7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7vacuum tube in which cars were suspended and driven by
the attraction and repulsion of electromagnets. Patents
on a vacuum-tube system of transport were later granted the
inventor, with thrust—acceleration and deceleration—
the chief principle.
Research in Massachusetts
In 1908 Goddard began a long association with Clark
University, Worcester, where he earned his doctorate,
taught physics, and carried out rocket experiments. In his
small laboratory there, he was the first to prove that thrust
and consequent propulsion can take place in a vacuum,
needing no air to push against. He was the first to explore
mathematically the ratios of energy and thrust per
weight of various fuels, including liquid oxygen and liquid
hydrogen. He was also the first to develop a rocket motor
using liquid fuels (liquid oxygen and gasoline), as used in
the German V-2 rocket weapon 15 years later. In a small
structure adjoining his laboratory, a liquid-propelled
rocket in a static test in 1925 “operated satisfactorily and
lifted its own weight,” he wrote. On March 16, 1926, the
world’s first flight of a liquid-propelled rocket engine took
place on his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, Mass., achieving
a brief liftoff.
As is frequently the case with scientific theory and
invention, developments proceeded in various parts of the
world. In achieving liftoff of his small but sophisticated
rocket engine, Goddard carried his experiments further
than did the Russian and German space pioneers of the
day. While Goddard was engaged in building models of a
space-bound vehicle, he was unaware that an obscure
schoolteacher in a remote village of Russia was equally
fascinated by the potential for space flight. In 1903
Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky wrote “Investigations of Space