leading them. We're whipped, Sire!
Where is your civilization now?"

Wadsworth was calm. He was taking it like a man, anyway. He threw

a lever and poised at the great keyboard, then his mutant fingers
began to work in blurred movement.
Hoshawk watched the screen above. The Atlantic filled with long
trains of red lights that arose from their American bases and
streamed eastward.
Hoshawk blinked. "You're firing everything. And you've locked the
controls."
Wadsworth didn't look up. "In five minutes," he said, "there won't be
an ounce of explosive left in any emplacement in America."
"But that's—" Hoshawk started to say "foolish," but he changed it.
"That won't help, Sire. Forgacs' equipment is all over here, now."
But Wadsworth leaned back. Their golden explosive screen showed
no longer on the Map. Already some of the emplacements had
ceased to spew out red lights, and the tail-ends of their trains were
disappearing to the east.
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookultra.com