The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-02-07
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, D. @.
SIGNALS no OTHER WORLDS.

olner WOrlQ is supposed TO De Trying
to send us wireless messages, some OF
our professors and scientists plan
communication from our end. One
astronomer is going up in a balloon
to observe the planets more closely,
and study ways of letting other worlds
know that the earth is inhabited.
Another professor has invented a
multiple-charged rocket which will
explode at various points in its flights,
thus providing additional motive pow
er at each explosion. With this
rocket he believes that he can test the
character of the air two hundred
miles above the earth; while a similar
rocket built on a giant scale, to weigh
say 1000 pounds, would if properly
directed reach the moon. Il
Some wireless experts believe that
we shall soon be able % exchange
wireless messages with such of the
planets as may be populated. Five
minutes was once set by an electrical
authority as a reasonable length OF
time for a radio impulse to flash be-
tween the earth and Mars. Compare
this five minutes with the amount of
time it would take an airplane to
reach our nearest neighboring planets.
A plane travelling steadily at 200
miles an hour could go almost 5000
miles in twenty-four hours, and could
cover a million miles in 200 days.
Venus is at it's nearest approach TWEEN
! ty-five million miles from us. and
Mars is thirty-five million. This gives
some idea of the distance of space,
and also of the speed of wireless
that, it is estimated, could cross the
void in five minutes.
Whether some other world has mas
tered radio to greater extent than
the geniuses of the earth is the
merest guesswork. But this is not the
first time that mysterious signals have
been received by wireless operators.
Signor Marconi reported unaccount-
able disturbances a year ago, and
some years before that another cleo
| trical expert had a similar experience.
! That these wireless disturbances
might possibly come from the planet
Venus is the opinion expressed by DR..
Charles G. Abbott of the Smithsonian
Institution.
1--WE have not yet proved the exist
ence of life on Venus" says Doctor
Abbott, ''but conditions there are
more favorable for life than on any of
the other worlds except our own
MARS" he maintains. sis absolutely
incapable of supporting life, and
therefore could not be the outside
party trying to signal the earth.''
Students of radio have attempted to
explain the queer sounds coming from
some great distance as messages from
another planet As Mars has repeat
eddy been peopled by scientists and fic-
ton writers. it is usually selected as
the planet most likely to be paging the
earth. This idea is all wrong. accord
ing to Doctor Abbott.
Mars" he states, 'is as dry as any
desert in the world. In fact. the Sa-
hara would be quite damp in COMPARE
son with the fields of Mars. AS wa
ter is essential to human existence.
this precludes the possibility of life
there"
The dryness of Mars is concluded
from the fact that there are no clouds
surrounding it to create vapor. That
there are no seas or rivers on the dying
planet was long ago decided by
astronomers.
The idea of life on the planet was
advocated thru the discovery of the so->
! called canal of Mars, in 1877. Some
astronomers Immediately deduced that
the network OF straight lines discov-
cred was a gigantic irrigation system
by which an ingenious race of Mar
| tians supplied their fields with mois-
ture in a last stand for existence.
The source of the water supply, ac-
cording to this theory, is the snow and
ice fields at the poles. White circles
are plainly visible at the poles of
Mars at times, but astronomers differ
as to their character. Some say that
they are deposits of frozen carbonic
Bacid gas. which idea spoils entirely the
| theory of a polarfwater supply. Others
think that the while patches may be
ice, but even so, there may be only
thin skim like frost, for it is be-
lieved that layer a quarter of an inch
thick would make the surface appear
perfectly white.
Whether seas of ice form at the
poles of Mars or not, it is difficult to
| conceive of sufficient water being OBJ
tanned to irrigate six hundred canals,
stretching over thousands of mile s.
Imagine canals five OF ten miles wide
dug from Boston TO Mexico City, and
from Seattle to Atlanta, and then,
with this as a scale, imagine 500 such
i engineering projects, and you have a
vague idea of what you must believe
If you accept the Marian canal theory.
| Astronomers who refute the canal
story, say that the lines seen are opti-
| cal Illusions Occulists make various
experiments to show that at certain
angles or distance crooked line appear
straight, or a series of short lines
| seem to be one continuous line.
| Something of this sort may be the ex-
| PLANTATION of the Marian canals At
times, the surface of the planet APP
pears marked only with numerous
! short lines, and then again the long
| straight lines can be seen.
Some of these explanations are
mere theory, but Doctor Campbell, of
Lick Observatory made two convinc-
| ing tests to prove the absolute dryness
| of Mars. The general idea was that
in the spectrum the vapor of the
| earth's atmosphere shows dark lines.
Doctor Campbell went up on Mt.
| Whitney and found that there was not
| enough water vapor on Mars to pro-
duce any effect on the spectrum.
Doctor Abbott has weighed all this
| and other data relative to Mars, and
| states that the only reasonable con-
clusion is that Mars is a cold and
i barren world.
| Venus on fha nfhAr hand NAV he
regarded as a favorable place for
| habitation, he thinks. Venus is a
young planet just coming into its own,
and if there is anything in the belief
that worlds were made to live in,
1 trouble in building theories to fit
Venus is that the planet is always en-
veloped in a mass of clouds, so that
even tho it is closer to US than Mars,
yet its surface is not so distinct.