Amazing Stories #2

"In the late 1920s and early 1930s a new literary phenomenon came into being in the United States. This was genre science-fiction, recognized as such and sold as such in between forty and fifty thousand newsstands, drugstores and tobacconists. Although American in origin, it had in part an international ancestry, what with the earlier science-fictions of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and others. But as it now developed, it was something new." E. F. Bleiler, Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years

"At a convention of astronomers, it is proposed that a great new telescope be constructed. It would use a "mercury mirror" along with an "ether beam" to destroy matter which might inhibit the transmission of light through the atmostphere. While exploring with the telescope after its construction, the scientists discover a nearly identical setup on Mars."

"Kirby lands on an Earth-like planet, where he is picked up and imprisoned with a beautiful female genius named Vinda. Kirby wants to return to Earth, but can't find it, so Vinda's uncle explains how he can at least find an alternative Earth. He finally returns, taking Vinda with him, to a slightly different Earth."

[Images via Golden Age Comic Book Stories, summaries via The Internet Speculative Fiction Database]