Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-02
A SIGNAL FOR MARS.
Little Hope Of Getting Up a COnVer-
sation With People There,
BUT THE PLANET Is INHABITED.
Professor Davidson Talks of Drawing Big
Triangle on Sahara.
MARS MEN WOULD SAY WE'RE IDIOTS

| DdNIu5Ou OOsCHfdLOIy Luc COdSO
Geodetic Survey, was shown the Paris
cablegram saying that an old lady has died
at Spa, leaving 100000 francs as prize to
the astronomer, French or foreign, who
within ten years shall be able to communi-
cate with any planet or star, says the San
| Francisco Ezaminer, he read it through
slowly once, then he read it twice more
rapidly. Finally he picked it up, held it
at the proper distance from his eyes, and
squinted at it 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 ladyr' the veteran
astronomer finally exclaimed. "Now, isn't
that q pretty way to treat such piece of
philanthropy as that? An old lady, In
deedl Now, why under the sun do you
suppose they keep back her name? 1 am
inclined to believe that some good-looking
| young man-one of these smooth takers
has been getting close to her and talking
| lot Of astronomy into her ear. From the
very form her bequest takes am aware
| that omebody-Flammarion or some other
man-has been talking to her about the pro-
posed triangle. The project is a very Curl
Gus one, but can be explained quite easily"
DRAWING A TRIANGLE ON SAHARA.
Prof. Davidson picked up blue pencil
and drew on a white sheet Of paper right
angled triangle
"This that I have drawn" he said, lis
the old triangle of Pythagoras. That
triangle has a right angle, and the square
built upon the side opposite 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 figure as
that in the Desert of Sahara, or some other
great plain, the lines, of course, to be hun
dreds 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 would 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 the suppositions that go along
with the idea 1t is supposed that there are
people on some of the planets, at least on
Mars. It is supposed that the people on
the planet are civilized and capable of look
ing through telescopes, and it is concluded
that if this Is so, they must know the Py-
thagorean proposition.
THE PEOPLE OF MARS WILL SEE IT.
$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 a signal Then, Of
course, they will set to work to answer it by
building Just such a figure on Mara 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 Freuchwoman
into setting aside her 100000 francs. But
whoever he was, he knew on which side his
bread was buttered, and knew that such a
trust, for whatever purpose, would bear in
terest.
"But even supposing that the Desert Of
Sahara is one great plain and that it is
large enough for the purpose, and even
supposing that 1t 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 it. At certain
times Mars Is but "a, ,000, 900 miles from the
earth, but it gets farther and farther away,
until the distance is 81, 800, 900 miles. That
is good way off to see trianglea
WOULD THINK US A RACE OF IDIOTS
'But if Mars is inhabited I am inclined
u Dc11eNo LudL JIlc luudDlIduLS are uOL IOpl5.
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 are inhab-
tied. We think we know that it might be
possible for men to live on Mercury. The
situation and condition of things on the
other planets are 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 q
better chance than the scientist.
''The four planets nearest the sun are
Mercury, Venus, the earth and Mars. Mer-
curry is only 25, 1892, 900 miles from the sun,
which isn't very far when you take the heat
into consideration. Consequently we be-
ieve it is a good many times hotter than
Arizona on Mercury. There are other dis
advantages, such as lack of space, enormous
mountains, and no certainty of atmosphere.
Mercury is only 3,060 miles in diameter, yet
there are mountains on its surface over II
miles high.
MARS SITUATED LIKE THE EARTH
"Venus is &c, ,134, 900 miles from the sun
and is plenty hot enough, although nearly
twice as far as Mercury from the Great
Heater. Then there is some question about
the atmosphere as yet, and the year is only
224 days long. The earth comes next, being
81, 430, 900 miles from the sun. After this
planet is Mars, 139, 81 900 miles from the
luminary.
GAN astronomers admit that II people
like those on the earth live on any of the
other planets Mars is probably the one. The
reason why is easy to tell. Although Mars
Is farther from the sun than the earth his
orbit is so eccentric that at certain times
he is only Log, SIS 900 miles away consequently
The temperatures are, likely, merely little
more moderate than those on the earth. Then
100, the diurnal motion of the two planets
g about the same, so that from one years
md to another the distance from the earth
20 Mars varies only 3S 800, 900 miles to 81, ,Sc0-
100 miles Mars has it's seasons and its polar
ce Just like the earth. Through the telescope
We can watch ice fields at the poles get
arger as winter approaches and see them
ret smaller again in the summer.
WHAT ONE ASTRONOMER CAN SEE
"Mars has an atmosphere and clouds like
hose on earth. There are continents and
'ceans on Mars, SO that altogether the anal
'gy between that planet and the earth iS
Tery close, the striking difference being
hat Mars is much the smaller. Astrono-
ners are more and more disposed to believe
hat Mars is inhabited. You ask me if we
NOW, however, and promptly tell you we
10 not.
"An astronomer named Schiapparellf claims
10 is able to see q double line of canals on
liars. These must be enormous works if he
an see them, and must represent q stu
endous amount of work on the part Of an
lmost countless number of people. can
lot see them through my telescope, and
many others fail. After all, these canals
nay be in Schiapparelli's eye. People get
THAT they call astigmatism nowadays and
ee two pencils where there is only one.
'erhaps that is what Schlappareli has.
"But even if there are people on Mars,