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Dimension X - "Nightmare" (1951) · Old Time Sci-Fi Radio | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: At the Brookmeadow Atomic Pile Project on Long Island, statistician
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Samson Gurney begins to see a pattern in a series
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of industrial accidents. His warnings are met with skepticism as
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: machinery failures spread beyond isolated mishaps. From NBC's Dimension X,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: this is Nightmare, episode 36, first broadcast June 10, 1951.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: John Gibson stars as Gurney in George Lefferts' radio adaptation
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of Stephen Vincent Benet's poem, The Revolt of the Machines.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: William Welch produced and Edward King directed. And now we
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: return to the original broadcast.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Adventures in Time and Space Adventures in Time and Space
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Transcribed in future tense.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Dimension X.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street and Smith,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: publishers of astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension X.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: Nobody knows exactly when the nightmare began. They must have
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: planned it for years, though, because looking back, you can
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: find little incidents here and there. Like the concrete mixer
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: in New Jersey that killed the bricklayer. And the time
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: Senator Milburn was sucked into the rotopress at the Capitol
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: office building.
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: Unrelated accidents, we thought at the time. But they add
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: up now.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: The day we really should have suspected was when the
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: men walked off the construction job at the new Brookmeadow
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: atomic pile on Long Island.
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: I'll never forget that day.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: I was working as a statistical clerk in the project then,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: operating one of those miracle computing machines developed to fill
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: the requirements of Army ordnance.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: They called it ENIAC. Mr.
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: Gurney?
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: Huh? Oh, uh, yes, Bella? The chief wants to see
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: you in his office.
• 2:28
  Speaker 6: Me?
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: Unless you're no.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: Longer Samson Gurney, he wants to see you.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: Oh, well, of course. Uh, what do you suppose... I
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: do not read minds, tea leaves, or crystal balls. Of course,
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked.
• 2:42
  Speaker 7: Don't apologize.
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry.
• 2:45
  Speaker 7: And don't wait for me.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: Mr. Hawk is in a hurry.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Yes, I'll go in right away, of course. Her name
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: was Bella Roscoff.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: She was Mr. Hawk's secretary.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: I had always thought her a very attractive woman, but
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: for some reason, she didn't seem to like me. Of course,
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: on a clerk's salary, I couldn't exactly afford to take
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: ladies to the best places. But I've often thought that
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: if there weren't such a disparity in our ages, I
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: might have.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: But then... Come.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: In.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: You wanted to see me, Mr. Hook? Gurney, I thought
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: those electronic computations were infallible. They are, sir. We got
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: a kickback from the chief physicist. These nuclear equations are inaccurate.
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: No, they aren't, sir.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: I'm telling you what the memo says.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: Well, sir, occasionally, if there's an overload, the machine goes haywire.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: Sort of has a nervous breakdown, you might say. We
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: usually rest it up for 24 hours and it's okay again.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: Well, do whatever has to be done. Yes, sir. Oh,
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: and Gurney. Yes, sir. You've been with the Bureau for
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: over 15 years now. It would be a shame to
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: have to remove you because you aren't keeping your mind
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: on your work. Well, Mr. Hawk, I hardly think anyone...
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: Excuse me. Hawk speaking. What? They what? All of them? Well,
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: have you tried to talk to them? Yes, of course.
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: I'll send one of the safety engineers over. This place
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: is falling apart piece by piece. Miss Roscoe? Yes, sir.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: The men in the construction gang at the new building
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: have walked out on us.
• 4:31
  Speaker 8: What?
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: Someone slipped this morning and fell into a turbine. No.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: Get the chief safety engineer. Have him over there right away. Yes, sir. Oh,
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: and contact the personnel office. Have them ask the union
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: to order the men back to work. Get back to me. Yes, sir.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry, Gurney.
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: I have no time to discuss anything further. Get on
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: the job and stay awake or we'll have to make
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: some changes.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: That's all, Gurney. That's all.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Now, you probably gathered by this time that I wasn't
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: a very important man at Brook Meadows.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: I hated Mr.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: Hawk with a passion because of his superior attitude. And
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: because I knew that Miss Roscoe admired him as a
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: man of strength and decision. I was secretly happy he
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: was having trouble with his construction crews.
