I was surprised when I ran across the first issue of Science Fiction Plus (March 1953) and saw Hugo Gernsback, Editor, staring back at me from the top-right corner of the cover. Somehow I had assumed that Wonder Stories was his last foray into what he called scientifiction, or even that he’d died when that magazine became Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1936. But, no, here he was again, albeit for only seven issues (March–December 1953) and with Sam Moskowitz behind the scenes.
That first issue had this Otto Binder story in which a farmer takes two archaeologists, Stoddard and Jackson, to a time capsule that’s so unusual it couldn’t possibly have been buried by any known civilization. They take it to the Archeological Institute where their boss instructs them to clean up the outside apparently believing that they’ll stop once it’s clean.