The Man with Four Dimensional Eyes

This story is in some ways similar to H G Wells’ “The Remarkable Case of Davidson’s Eyes” and “The Plattner Story”

Emmett Gaylor is a not-so-known physicist working on matters of the fourth dimension and in particular, transmission of matter through it. A year ago, following the publishing of Gaylor’s short paper concerning his theories upon hyper-space in an obscure scientific periodical, he was contacted by Gordon Fellows, a blind young millionaire who offered him an “excellent workshop and an unlimited supply of money with which to carry out his experiments.”.

Obligatory, if very brief, rationale of fourth dimension follows.

Professor Gaylor succeeds in his experiments and Fellows explains to him how he, while blind in our world, can see a different reality which interlaces with ours thanks to the fourth dimension and the varied arrangements of atoms. In this other reality, he is able to see another planet, Calda, occupying the same spatial neighborhood as earth.

“Your description, Mr. Fellows, bears out my contentions concerning hyper-space. It has long been my belief that two objects can and do occupy the same spot, that the fourth dimension is simply an extension of matter into the realm of invisibility, that frugal nature is not content with having produced one type of life, but hurries on to fill the same place with another. Assuming as we do that the atomic and electronic structure of all matter, be it organic or inorganic, is identical, as, for instance, this piece of wood is composed of the same atoms as the skin composing my hands, differing only in appearance and quality because of the manner in which the protons and electrons are ‘hooked’ together, it is reasonable to suppose that two different objects whose atoms are hooked together differently again, can and do occupy the same space at the same time.”

He has fallen in love with a Caldanian and wishes to be transmitted there (“blind though I am to the things of this world, my interest lay entirely in those of Calda.”), where he won’t be blind nor be cursed with a vision through the fourth dimension.

A fairly badly written story…