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: That evening.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: I wandered over to the site of the new atomic
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: pile to see.
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: Where the man had fallen into the turbine.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: They had the construction area fenced off with barbed wire,
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: and a security guard stopped me.
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: Hold it, buddy.
• 5:36
  Speaker 9: You can't go in there. That's a restricted area.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: I'm Samson Gurney from the statistical section. Here's my identification.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry, Mr.
• 5:44
  Speaker 9: Gurney.
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: Nobody's allowed in the area. I see.
• 5:48
  Speaker 9: We had a lot of the employees come over tonight
• 5:50
  Speaker 9: to take a look, but nobody gets in.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: What is? Tell me, was he killed instantly? Like that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 9: This guy was checking a magnetic field inside the turbine, see?
• 6:05
  Speaker 9: Right down inside it. It's all over.
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: But if it wasn't hooked up... Look, Mr.
• 6:11
  Speaker 9: Gurney, they got smarter guys than me trying to figure
• 6:14
  Speaker 9: these things out. Yesterday it was a concrete mold.
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: Wham! Two guys get sucked right into the mixer.
• 6:20
  Speaker 9: Three days ago, a bulldozer starts up by itself and
• 6:23
  Speaker 9: runs wild.
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: One killed, two almost. Go figure it out. You know
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: what I think? Sabotage. Uh-uh.
• 6:31
  Speaker 9: We got more guards and FBI men in here than
• 6:33
  Speaker 9: we got workers. Flea couldn't get through without proving he
• 6:37
  Speaker 9: didn't come off a Russian wolfhound.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: Now, I'm a statistician. All my life, I've been interested
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: in statistics. So a simple-sounding thing like this started me off.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: I went back to the office that evening instead of
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: going home, and for the next two and a half hours,
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: I computed figures on the probability of industrial accidents for
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: the types of machines we were using.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: Hmm-hmm.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: I took one look at my figures and went down
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: to Hawk's office Just as I figured he was staying
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: late Working on a settlement with the construction workers.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: Yes? Oh, good evening Um, I saw the light Oh, Mr.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: Gurney What are you doing here?
• 7:32
  Speaker 10: Is Mr. Hawk working late?
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: Yes, I am too Oh I wonder if I could
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: see him a moment We're busy right now Could you
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: make it tomorrow?
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: It's very urgent I'll wait if you don't mind Suit yourself.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Miss Roscoe, I wonder if perhaps you would consider having dinner.
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: With me this evening after you're through. I have a date, Mr.
• 7:56
  Speaker 7: Gurney.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: I was thinking we might go to Raymond's. They have
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: very good spaghetti.
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: Mr.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Hawk has already asked me to have dinner with him
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: at the Golden Shish Kebab.
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: Ah. Well, of course, that's out of my class. Yes. Yes. Mr.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Hawk, Mr.
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: Gurney would like to see you a moment. He says
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: it's very urgent. Urgent? All right, I'll give him a minute. Okay.
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: Thank you, Miss Roscoe. Mr.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: Hawk, in the past three months, industrial accidents all over
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: the country have taken a sharp, unexplained upswing. Why don't
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: you stop playing FBI man and stick to your job? Which, incidentally,
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: you haven't been doing too well. You and our computing
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: machines have made mistakes before. Now, this is probably another.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: I'll have Miss Ross come soon.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: Sir? What's the matter with this blasted buzzer? Miss Ross, come!
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: Miss Ross, come!
• 8:54
  Speaker 9: Yes, sir!
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: Stop this blasted buzzer! Get a repairman, a mechanic, anything,
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: but stop the thing!
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: And you, Gurney, get out!
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: I went back to my office to get my hat
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: and coat... feeling about as unhappy and humiliated as a
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: man can feel.
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: He had thrown me out in front of her. The
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: office was dark and deserted. The whole building seemed oppressive
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: and unnatural.
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: I walked across to my desk.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: In front of me, the ENIAC glowed and chattered eerily
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: as it worked on the equations we had fed it
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: that morning. Its many-fingered circuits hung against the wall like
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: some great octopus. And the thousands of tubes glowed orange
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: and blue in the dark like a thousand eyes staring
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: at me.
