Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-02-16
THE SIGNALS FROM MARS.

| For the Register.
The recent mysterious and as yet
unexplained flashlights on the surface
of the planet Mars, and the equally in
teresting electrical impulses, coming
| from space, noted by Nikola Tesla, who
ventures a suggestion that the inhabi-
tants of some planet are signalling to
the Earth, have enlisted the close at
tention of a large portion of the scien-
tific world, and number of observers
are constantly on the watch, While valu-
able and complicated experiments have
been made, notably by William A. Eddy,
at Bayonne, N. j., having for their
object the clearing up of the mystery.
1t having been conjectured, as an expla-
nation of the unusually brilliant lights
upon the surface of Mars that they were
caused by sudden bursts of sunlight
upon the snow of the polar regions of
that planet, Mr.. Eddy instituted a SER
les Of tests which resulted in the con-
viction that sun-lit snow was only about
twice as bright as cloud-shaded snow,
while mirror-sun flashes of light were
eight times as bright as sun-lighted
snow and fourteen times as bright as
cloud-shaded snow. Mr.. Eddy there
fore concludes that it is highly impro-
bable that the flashes of light seen from
Mars could have been caused by a sud
den burst of sunlight upon polar snow.
leaving open to conjecture the real
cause of the phenomena. He, however,
without committing himself, throws out
the hint that if the Martians are sig
Mailing by means of mirrors, they must
be operating upon a StupendouS scale.
using a mirror of an area OF at least
one hundred square miles to produce
photographic ray of sufficient volume to
be seen over the interval of 100000
miles separating the Earth from Mars.
To send such a shaft of light across
space is possible-it is only question
of time, effort and cash, and the Mar
tians may be equal to the effort. The
so-called light signals, taken into con-
nection with the electrical impulses
noted by Tesla, open up field for con-
lecture as interesting as a work of ro-
nance, and yet may hold germ OF
realism as profound as the workings of
the universe intself
The subject of inter-planetary COM
munication is not new. 1t has been
thought about, and dreamed about and
written about for centuries, and Mars
has always been the favOrite field for
conjecture and speculation. To many
minds-perhaps to most-it may be
source of wonder that Venus was not
taken up as the principal subject for
investigation, because its average dis
lance from the Earth is only 100000
miles, whereas Mars is 100000 miles
away. A little thought however will
show why investigators turn their at
tention to Mars. Mars is an older plan
ct that the Earth, while Venus is much
younger Mars is a superior planet,
its orbit being outside of that of the
Earth. Venue is an inferior" planet.
its orbit being between that of the
Earth and sun. If the theory, generally
accepted, be correct that the planets
were originally thrown off from the
sun by its rotation, through the opera
ton of centrifugal laws, then it follows
that Mars is an elder planet than the
Earth, and, passing through the
same stages, its inhabitants. if any
there be, are advanced in knowledge
over us of the Earth earthly by some
millions of years. for the planets must
have taken form at wide intervals of
time as we now measure it. The Mar
tians, therefore. may be fairly presumed
to be far more skilled in
science over us, than we of the
twentieth century are over the people
OF Babylon, the Persians of Cyrus and
Darius, or the Egyptians of the Ptolem-
les. Electricity, in its incipiency with
US. much as We think we know about
1t, may with them be an old story. and
to throw across space for fifty million
miles ray of light as a signal to at
tract the attention OF supposed inhabi-
tarts of the Earth might for the Mar
tians be as easy as for the scientific
element of the Earth's inhabitants to
cast beam Of light twenty miles sea-
ward from roek-bound and dangerous
coast, and it may be equally easy for
them to create and guide electrical i'm
polses capable OF detection over half
the distance from the Earth to the sun.
We have an inkling Of the pos
sibility in our wireless telegraphic
experiments OF recent date. The
Martians are our elder. brothers, as
the inhabitants of Vouue ora <,,xr f.,r