Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1891-11-27
TALKING WITH MARS.
Plans Suggested by S9me Vision
ary Astronomer.

A Practical Minded Professor Gives His
Reasons for Thinking the Feat of Com
muRicAting with the Stars
Is Impossible.
When Prof. George Davidson, of the
Davidson observatory and the coast
and geodetic survey was shown the
Paris cablegram saying that an old
lady had just died in Spa leaving one
hundred thousand francs as prize to
the astronomer, French or foreign, who
within ten years will be able to COM
municate with any planet or star, he
read 1t through slowly once, then he
read it twice more rapidly. Finally he
picked it up, held it at the proper dis
tance from his eyes, and squinted at 1t
Just as he would squint at Mercury
through his telescope if he wanted to
find the big tortoise-shaped spot on its
northern hemisphere.
''An old lady-an old ladyw the vet
eran astronomer finally exclaimed.
"Now, isn't that pretty way to treat
such piece of philanthropy as that?
An old lady, indeed! Now, why under
the sun do you suppose they keep back
her name? ! am inclined to believe
that some good-looking young man
--one Of those smooth talkers-has
been getting close to her and talking
lot of astronomy into her ear.
From the very form her bequest
takes l am aware that somebody
Flammarion or some other man-has
been talking to her about the proposed
triangle The project is a very curious
one, but can be explained quite easily"
Prof. Davidson picked up blue PEN
Gil and drew on white sheet Of paper
a rightangled d triangle.
This that have dra wn," he said,
sis the old triangle of Pythagoras.
That triangle has a right angle, and
the square built upon the side oppo-
site the right angle is equal to the sum
OF the squares built upon the other two
sides. The proposition is said to be
the fundamental one of geometry. 1t
has been proposed to draw such a
figure as that in the desert Of Sahara,
or some other great plain, the lines, OF
course, to be hundreds of miles long,
and made so they would be distinct on
the desert sand. One way would be
to plant palm trees so that the forests
should take the shape of lines in the
figure. Certainly the green of the
palms would be SO bright in contrast
with the white of the sand that the
drawing, when completed, would be
plain enough.
''These are suppositions that go
along with the idea. 1t is supposed
that there are people on some of the
planets, at least on Mars. 1t is sup
posed that the people on the planet are
civilized and capable OF looking
through telescopes, and it is con-
cluded that If this is so they must
know the Pythagorean proposition.
$50 If the people on Mars look
through their telescopes at the earth
they will be sure to see that enormous
figure on the desert, and seeing it they
will realize that the earth is inhabited
by men of knowledge and that the
drawing is signal. Then, of course,
they will set to work to answer 1t by
building just such figure on Mars.
That will be talking from star to star.
"But all this is bosh and nonsense to
me, and dare say it was bosh and
nonsense to the man who wheedled this
, Frenchwoman into setting aside le0,-
600 francs. But whoever he was he
knew on which side his bread was
buttered, and knew that such trust,
IA for whatever purpose, would bear in
terest.
''But even supposing that the desert
of Sahara is one great plain, and that
1t is large enough for the purpose, and
even supposing that it was possible to
: make such an enormous figure, am
in doubt whether the people on Mars,
with such telescopes as we use, would
be able to see il.
"At certain times Mars is but "a, 900, 900
miles from the earth, but it gets further
and further away until the distance is
61,S00,0 900 miles. That is good way
off to see triangles But if Mars is in
habited, | am inclined to believe that
the inhabitants are not fools. If they
saw triangle shaped object on the
face of the earth they would not jump
to the chimerical conclusion that there
were idiots enough down here to build
such an affair.
"The truth is we do not know
whether any of the planets besides the
earth is inhabited. We think we know
that 1t might be possible for men to
live on Mercury. The situation and
condition of things on the other planets
nre altogether different from those on
the earth. So, when we talk about
the inhabitants of the planets we
enter the realm Of surmise, and Jules
Verne has better chance than the
scientist
"The four planets nearest the sun
are Mercury, Venus, the earth and
Mars. Mercury is only $500, 900 miles
from the sun, which isn't very far when
you take the heat into consideration.
Consequently we believe it is q good
many times hotter than Arizona OF
Mercury. There are other disadvan-
tages, such as lack of space, enormous