The New York herald. [volume], May 28, 1922, SECTION SEVEN, Page 12, Image 88

About The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924

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Will Mai
/
Coming to America
to get closet* to Mara?
Guglielmo Marconi, the r, :' v
father of Radio. V
* 4MMH HI M|
IF the patience of the folk on Mars
endures a little longer they finally
may succeed in their attempts to
get into communication with us. Marconi
of the wireless is comine here next
month to "listen" in on the messages he
believes are being flung through the
ether from the mysterious planet of
canals and supermen.
What will be the first message from
Mars? Even the imaginations of the
stolid scientists are stirred by this fantastic
attempt of Marconi. For years
scientists have attempted to perfect
some means of interplanetary communication,
ranging from immense rockets
to giant heliographs?and now radio.
Prof. Goddard of Clark College,
Massachusetts, at one time put forward
the suggestion that a giant rocket be
launched to the moon. But for the fact
that the idea appeared to be fathered by
the Smithsonian Institution ii would have
met only ridicule in scientific circles.
But given the Smithsonian
tuci O
was considerable discussion of this plan
until some one ventured to inquire what
was going to shoot the rocket off.
Projection of bright rays of light into
the sky, either by powerful searchlights
of tremendous power or by a gigantic
heliograph system of mirror:, placed in
some such locality as the Sahara Desert,
at one time appealed to science as the
most feasible way to establish communications
with Mars. Early in 1920 Preston
B. Bassett, research engineer of the
Sperry Gyroscope Company of Brooklyn,
asserted that there was no reason such a
method should not be entirely feasible.
Mr. Bassett, one of many who backed
the light system of communication with
he other planets, proposed the concentration
of the rays of 120 high intensity
searchlights of 1,000,000,000 candle-power
each into a single beam of 120,000,000,000
candle-power intensity, which would result
in a signal which, he claimed, could
be easily read on Mars, provided that
planet was Inhabited and that the inhabitants
possessed telescopic instruments of
equal strength to those used on earth.
But all methods suggested have been
proved impracticable even before given a
test. Radio seems to hold out the most
hope. Radio, Marconi reminds, gave science
our first real hope of interplanetary
communication
One night in January, 19<^ Marconi
operators in several different wireless
stations, of which the most important
was the London station, were siaftled by
a series of "mysterious" messages of extraordinary
wave length which tney could
not trace.
The operators wondered, unable to explain
these strange signals. Finally it
was observed that they were receiving a
series of S's. The "toe?toe?toe" was in
reality three dots, which In Morse code
represents the letter S. Each message
consisted of a group of three S's.
Later a query was broadcasted to wireless
stations the world over in an attempt
to find the source of the phantom signals.
It was found the messages were of no
"Could It be Mars?" a startled world
aRked Itself. And In answer a controversy
arose with one side defending the
Mars theory and the other bitterly opposing
It with explanations of "atmos- 1
pherlc discharges," "magnetic storms," |
"thunder storms on the sun'" ?nd other I
natural phenomena. <
Marconi at the time said: "I vould be
a bold speculator were I to dt.-lire posl- i
tively that one or more of the planets i
are attempting to send us some kind of <
messages, but it is equally futile to deny i
that such a thing Is possible, iu view of t
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our incomplete knowledge of such a pn
found subject.
"What actually has happened in th
throbbing mystery is that signals hai
been received which apparently are di
to electro-magnetic waves of grei-t lengi
which are not merely stray signals."
Interest was revived in intero.anetai
communication?even in the minds <
thoso most skeptical of the source of tl
mysterloUR messages. Efforts were mat
to And the most feasible way to cast ele<
trie waves across the limitless inte
stellar spaces.
Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, the enginee
lng wizard of the Ceneral Electric Cor
pany and recent inventor of "synthetk
lightning, at the time estimated that
wireless plant powerful enough to cast
wave length capable of reaching Mai
would cost $1,000,000,000 to construct ar
require from the whole country the sarr
degree of energy and thoroughness wit
which it entered the war. Lofty tower
1,000 feet high, would have to be coi
structed and all the electric power of tl
country would have to be concentrate
into one great power plant or sendir
station. He also said that metal balloor
filled with helium gas and sent up se>
eral thousand feet could be used instea
of the 1,000 feet high towers, whic
might prove cumbersome to construct.
