September 1861

From The Space Library

The magazine Good Words is published in Edinburgh by Alexander Strahan Co. The issue is edited by one of Queen Victoria's ministers, Norman Macleod, and includes an article entitled A Journey Through Space by the Principal of Queen's University in Kingston Ontario, Canada, William Leitch, D.D. In this essay Leitch takes his readers on a hypothetical journey around the solar system and then on to the distant stars. In this article he also expresses his opinion that the rocket is the best method for such a journey and clearly gives a Newtonian explanation for why he thinks this. His remarks also include references to asteroid colonies and even the special effects on the passage of time caused by traveling at super-luminal velocities.