The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-06-30
MILL SEARCH THE SKY
RaIIOor Will Be Used to Try to
learn More About Mars.
FIGHT IN SCIENCES INTEREST

professor Todd Thinks III He Can
Only Get Up About Ten Miles He
Can Talk to People of Mars and
1earn Many Useful Things. Aero
ant Stevens Will Take Him on
hazardous Ascent.
AMHERST, Mass.--A cushion of
H. ten miles thick, surrounds the
.ortb. Out there, beyond this air
,ncbion, there may be a veritable
.lamor of messages from Mars. For
oorturies these messages have been
boating in vain; they are hurled
batk into ethereal echoes that are
wasted on space.
In vain the Martians may have
\ strongthened their wireless message
& machines. With each stronger ap-
naratus they have thrown out to us,
\ n snace. with new hope, messages
hat might THRILL us lmmeasurably.
Each time their messages have been
Unanswered because the earth's
nshion of air has kept them from
Us.
This is the theory of Prof. David
Todd of Amherst College, who says:
IF there are any human beings
an Mars | have no doubt they have
been sending us messages for years,
and are still wondering at our stu
pidity in not replying.
81 hope to intercept these mes
sages and in this way solve many
of the mysteries of human life.
81 am convinced that the Martians,
if there are any such still left alive,
have solved long ago all the prob
lens that we are facing.
"The Martians have found out
things that the people of this planet
are still cropping for. Upon Mars
they have progressed thousands of
years beyond us. All the things
that are mysterious here are az
open book there. Once give us a
connecting link, and in that moment
We shall have unsealed a book which
only tens of thousands of years work
and study could reveal"
He believes that the blue air above
US is a veritable mine of knowledge.
The MaTtians, he thinks, are thou
sands of years ahead of us in all
wisdom If we can talk with them,
he believes, we shall open new books
of wisdom, and shall find, ready
solved for us, the problems we now
face, and also many new problems
We have not yet even reached.
The first thing to do is to pene-
trate the cushion of air and to get
our wireless apparatus up above it.
OF course no pole ten miles high
could be erected. But Professor
Todd, with Leo Stevens of New
York, believes that with a balloon
the custom can be penetrated.
And Professor Todd is willing to
risk his life to attempt to prove his
theory. With Stevens, the famous
New York aeronaut, he intends in
September, when Mars, sometimes
$4,000, 0O9 miles away, is only 49,
100000 miles from the earth, to as
cend as high into the air cushion as
the balloon will go. They have been
planning to make ascensiOns at Can
ton, Ohio.
The balloon is to be fitted with
wireless apparatus. The receiver
will be placed above the bag. Three
fine steel wires will be connected
with the earth, and down these wires
the supposed message will travel.
The balloonists will not know what
is passing through the apparatus.
They will merely be playing the part
Of the ball that is on top of a pole
ten miles high.
When they descend they will dis
cover whether or not they have been
The balloon will be the largest
that can be secured. Professor Todd
and Stevens will sit on chairs with
in alright ALUMINIUM tanks. With