If such a station should he built, th
resultant wave length would be beyond a
previous conjecture. Wave lengths c
r.,000 miles, while not common, are ofte
cast and signals have been sent as far a
10,000 miles under unusual circun
dances. However, there are a grea
many atmospheric conditions still to b
contended with, even when sending
message a short distance, and even if
>vave length sufficiently powerful enoug]
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would reach its des
tination.
But the speculatio
that the thought of such
,. wireless plant induces is fascinating
Mars when nearest to the earth i
is only 35,000,000 miles away; at othe
rG times 250,000,000. If a message wer
le flashed to Mars?electricity travels 186.00
;h miles a second?It would reach Its desti
nation in a little over twenty-two minute
y if Mars were at its farthest point fron
af earth, and ahout four minuteH and twer
ie ty-two seconds when the planet is nearest
le During the April following the re
c- celpt of the mysterious messages Prof
r- David Todd, former head of thi
astronomical department of Amhersi
r- made several serious attempts at Omaha
n- Neb., where a powerful receiving sta
s" tion was built under the supervision o
a the Oovernment to get into communica
a tion with the planet. A specially con'
'8 structed balloon, piloted by one of th
id greatest balloon experts in the world
Capt. Leo Stevens; all the facilities o
h the War Department's chief ballooi
8. school, experts from the Rockefeller In
stitiite, apparatus from Johns Hopklni
i? University, the very latest Inventions ii
-wireless telegraphy and wireless im
if? pulses and specially built instruments o
various kinds assisted Prof. Todd Ir
f" putting to test the belief that the Mar
fl tians were trying to communicate wltt
h the people of the earth. The ventun
met with virtually no success as regard?
le communciatlon with the Inhabitants o!
II the reddish hued planet.
>f Prof. Todd is now supervising the
n scientific work connected with the builds
ing of a giant telescope to be erected ir
l- a mine shaft In Chile. The shaft Is to
it be sixty feet in diameter, and a niagnie
flcation of 25,000,000 times theoretically
a will he obtained. This will bring Mars
a within about a mile and a half of the
I) earth?that ia optically?so that any life
i
D, SUNDAY, MAY 28, 195
rA fanciful inl
All that 1. nei
of the earth;
equipped to ri
Mar* as it mi
or activity upon Its surface would be
readily observable. Only a small part ol
the planet would thus be observed, it Is
true, and the spot would be moving
rapidjy past the telescope, but enough
could probably be observed to insure
h some positive conclusions. In 1924
s Mars will be within 35,000,000 miles or
e the earth, so that observations made at
i- that time would be under the most
t favorable conditions,
i- Judging from past performances, it appears
that if communication is to be esn
tablished between the two planets Mars
a will have to take the initiative. We have
> a long way to go before we develop a wave
s length that will jump the 35,000,000 to
r 250,000.000 miles gap.
e But now comes Signor Marconi to the
0 United States, where radio has developed
1- in leaps and bounds during the last year
s or so. If he is to succeed in catching the
" iar nung messages irom mars 11 win De
here.
Probably the most serious difficulty,
aside from the engineering features of
the strange groping through space of two
planets, Is the lack of a common medium
for the exchange of thought. However,
if the Martians can generate a wave
length to reach from their planet to ours.
It Is possible that they will be of such
super-mentality that they will easily overcome
this drawback.
Again the question, "What will be the
first message from Ma$s?" Injects itself.
What will It reveal?
Will It plunge our earth back a thousand
years? Will it make our radio, telephonic
and telegraphic systems seem, by
comparison with those of Mars, to be as
crude as the smoke signals of the Indian
or the tomtom wireless of the African
bushman? Such questions as these are,
indeed, fearful to contemplate.
And how about the Martian himself?
the subject of so much earthly speculation?
