When the Atoms Failed

Campbell, John W. "When the Atoms Failed." Amazing January 1930. Published as a novel in a two-novel publication When the Atoms Fail/Dragons of Space (vt. When the Atoms Failed & Dragons of Space),[1] John W. Campbell, Jr. and Aladra Septama, author of Dragons of Space. Medford, OR: Armchair Fiction & Music, 2016, in the series "Armchair Sci-Fi & Horror Double Novels.[2]

Campbell's second published story (depending how one defines and counts).

According to Alec Nevala-Lee, Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction (New York: HarperCollins, 2018), the protagonist of the story, "uses an integraph — a machine for doing calculus — to develop atomic power and fend off an invasion from Mars." The itegraph was "an actual instrument that was used to solve differential equations at MIT, and by incorporating it into his story, Campbell provided one of the first descriptions of a computer in science fiction" (Nevala-Lee 31-32).

Also discussed in Warrick The Cybernetic Imagination in Science Fiction.

RDE, finishing, 4Sep19