From Dungey's book, which was extremely influential in popularizing "magnetic reconnection" as a tool for explaining arcane featurs of plasma astrophysics. By hearsay the Archivist understands that Dungey's early research papers on this subject tended to be rejected by the referees, and his response was to write this 1958 book. Note that he was thinking very generally about reconnection, labeling the round item "star" rather than "Earth". Note also that the sin of two-dimensional reasoning also appears in this cartoon, as in many another in the flood of imitators that followed. This, in spite of the fact that the Giovanelli's 1948 cartoon had already illustrated the basis of the "spines and fans" of a more general three-dimensional geometry.
Thanks to Gordon Rostoker for making this historically important cartoon available.
March 19, 2007