Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-06-02
TODD'S MARS PLANS
Professor to Live In Steel Tank
to sigma! Planet.
TEN MILES UP IN BIG BALLOON

AmneFSE HSNTOuONlSA Niil - sc fhlT OTdTL
Fitted With Wireless Apparatus
to Intercept Possible Messages From
Martians-Three Wires Will Reach
to the Ground.
Professor David n. Todd, head of
Amherst college observatory, in a re-
cent interview announced his plans
for picking up messages from Mars
by means of wireless instruments car
ried up in balloon to the edge Of the
earth's atmosphere, says Boston dis
patch. Shut up in an air tight tank
borne aloft in a huge balloon, Profess
or Todd will make the first attempt
ever made by the inhabitants of the
earth to intercept messages from the
people of the planet Mars, who, as
tronomers are inclined to think, have
been signaling to the earth by means
of ether waves for years.
The attempt will be made in Sep
TENDER, when the planet is at its near
est point to the earth. Professor Todd
viii be accompanied by Leo Stevens
Of New York, a celebrated aeronaut,
who will endeavor to pilot the balloon
to a height of ten miles. The outlay,
It is expected, will not exceed $1,000.
eff there are human beings on
Mars" said Professor Todd, 81 have
no doubt that they have been sending
us messages for years and are still
wondering at our stupidity in not re-
plying. The Martians have found out
the things that the people Of this
planet are still blindly cropping for.
Upon Mars they have progressed thou
sands of years beyond us. Many
things that are mysteries here must
be an open book there. Once give US
q connecting link and in that moment
we shall have unsealed book which
only tens Of thousands Of years Of
work and study could reveal.
81 say that If there is life on Mars
can see no reason why its inhabitants
should not understand electric COM
munication. Doubtless they are mas
tiers in the art Of the use Of ether
waves. l hope to intercept some Of
their ether waves. OF course we
would not understand these messages,
but we would have something to puz-
zle out. Perhaps we could learn their
code and in the course Of years or
months be able to return the mes
sages and actually communicate.
''In the basket of the balloon will be
our two cylindrical tanks. each about
four feet high and from two to three
feet in diameter and capable Of hold
ing a single person. Entrance to the
cylinders will be by a manhole on
the top fitted from the inside with a
compress cover screwed in place from
the inside. As soon as we reach the
low outside pressure above this cover
would hold itself in place even though
1t were not fastened.
''The bottom of the cylinder will be
OF clear, thick glass, while there will
be three or four windows around the
sides. Inside there will be chair for
the comfort of the occupant.
"Just in front of this chair, where it
can always easily be reached, will be
a small rotary air pump for supplying
oxygen from the outside when that in
the tanks gets depleted. Both Mr..
Stevens and myself will have an ane-
roid baromenter for determining the
air pressure inside, and the cylinder
will have a safety valve, which will
blow off at q pressure Of from fourteen
to fifteen pounds to the square inch.
''Within the cylinder there will also
be mechanical means for performing
certain work outside, such as throw
ing out ballast when desired, without
diminishing the needed pressure in the
tanks. The weight of each of these
tanks, which will be built of either
steel or aluminium. is to be about 200
pounds. We shall carry appliances for
taking specimens of the air in this
rarefied region, as it is asserted by
many that the character of the atmos-
phere so far above the earth is of an
entirely different nature from that be-
low.
"Of course as we mount upward, if
we find it impossible to draw upon the
outside for oxygen. we shall have to
stop the ascent, but l do not expect
any trouble of this nature. Because
Of the difficulty of making a straight
ascension directly upward by means Of
a single ground wire three of these
wires will uncon from below at sta
tons at three opposite angles, each
acting as guide and stay upon the
balloon and assuring practically direct
fight upward.
Moreover, these wires, which will
together weigh only about hundred
pounds, will be the important instru-
ment Of bringing any possible Marian
messages straight down to the earth.
These messages viii be received on
the ground and will be carefully
guarded until the work OF deciphering
begins"
AI.,.r SnanI RannnI Enn T,rnn,.rrfain.