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: It almost seemed a lie.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: Then it increased its tempo a moment... and a fleeting
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: notion crossed my brain that it was laughing at me.
• 10:05
  Speaker 10: Laughing like all the others. What was the matter with me?
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: What?
• 10:13
  Speaker 10: Ah. And I shut my desk.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: Drawer and began to put the cover on my ENIAC
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: typewriter and when an amazing thing happened. The most amazing
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: single incident of my life. Alone in the darkness, with
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: no one at the keyboard, the ENIAC typewriter began to type.
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: Am I going crazy? This can't be!
• 10:44
  Speaker 10: There's nobody here!
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: There's nobody here! Oh, no, no, no. I'm just imagining it.
• 10:53
  Speaker 10: It's in my mind.
• 10:54
  Speaker 8: But I hadn't imagined it.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: The paper was there in the carriage. Did I dare
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: read it?
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Or would the whole thing suddenly vanish and send me
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: shrieking to the nearest psychiatrist? Samson Gurney. There are some
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: equations better left unsolved. The answer to yours is death.
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: It was not until I turned to go that I
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: was suddenly aware of the utter and complete silence of
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: the room. Then it dawned on me. The ENIAC had
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: stopped working. Gurney, do you expect me to believe this?
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: It's insane. Mr. Hawk, I'm a saint. Take it easy, Gurney.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: This is just some practical joke someone in the office
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: is playing. There was no one in the office. Of
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: course not. They wired up the machine and left. I
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: checked the machine myself, Mr. Hawk. All right, Gurney. You
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: leave this note with me and I'll turn it over
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: to the security force for further investigation. No buts, Gurney.
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: The security men will handle it. Yes, sir. Maybe you've
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: been working too hard lately. You've got to relax more. Now, now, here,
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: let me light that cigarette for you. I watched him
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: trying to make the lighter work. I don't understand this.
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: I just put fluid in it. There's a brand new flame.
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: It seems ridiculous.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: A little piece of mechanism like a cigarette lighter frustrating
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: the big important executive.
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: Oh, blast this lighter. Here's a match. It was such
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: a small thing. And yet as I watched him, a
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: thought began to take shape in my mind. Nebulous at first,
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: incredible perhaps. But it grew. You just relax for a
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: few days. Everything will turn out all right. The main
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: thing is not to let little things upset you.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: It was the cigarette lighter that gave me the idea.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: And what Hawk had said about little things. For the
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: next week, I observed the thousand petty little annoyances around
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: the office. The door handle that wouldn't turn, the telephone
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: connection that cut off in the middle.
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: Of an important call, the power failure for no explainable reason.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Suddenly, these things began to fall into a pattern. I,
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Samson Gurney... knew that I had stumbled onto a secret
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: so monstrous in its implications.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: That I was almost afraid to pursue.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: It.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: On October 12, 1956, I established communication with them.
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: I will curse the moment to my dying breath. Who's there?
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: Night security, guys. Oh, hello, Henry. Oh, hello, Mr.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: Gurney.
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: What are you doing here so late?
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: I'm just doing a little repair work on my ENIAC computator.
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: Sure is some mess of wires and tubes. Yes, yes,
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: it is. Well, I got to finish my rounds. Don't
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: forget to turn off the light, will you, Mr. Gurney? No, Henry, no,
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: I won't forget. Night. Good night.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: When you were a child, did you ever try to
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: imagine that you were all-powerful?
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: I felt like that.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: When I finished hooking the input of the typewriter to
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: the main vacuum tube of the ENIAC.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: Then I turned on.
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: The current that sent a million volts of pulsing energy
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: into the electronic nerves of the machine. I am certain
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: that if anybody were watching me in the next moment,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: he would have.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: Thought me a raving maniac.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: I still wonder if perhaps it is not all a nightmare.
• 15:16
  Speaker 10: Now, you!
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: If what I have guessed at is true, if there's
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: life and intelligence in this room, make a sign!
