The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1892-01-29
TALKING WITH MARS.
Plans Sugnested by Some Vision
ary Astronomer.
\ Practical Minded Professor Gives His
Reasons for Thinking the I'ctt of Com
municLtin. with the Stars
Ir Impossible.


Davidson observatory and the coast
and gcoIctic survey, was shown the
Paris cabIcgram saying TINT an old
lady had Just died in Spa leaving one
hundred thousand francs as a prize to
the astronomer. French or fore; ;Tn, who
within ten years will be alb 4 to com
municate with any planet or star, he
read it through slowly once, then he
read it twice more rapidly. Final y he
picked it up. held it at the proper dis
tancc from his eyes, and squint-d at it
Just as he would squint at Mercury
through his telescope if he wanted to
lind the big tortoisc-shaped spot ,on its
northern hemisphere.
IAN old lady-an old lady. the vet
Gran astronomer finally eXclai- ed.
Now, isn't that a pretty way to treat
such Il piece of philanthropy as that?
IN old lady. indeed. Now, why under
the sun do you suppose they keep back
her name? J am inclined to bCl.cv~
that some good-loolling Young man
ono of those smooth tal!lerS-ha1
been getting close to her and talking
lot of astronomy into her ear.
Prom the very form her bequest
takes l am aware that souicbody-
lammarion or some other has
triangle. The prof ,ct is a very curious
one, but can be explained quit" easily"
Prof. Davidson picked mp b-ue pen
ell and drew on a white sheet of paper
i rightan%led triangle.
This that | have dra wn," he said,
''is the old triangle of Pythagoras.
That triangle has a right angl'. and
the square built upon the side oppo-
sit" the right angle is equal to the sum
OF the squares built upon the other two
sides. The proposition Is sail 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 50 that the forests
should take the shape of lines in the
figure. Certainly the green of the
palms would be 50 bright in contrast
with the white of the sand that the
drawing. when completed, would be
PLAIN anough-
These are suppositions that go
along with the idea. 1t is supposed
tEat there are people ON some of the
planets, at least on Mars. II is sup
posed that the people on the planet are
civilized and capable of looking
thrs ugh telescopes, and it is con-
ludcd that if this is so they must
know the Pythagorcan proposition
80 If the people on Mars look
through their telescopes at the earth
tlcv Will be sure to see that enormous
igurc on the desert, and seeing il they
VIII realize that the earth Is inhabited
r
drawing is Il signal Then, of course,
they VIII set 70 work to answer it by
bull ling just such Il figure on MarS
That will bs talking from star 20 star.
But all this is bosh and nonsense to
me and dare say il was bosh and
nonsense to the man who whc cdlcd this
Frcnchwoman into setting aside lO0,-
OJ0 francs. But whoever he was he
knew on which side his bread was
buttcred, and knew that such trust.
for whate yer purpose would bear in
tcrest
''But even supposing that the desert
of sahara Is one great plain, and that
1T l. large enough for the purpose, and
even suppOsing that it was possible to
make such an enormous figure. arn
IN doubt whether the people on Mars,
with such telescopes as We use, would
be able 10 see il.
AT certain times Mars IS but -, 900. 600
miles from the earth. but it gets iurth her
and further away until the distance is
81, 100000 miles. That is good way
off To see trianglcs. But if Mars is in
habitcd. am inclined to believe that
the inhabitants arc not FOOLS If they
saw a triangle shaped object on the
face of the earth they would not Jump
to the chimcrical 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 it might bc 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 surmlse, and Jules
Verne has n better chance than the
scientist.
The four planets nearest the sun
are .Iercury, Venus, the earth and
Mars. Mercury is only 81. So. 900 ruilcs
from the sun, which isn't very lar when
you take the heat into consideration.
Consequently we believe it r good
many times hotter than Arizona or
Mercury. There arc other disat.van-
tages, such as lack OF space, enormous
mountains and no certainty of atmos
phere. Mercury is only 5000 miles in
diameter. vet there are mountains on
its surface over l. miles high.
Venus i GO, l3i. 600 miles from the
sun and is plenty hot enough. although
\
great heater. Then there is some
question about the atmosphere a vet,
and the year is only 23i DAYS long