Scientific Gazette, The

   Juvenile periodical written by HPL, 1899–1909. Copies at JHL.

   The hectographed paper was HPL’s first venture in scientific writing, initially inspired by his interest in chemistry beginning in 1898 but later expanding to cover a wider range of scientific topics. Thirtytwo issues survive: 1, No. 1 (March 4, 1899); New Issue 1, No. 1 (May 12, 1902); 3, No. 1 (August 16, 1903); 3, No. 2 (August 23, 1903); 3, No. 3 (August 30, 1903); 3, No. 4 (September 6, 1903); 3, No. 5 (September 13, 1903); 3, No. 6 (September 30, 1903); 3, Odd Number 1 (September 22, 1903); 3, Odd Number 2 (September 23, 1903); 3, No. 10 [sic] (September 27, 1903); 3, No. 11 [sic] (October 4, 1903); 3, No. 11 [sic] odd (October 8, 1903); 3, No. 9 (October 11, 1903); 3, No. 10 (October 18, 1903); 3, No. 4 odd (October 20, 1903); 3, No. 11 (October 25, 1903); 3, No. 12 (November 1, 1903); 3, No. 13 (November 8, 1903); 3, No. 14 (November 15, 1903); 3, No. 15 (November 22, 1903); 3, No. 16 (November 29, 1903); 3, No. 17 (December 6, 1903); 3, No. 18 (December 13, 1903); 3, No. 19 (December 20, 1903); 3, No. 20 (December 27, 1903); 3, No. 21 (January 3, 1904); 3, No. 22 (January 10, 1904); 3, No. 23 (January 17, 1904); 3, No. 24 (January 24, 1904); 3, No. 25 (January 31, 1904); 10, No. 11 (January 1909).

   The first issue consists of two sentences: “There was a great explosion in the Providence Laboratory this afternoon. While experimenting some potassium blew up causing great damage to everyone.” HPL notes that at this time the magazine was a daily but that it “soon degenerated into a weekly” ( SL1.37). We are clearly missing any subsequent issues of Volume 1 and all issues of Volume 2. There may not have been very many of these, as HPL notes in the issue of May 12, 1902: “The Scientific Gazette, so long discontinued, has been resumed.” The price is now raised from 1? to 2?. HPL states ( Rhode Island Journal of Astronomy,July 30, 1905) that the paper was revived in May 1904 as a monthly, but no issues survive; the September 16, 1905, issue of the Rhode Island Journal of Astronomyannounces that the Scientific Gazetteis now discontinued. In the September 1906 issue of the Rhode Island JournalHPL states that his boyhood friend Arthur Fredlund had taken over as editor of the Scientific Gazette,but no issues produced under Fredlund’s editorship are extant. HPL’s fleeting revival of his juvenile paper when he was eighteen years old (and some months after he withdrew from high school without a diploma because of a nervous breakdown) is a poignant indication of the sense of hopelessness he felt at this setback to his intellectual and emotional maturation.