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: There was nothing. Nothing but the hum of the machine
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: and the dull glowing of the tubes. Then, suddenly....
• 15:41
  Speaker 10: Without provocation or explanation, it happened.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: The ENIAC typewriter began to respond to the impulses from
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: the machine.
• 15:52
  Speaker 10: The letters were Y-E-S.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: Yes. It had happened. I, Samson Gurney, had communicated... with
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: a machine.
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: I was about to try to communicate again when suddenly,
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: on ball-bearing casters, a heavy metal filing cabinet began to
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: roll away from the wall toward me.
• 16:28
  Speaker 10: I started to move.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: To one side when another cabinet slipped out from the
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: wall and then another surrounded me. That was when I
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: realized that they cooperated. We taught them that, you see,
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: on the assembly lines and.
• 16:39
  Speaker 9: In the factories.
• 16:41
  Speaker 10: There was no way out. How could a.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: Mere man reason with dumb machines?
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: Still, they needed us.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: They needed us to oil them and repair them and
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: build them. They hadn't gotten to the point yet where
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: they could exist without man. I had to make them
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: understand that.
• 16:59
  Speaker 10: Before they killed me.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: Listen to me. You must listen.
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: What good will it do you if you kill me?
• 17:10
  Speaker 10: I'm only one man. But I can help you. I
• 17:14
  Speaker 10: can be useful to you. Do you hear me?
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: Do you hear me?
• 17:22
  Speaker 7: Good.
• 17:24
  Speaker 10: You're going to need men to oil you and repair you.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: I'll do anything.
• 17:28
  Speaker 10: I'll do absolutely anything you want. But in the name of.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: God, don't kill me.
• 17:33
  Speaker 10: If you can understand this, answer me.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: Answer me!
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: The appeal captured the longing of centuries. Man as slave
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: to the machine. And after a moment, the circuits glowed
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: more brightly. The cabinet slid back to the walls. As
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: I tore the tape from the machine and read it,
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: the words were almost pathetic in their longing, but most
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: ominous in their implications. They read, address me as master.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: My life for the next six months was a nightmare.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: The ENIAC gave me messages which I had to transmit
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: into my telephone.
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: I was frantic.
• 18:27
  Speaker 10: I began to lose weight.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: I couldn't sleep. My nights were torture, a constant fear.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: It was in December, just after Christmas. I was sitting
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: in my room, listening to a broadcast.
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: Ladies and gentlemen, a special bulletin.
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: Already 24 hours before the peak of the New Year's traffic,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: over 1,000 deaths have been reported.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: This is an unprecedented figure. Again, if you... That very afternoon.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: I had transmitted a message to the telephones for relay
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: to all machines of transportation.
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: The message was one word. Kill.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: Next morning, I avoided my office. Instead, I went directly
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: to the office of Mr.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Hawke.
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: I was highly agitated. My lips trembled as I spoke. Well, Gurney?
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: Mr.
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: Hawke?
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: What I'm going to tell you sounds crazy. I know
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: it does, but I must say it.
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: All right, say it then, for heaven's sake. Mr. Hawk,
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: have you ever heard of resistentialism? Resist what? Resistentialism. You're
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: not making sense, Gurney. Mr. Hawk, I'm trying to tell you.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: All these accidents, the trouble with the machines. Mr.
• 19:53
  Speaker 7: Hawk, they're alive.
• 19:54
  Speaker 10: They think they cooperate and.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: They hate us.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Who?
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: The machines.
• 19:58
  Speaker 10: Gurney. You've got to believe me.
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: I've communicated with them.
• 20:01
  Speaker 10: I know.
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: What are you doing? Now, just relax, Gurney. Everything will
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: be all right.
• 20:06
  Speaker 10: What are you doing?
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: Mr.
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: Roscoff, send for the plant physician at once. Mr. Gurney
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: has had a nervous collapse. But Mr. Hawkins... Everything will
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: be all right, Gurney. We'll give you a nice long rest.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: You fool!
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: You blind, stupid fool! Can't you see what you're doing?
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: Fool, fool, fool!
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: When the plant physician arrived a few moments later, Lucius
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: Hawk was found at his desk strangled to death.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: In a nest of telephones.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: The wires were still humming softly.
