63 
J 
Hell Roarer resembles Lucifer's fiery furnace. 
from the ground, when a violent electrical storm suddenly came up. 
Following a jagged, brilliant flash of lightning, there came a loud 
clap of thunder.....Borden turned to Katz and remarked: 
"Well, that's either God or Goddard'." 
The most (cursory) inspection of primitive religions shows that 
worship of the sun and of fire was universal. The truth is curiously 
illustrated by the fact' that even our word "Devil" literally means the 
42 
"Shining One" ......The Bible, too, is replete with incidents based 
on the vast importance of fire as symbol and agent - whether divine 
or demonaic, whether the white glory of Heaven or the crimson flares 
43 
of Hell ..... 
In keeping with Marvin Dana's historic comments on the subject, 
the most spectacular of George Goddard's pyrotechnic progeny was part 
devil, part demon, and all fire....It was the "Hell Roarer" - so named 
by Dr. Richard G. Clarke, Director of Air Force research on ordnance 
at Wesleyan University (ORDWES), Windsor Locks, Connecticut....Clarke, 
wincing at the white-hot flame and loud whooshing noises belching forth 
from his latest experiment for General Goddard, probably fancied he had 
opened the door into Lucifer's Fiery Furnace (Figure 33). 
The origin of the idea was the Engineering Studies Unit in 
Goddard's Photographic Laboratory at Wright Field. Sharing in the con 
ception of this diabolical device were two "partners in crime" —