Evening star., 1909-04-29
PROPOSED SIGNAL TO MARS
PROF. WOOD OF JOHNS HOPKINS
DECLINES UNIQUE JOB.
Texas People Aroused Over Proposed
Observation-Disclosures Suggests
Plan to Attract Martians.

BALTIMORE. April 29.-The fame of
Prof Robert W. Wood the wells known
physicist of the Johns Hopkins Cniver-
sity seems to have spread To Texas.
judging from the number Of kilograms
which he has received from Stamford. in
western Texas. asking him to assume
charge of an observatory in those re-
gions the object Of which is to signal
the people of the planet Mars. Incl
dentally DR.. Wood suggested a plan to
reach the planet Mars.
DR.. Wood is at a loss to account for
the reason of this steady flow of tele-
grams from that quarter AS far as he
can ascertain. he says, some one in that
section of the country seems to have
morously made by Prof. Pickering of
the Harvard University the other day to
the effect that with large mirror sew
eral miles long. which would cost about
O.O00. 600 1t would he possible for the
inha bitants of the earth TO signal their
brethren on Mars.
The Texan says DIR. Wood. must have
discovered that he has been conducting a
series of experiments with mcrcurious
mirror: and suggested to his fellow citi-
zens that Prof. Wood construct an OBJ
servatory at Stamford. for which the res
idents were to pledge SJ0,GG0.
Prof. Woods Statement.
Speaking of the matter, Prof. Wood
aid last night:
|. AS to the project of attracting the at
tention of the Martians to the fact that
there are rational beings on the earth. it
seems to me that If there are any who
! insist upon making usF conspicuous in
this way 1t would be better to devise
some simpler way than the construction
OF mirror several miles in diameter. 4
large black spot upon the white alkali
plains could be constructed at much less
expense. and would be as easily perceived
by the Martidns If they exist and have
telescopes as powerful as ours. 1t would
| be as easy to wink signals with the
black spot as with a mirror of equal
size. probably easier.
THE spot could be made in small sec
| tions of black cloth arranged TO rol! up
on long cylinders. exposing the white
operated simultaneously by electric mo-
tors. | am unable to say how much four
| square miles of cloth would cost. You
| will have to consult the dry goods houses
or the people who write arithmetic.
We should probably get no answer, for
the Martians are supposedly older and
| wiser than we are.
Large Mirror Impracticable.
Il have never, and am not now giving
signaling 10 Mars. My reply to repeated
kilograms from Fort Worth, Tex. asking
!, if | would consider the question of build
| ing large mercury mirror in western
Texas, If funds were provided, was as fol-
| lows
Experiments with the small 20-inch
mercury mirror are still in progress. 1t
would be great mistake to consider the
construction OF larger instrument until
| the smaller one is perfected. Thank you
| for your offer of assistance. which is ap-
| preciated.
Nothing was mentioned i'm any of the
| kilograms about possible communication
with Mars. and1 was much surprised to
hear that dispatch had been sent out
saving that | had decided t. carry olt
their plans Of attempting to establish COM
munication with another planet
Il have never for moment believed
that the mercury telescope would play
any spectacular part in the science of
astronomy. The experiments were taken
up during the summer months to asccr-
tain whether the mechanical difficulties
could be overcome. and turned out SO
much better than l had any reason 10 eX-
pect that ! have been thinking over the
advisabi,ity of perhaps some day con-
structing larger instrument, possibly d
or feet in diameter.