noon of December 31, 1960
Beyond the Vanishing Point A COMPLETE NOVELETTE _ By Ray Cummings _ _ The Fragment of Quartz _ -LSB- Sidenote : The tale of a golden atom -- an astounding adventure in size . -RSB- -LSB- Illustration : The fly landed with a thud on the center table . -RSB- It was shortly after noon of December 31 , 1960 , when the series of weird and startling events began which took me into the tiny world of an atom of gold , beyond the vanishing point , beyond the range of even the highest-powered electric-microscope . My name is George Randolph . I was , that momentous afternoon , assistant chemist for the Ajax International Dye Company , with main offices in New York City . It was twelve-twenty when the local exchange call-sorter announced Alan 's connection from Quebec .