The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-09
CANALS OF MARS.
PHOTOGRAPHS WHICH ARE
 SAID
Te Demonstrate Their Existence-NOt Always to be Seen.

Astronomers and scientists in gen. eral are deeply interested in the mod est announcement made by Professor PereivaI Lowell and his associates at the Lowell observatory in Arizona, re- gently, that after several partial suc- cesSes and some complete failures the greater canals of the planet Mars had at last been photographed.
 Hitherto the gs neral public has been compelled to accept or reject the ex- astence of the Martian canals on the word of the star-gazing fraternity. But with the accomplishment of the Harvard observers in Arizona every one will now have an opportunity to See the actual photographs in proof Of what has long been considered as more pr less of a theory.
 While several photographs were talk en of the canals some w,eekS ago, it was not until few days ago that the solar photographers were ready to an- mounce the complete success of the un- 1ertaking. Profe ssor Lowell, in the following account of the achievement, is unreserved in his belief that the Martian canals closely correspond to the familiar waterways of the same general classification on this planet.
 Up to the present time human knoWl- edge of Mars has been largely theoret- 5cal-the principal facts regarding the planet being that it is one hundred and forty-one million miles from the sun and approximately forty-seven million miles from the earth. The Martian years has six hundred and eighty-sev- en days. Mars is 4,230 miles in diame- ter, the earth being 1918, Jupiter S6,5oO and the sun S66,400 miles.
 |To photograph the canals of Mars" says Professor Lowell, ''has for many years been a purpose of the observa- tory established and maintained by Harvard college in Arizona. The first attempt to meet with even approxi- mate success was made in 1901, when a snore or less satisfactory print was made of the Mare Acidalium, or Lake of Acid.
 .sYet, encouraging as that pioneer ef- fort was, no canal could then be de- #ected on the negative with absolute certainty. To-day We can state as posi- tive and final that there are canals on Mars-because the photographs say so, and 8 photographic negative is nothing If not truthful.
 Prior to the present time two diff culties have stood in the way of deter mining the existence of Martian ca- 1lals beyond dispute-one, the varying air waves which now favor, now pre- went, the defining of such minor de- tails of Martian topography as the ca Ta1s and the other being the insuffi- cient speed of photographic plates.
 'In registering such details the eye has tremendous advantage over the camera since 1t can perceive much more sensitiyeIy than a camera plate, besides retaining an image only the twentieth part of a second. It can thus record the moment or apparition, which the canera-even the most sen sitiVe one-cannot or has not hitherto been able to do.
 Having a knowledge of these con- ditions to be reckoned with, deter mined, with the valuable assistance of MT. c. o. Lampland, to have made a camera patterned after what is known In photography as a bioscopic film in which, behind Wallace screen, many successive pictures might be taken in hope of securing among them 8 few showing the Martian canals.
 Despite the fact that thus far we have not secured an automatic camera, ours being worked by hand only, our photographs are quite clear enough to corroborate the fact of canals being on the interesting planet floating forty seven million miles from the earth.
 "In my firm belief, it is only a ques- tion of time, possibly of months, maybe 8 few years when we shall be able to determine the exact nature and proba- E ble purpose of the canals of our plan- etary neighbor.~ Meanwhile we have 8 number of excellent negatives which have served to bring us bit closer to Mars than ever in the past.
 Owing both to the smallness of the objective plenet as shown on the mega tive and also to the absence of infor- 1natfon on the part of the general pub lie as to the peculiar planetary mark ' tngs, the uninitiated eye can discern Mothing from the pictures until they are highly magnified. But, for those who are scientifically concerned, il may be explained that side by sidt with the plate in the exhibit is a pho. tograph of a drawing made by myself shortly before the pictures of Mars were taken. This, of course, serves the double purpose of confirming the relia, fbility of the instrument, together witt what may be called the objectivity ot visual observation, and also of serving as a chart to it.
 If one were to compare the severa photographs of the planet with relia 1ble map of Mars, the following mark ings could be readily recognized:
 "Regions-Syrtis Major, Mare Eryth raet1m, Mare IcariUm, Hellas and tn North Polar Gap.
 'tCanals-Nilosyrtis, Pyramus, Gas tus, Protonilus, Pierus, Vexillum, Asta boras and the Thoth.
 ''Oasis-Lucus Ismenius.
 "For example, a dark trianle, in th' photograph, with its apex pointin! downward is the Syrtis Major: a darl area at the top is the Mare Eryth raeum, while leading off from the lat ter to the right is shown the marrow dark stretch of the Mare Icariun