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Author
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Topic: Sarzin's Explorer 1 cover and Van Allen belts
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Axman
Member Posts: 60
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
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posted 06-24-2023 01:30 PM
  
I would be very grateful if anybody could explain to me this seemingly unsolvable discrepancy.It appears to be a stated fact, a universal truth that the Van Allen radiation belts were announced on 1st May 1958 (from sources too innumerable to quote). But... The launch cover for Explorer 1, postmarked Jan 31 pm 1958, which I've always been told is a Sarzin cachet, has this: On our way to the stars Explorer 1 today January 31, 1958 successfully fired into orbit discovered existance [sic] of high radiation... Van Allen belts in space. Now I know some cachets were applied after the envelopes were serviced/cancelled. However, a full three months seems like an excessive period for the commercial production of a launch cover, no matter how early in the timeline history of astrophilately we are talking.This is rather puzzling. I'm left with only two logical alternatives: either the vast majority of science histories has incorrectly dated the discovery of the Van Allen belts, or the widely regarded Sarzin Explorer 1 launch cover is a forgery. Strangely enough I don't actually believe either of my logical conclusions are true. Can anybody shed any light on this mystery?  |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 50731
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-24-2023 02:34 PM
To possibly complicate matters a bit more, the "geomagnetically trapped corpuscular radiation" described by James Van Allen on May 1, 1958, wasn't referred to as the Van Allen [radiation] belts until later that summer when Robert Jastrow coined the term at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting (according to several sources). Van Allen did use the term "belt" to simplify his own description at a press conference held on May 1, 1958, but didn't give himself title credit. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3637
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 06-25-2023 07:49 AM
A most interesting and reputable observation to make Axman! Even though some space cover cachets of that era were more likely printed a couple of weeks(+) afterwards, I just assumed that during the first orbits of Explorer 1 on Jan. 31 and early February 1958, telemetry had been collected since day one in orbit. The cosmic ray detection data from Explorer 1 were collected over ground station passes in Florida, Nigeria, Singapore, California, and with a few other locations along the satellite's 65 degree west meridian positions. Could it be possible that early data from the first weeks of Explorer 1 were leaked in some newspapers and other press reports? But at that time Axman, if I am not mistaken, only the inner radiation belt was detected and confirmed, correct? I do have some original newspaper accounts of Explorer 1's flight, in which I believe, came out in early February 1958 during those first weeks. Let me try to locate those articles and see if the radiation "belt" topic might had been covered in some way or another, rather official or not. Now you got me more curious. The outer belt was not confirmed until a few months later and with the help of Explorer 3, 4, and Pioneer 3 all of that same year. The cachet write-up on the cover, however, does indicate, "....Van Allen belts in space."
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Axman
Member Posts: 60
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
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posted 06-25-2023 09:08 AM
Yes Ken, I've been trying to find newspaper articles contemporary to the period around launch, but so far with no luck online. I am due to go down to London next month and was planning on a visit to Colindale Newspaper Library for another purpose entirely anyway*... I shall have a look there if no other evidence is forthcoming beforehand.*I've just been told that the British Newspaper Library has moved, some years ago apparently. I need to keep up more. Oh well, plan B... |
Ross
Member Posts: 534
From: Australia
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 06-25-2023 09:58 AM
While I cannot comment on this particular cover I can repeat a conversation I had with Jack Koch of Bay stamps. He told me that he sent 100s of blank covers for postmarking and then printed the cachet at his leisure. As a one man band (or later two with his daughter) he said he often was overwhelmed with covers and left the printing for weeks or sometimes months. Maybe this case is similar. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3637
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 06-25-2023 10:53 AM
That's quite similar to what I was trying to point out as well, Ross, in that cancelled covers in the older days of space cover collecting may have been kept for weeks or longer before cachets were printed. But even today, with my own space cover service, I've got some blank covers with cancels — but — with no cachets added-on as yet for various reasons. Once covers were posted back in the day, most had to be mailed off to their cachet makers nationwide. Next would be their delivery to a graphics or print shop (if not done in-house by some cover-stamp companies), and finally, advertised and distributed. Back during the 1950/60's, that whole process from start to finish could take weeks or more. |
Axman
Member Posts: 60
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
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posted 06-25-2023 12:09 PM
I did know that, especially early on, the entire process took some time. I was, I must admit, not sure that three plus months was a legitimate timeframe though. I suppose I am biased by the later buy-to-order market which had/has a turnaround in the days kind of timeframe. But mostly I was swayed by the "propaganda" aspect of the wording on the cachet which is both subtle and highly effective... I refer you back to the cachet where it states "on our way to the stars Explorer 1 today..." For a production some three months later that is a sort of sleight of hand, especially in light of Robert's observation which would put the production of this cover almost six months in the future of 'today'. I'm not complaining, just making an observation. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3637
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 06-27-2023 06:59 AM
Sometimes when writing and using text descriptions on space covers days or a week(s) after they had been posted, I would include words like "today" to indicate a better "real time" connection. Of course, the captions were never done on that same day of the event. A good example of this technique would be the Colorano "silk" cachet cover series along with Philgraf Cachet Covers. Those covers were not completed until a week or more afterwards.Take as an example Apollo 13, of which, I had acquired hundreds of Cape/KSC-cancelled covers for the mission in April 1970 in a bulk space cover buy from an early Cape-area cover servicer. None of those covers had cachets on them. It wasn't until 25 years later that I decided to do a cachet series for them with an approaching Apollo 13 major anniversary number (#25). When preparing the cachet write-ups, Axman, I did include words like "today," "Monday night, after 54 hours of flight..." to indicate it was an eyewitness or "live" observation at the time of the flight, even though it was written 25 years later.
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Axman
Member Posts: 60
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
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posted 06-27-2023 08:32 AM
The arguments are persuasive. I am now swayed, and accept the theory that the cachets were printed quite a considerable time after the event, months not weeks (on envelopes genuinely cancelled on the day in question). | |
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