Will he be, as II. G. Wells describes
him In his book "War of the Worlds," a
cross between a cuttlefish and a monkey,
with a round grayish body, with a "sort
of a face" and long, groping tentacles?a
gruesome, hideous thing to look upon? Or
will he be, as Edmond Perrler, director of
the Museum of the Jardlne des Plantes
and constructor of the first picture of the
Martian, describes him? The French
scholar held that the Martian bears a certain
resemblance to man, although many
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terpretation of the most promising plan foi
:essary is for Marconi or some one else to I
e sending station atop towers rising thousai
an airplane landing supported in space
slay the wireless waves to Mars." The arti
iy be through a magnifying glass.
of the physical features are more promi
nent. He ascribes this to the differences
hi ?iavny ana environment. He Has
Bald: *
"The life which animates the earth also
animates the other planets. Prom what
goes on around us we may divine what
is happening elsewhere by examining conditions
under which each planet finds itself
en rapport with every other. On the
planets which are farthest away it is impossible
that human beings should exist,
for no organism could, for example, be
found in the alkaline wastes of Jupiter,
while Mercury, which is too near the Sun,
could not engender life. Only Venus, the
Earth and Mars are inhabitable.
"The low atmospheric pressure has pro- i
duced considerable development of the
pulmonary apparatus, and consequently
the general character of the Martians has
been influenced by this development,
which is unknown on earth.
"The men on Mars are tall because the
lone ui gravuy is sugnt. Tney are blond i
because the daylight is less intense. They
have less powerful limbs. They have <
some of the characteristics of our Scandinavian
type, although very probably have 1
larger skulls.
"Their large blue eyes, their strong i
noses, their large ears constitute a type i
The Spider's N
THE Field Museum in Chicago once
became infested with a large
number of obnoxious spiders.
They feBtooned the celling and great columns
of the building with yards of their
shuttle work. Scrubwomen and Janitors
tried in vain to rid the building of the
pests and their work. Finally a small
bird, known as the brown creeper, discovered
the state of things and decided
to take up its abode inside and Rssist the
authorities in ridding the building of the
pestB. I
For several days the bird flitted about
very much as it pleased, wagging up and 1
down column after column and probing 1
its bill into every crevice, and he actually
carried on a very effective work. i
One morning, however, as an official i
of the museum was passing, an attendant 1
remarked to him that it looked very much i
as if the bird were done for, and a subject
for the museum's collection. Olanc- I
lng in the direction indicated by the at- i
t
,
fo72 Mars
V
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r communicating with Mara,
find the way to make it poaida
of feet from the aurface
by balloona; the airplanea
iat haa included a glimpae at
of beauty which we doubtless would not
appreciate except as suggesting superhuman
intelligence."
He has further stated that the Martians
live in an intellectual Utopia?a Utopia
that is all the name implies.
Prof. Lowell, director of the observatory
at Flagstaff, Ariz., and one of the
greatest authorities on Mars, places the
Martian people on a much higher intellectual
plane than those on earth.
"Quite possibly," Prof. Lowell has written,
"the Martian folk are possessed of inventions
of which we have not dreamed,
and with them electrophones and kinetoscopes
are things of a bygone past, preserved
with the veneration in the museums
as relics of the clumsy contrivances
of the simple childhood of the race.
"Certainly what we see hints at the existence
of beings who are in advance of *
not behind us in the journey of life."
The canal system of Mars indicates that
the planet's inhabitants' are a race of
super-engineers. If they outshine us men- '
tally as much as Prof. Lowell claims, we
can expect to find that our "modern" and
much boasted of buildings are as the
tepees of the Sioux, our engineering
works no further advanced than the
dams of the beaver, our inventions as
9lmple as children's toys.
ovel Bird Trap
tendant the officer saw that the bird lay
panting on Its side at the bottom of one
of the columns.
"Catch a fly," said the scientist to his
attendant, as he took the bird into his
hands. The fly soon being forthcoming,
it was held on the point of a pin to the
bird's beak, and to the surprise of both
men the creeper bit at it voraciously.
That didn't look as If the little fellow
were about to die. The scientist was
much perplexed and wondered what was
the matter with the bird.
Then, turning the bird over in his hand,
lie found it had been entrapped In a
arge spider's web, which had bound the
wing and tail together In such a manner
as to preclude flying. It looked as if
jome old, wise spider had resented the
bird's work of extermination and had
purposely ensnnred him in a trap.
The queer bandage was removed and
;he bird darted out of the building and
was soon lost to Bight.
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