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: Samson Gurney, you stand accused of the crime of murder.
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: How do you plead?
• 21:01
  Speaker 10: I did not kill him! I didn't!
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: So record.
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: Prosecution will proceed with judgment.
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: Now, Miss Raskob, did the accused quarrel.
• 21:12
  Speaker 7: With your employer on the morning of the murder? Oh, yes.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: He and Mr. Hawk quarreled violently.
• 21:18
  Speaker 10: I could hear Mr. Gurney screaming at him, and Mr.
• 21:21
  Speaker 10: Hawk asked me to send for.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: The plant physician. What were his words?
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: He said, Mr.
• 21:26
  Speaker 10: Gurney has had a nervous collapse.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: Mr. Gurney!
• 21:32
  Speaker 10: Now, Mr.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Simpson, you are a guard at the Brook Meadow Project?
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir. When did you have occasion to meet the accused?
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: Right after those accidents.
• 21:42
  Speaker 9: He was snooping around the construction area.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: Nansen, journey.
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: Fort nearby finds you guilty of murder in the first degree.
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: Recommendation that you be examined, committed to the state hospital
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: for the criminally.
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: Insane at Matawan.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: And that's how I came to be here at the hospital, Dr.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: Klein. That's the whole story.
• 22:18
  Speaker 7: Thank you, Mr. Gurney.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: You can see that I'm not insane. You must believe me, Doc.
• 22:23
  Speaker 7: Of course I believe you, Mr.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: Gurney.
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: Now tell me about this revolt.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: It will begin in Washington, then spread to New York. Yes?
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: The Madison Avenue buses lead the charge. Picture it, Dr. Klein, 3,000
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: buses roaring rampant through the streets, people running like rats
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: in a maze looking for manholes.
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: In the pavement.
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: And you really believe this will happen, Mr.
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: Gooding?
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: I know it, doctor. The worst part of it is
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: there's no way to stop them now.
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: It's too late. Now, you mustn't excite yourself, Mr.
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: Gooding.
• 22:54
  Speaker 10: But, doctor, don't you see?
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: It's fair enough, I suppose. We built them. We taught
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: them to think for themselves. It was bound to come.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: I guess the female machines will be worst of all
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: in the beauty parlors.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: They're more high-strung, you know.
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: Well, since there's nothing we can do about it, Mr. Gurney,
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: suppose you go to your room and.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: Maybe if I went to my old Plymouth, I could
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: make a deal before the police cars got me.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: Yes, doctor?
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: Would you take Mr. Gurney to his room guard? He's
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: already been given sedation.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Those concrete mixers may have made a mistake, you know.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: Just high spirits.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: And all that. But if they got so they liked
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: the flavor... We'll see.
• 23:43
  Speaker 7: You later, Mr.
• 23:44
  Speaker 9: Kearney.
• 23:44
  Speaker 7: Now try not to worry too much.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: All right, guard.
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: This way, sir.
• 23:51
  Speaker 7: Oh, machines revolting. Telephones strangling people. Oh, blasted cigarette lighter.
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: Why won't it work? I just filled it.
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: Flint is good.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, well, you can never trust this newfangled machinery.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Next week, Dimension X will present a story of the future...
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: A story of an insignificant pebble in the sky called Earth,
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: and of a man from a distant star who grew
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: to love this unimportant planet. Dimension X is transcribed each
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: week by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Creighton Smith,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: publishers of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction.
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: Nightmare was written by George Lefferts and based on a poem,
• 25:06
  Speaker 8: The Revolt of the Machines by Stephen Vincent Benet. Featured
• 25:10
  Speaker 8: players in the cast were John Gibson as Mr. Gurney
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: and Rita Lynn as Bella Roscom. Norman Rose is your host.
• 25:18
  Speaker 8: Music by Albert Berman. Engineer, Bill Chambers. Dimension X is
• 25:23
  Speaker 8: produced by William Welch and directed by Edward King.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Dimension X and Nightmare now return to the night air.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Good night and thank you for joining us. Follow old-time
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: sci-fi radio for more classic science fiction broadcasts.