Otto Gail
Otto Willi Gail was a German-born author and engineer, notable for his contributions to science fiction and technical writing in the early 20th century. Born in 1896, he served as an artillery officer during World War I and later pursued studies in electrical engineering and mathematics. However, financial challenges led him to abandon his academic pursuits and initially work as a typewriter salesman before transitioning into freelance writing. Gail wrote extensively on astronomy and related scientific topics, crafting meticulously researched works that inspired many in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics.
Among his notable contributions is the nonfiction book "Wir plaudern uns durch die physik" ("Romping Through Physics"), which garnered translation and recognition in the United States. His science fiction novel "Der Schuss ins all" ("The Shot into Infinity") explored the complexities of space travel, contrasting with typical narratives of individual inventors achieving lunar missions. Gail's realistic depictions of rocket technology resonated with readers and foreshadowed the real-life lunar landing in 1969. In his later years, he immigrated to the United States, where he passed away in 1956, shortly before the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union.
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Otto Gail
Writer
- Born: 1896
- Birthplace: Germany
- Died: 1956
- Place of death: United States
Biography
Otto Willi Gail was born in Germany in 1896 and served as an artillery officer in World War I. He studied electrical engineering and mathematics in Munich’s Technische Hochschule (technical high school), but financial difficulties forced him to abandon his studies and seek productive work. He worked briefly as a typewriter salesman but found only frustration in that line of work, and he began dabbling in freelance writing, using his engineering background to get into technical writing.
Gail wrote a number of books on astronomy and other scientific subjects, as well as two science-fiction novels, which were heavily based upon the research of the German rocket experimenters who would ultimately produce the V-2 missile. His work was meticulously researched for technical correctness, and he often has been credited with inspiring an entire generation of German aeronautical and astronautical engineers. Hs nonfiction book, Wir plaudern uns durch die physid (1931; Romping Through Physics, 1933), was translated into English and released in the United States.
Unlike many science-fiction authors, who regularly portrayed lone inventors and small groups successfully building and flying their own rockets to the moon, Gail understood what an immense undertaking a moon shot would be. In his novel, Der Schuss ins all (1925; The Shot into Infinity, 1975), he discussed some of the possible ways of launching a successful space program. However, necessities of plotting forced him to concentrate primarily upon the inventor of the rocket, whose earlier discarded ideas for a solid-fuel rocket had been stolen by a rival. When the rival’s rocket fails and strands the protagonist’s former lady love in space, the protagonist must hurry to the rescue. Although the plot veers toward melodrama, sometimes to the point of the ridiculous, the scenes of acceleration, stage separations, and the space walk to the disabled rocket are astonishingly realistic for a man whose writing was based upon theoretical projections. Because of the work of Gail and other novelists, many science-fiction readers who avidly watched the actual moon landing on July 20, 1969, described an odd feeling of having been there before, simply because the events had been so clearly and carefully described in fiction.
In his later years, Gail immigrated to the United States, where he died in 1956, not long before the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik.