Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-11-10

anyC1e OF tne tHiSe Will PfONS SUI
c,.sful Sherlock Holmes Of the skies
~, scientists. lured on by an age-old
curiosity concerning our neighboriae
rIanet. are passing along all three
paths.
The latest development to set the
s,ientific world again agpg over the
old question of whether there was life
IN Mars was the announcement from
Paris of B. McAfee, American scien-
,;st and Professor David Todd, Amer
lean astronomer, that they purposed
10 snapshot the planet by using an
abandoned mine-shaft in Chile as the
barrel for a telescope.
Only a short time before Signor
Marconi of wireless fame had put a
kick Of interest in the most fantastic
OF scientific inquiries by suggesting
that radio signal Of 10000 meters
he had picked up might have come from
Sme Maritian armed with a mammoth
sending set.
But ii was left to Professor Robert
H. Goddard, OF Clark College in wor-
chester, Mass, to suggest making an
Investigation of the moon by means
Of a multiple-charge, high efficiency
rocket, capable Of carrying cameras
or other recording apparatus needed
10 explore the unknown regions of the
upper air. AS the claim was made
thai rocket could be constructed of
unlimited cruising power, il has been
suggested that it might be shot up to
Mars instead of the moon, which many
scientists affirm is uninhanted. One
or two daring individuals even have
volunteered to be shot up in place OF
camera.
The possibility that some folk might
be wandering up and down the val
leys of Mars has excited the curiosity
Of astronomers and laymen through
out all the ages for Mars is the near
est planet to the earth and the easiest
TO observe
Imaginative writer's took their read.
erS on trips to the moon and laid the
scenes of their stories in the surround
inss of Mars, Saturn and other planets
but there was little scientific knowledge
10 furnish a basis for such action.
The perfecting of the high powered
telescope and the adaptation of pho-
tOsraphy to the uses of the astronp.
merS quickened their interest in the
possibility of life On another world
mars, which was seen to have large
areas OF a blush green and other areas
Of an ochre red, with patches OF white
al the poles, was believed by manv
astronomers to be capable of support
ing life in some form.
Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer
announced in 1871 that he had found
Inc surface of the planet SCARED by
many lines which were perfectly
STaisht and seemed 10 have some svs-
'sm like vast engineering works. He
called the lines canals and said he be-
heved they had been constructed and
we're not simply cracks in the surface
Of the planet.
Professor Percival Lowell erected
an observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.,
many years ago and commenced sys-
'ematic observation of Mars. More
man ten years ago he startled the
world by expressing his belief that Mars
was inhabited by intelligent organisms
NIng in a civilization much farther
aaVanced than ours.
The canals, he said, were really big
bitches bringing water from the poles
10 iFrigate the rest of the planet. The
0chre red areas on the surface of Mars.
he asserted, were deserts or fallow
helds which became blush green as
NE water flowed along the canals in
the seasons.
Later, he said that he had watched
VIC oiuish green area, denoting land
bringing to life with the coming of
uls water, spread down the northern
hemisphere along the borders Of the
'a'aiS to beyond the equator of the
planet and then gradually turn red
.'Sh brown with the waning of the sea-
''H The water, he claimed, was from
NC melting on the polar caps of the
planet.
o"'er scientists took the opposite
yum OF view. Some said the canals
'e only cracks in the surface of the
r ranet filled with sand, impregnated
wi salts of various kinds, which be-
Nelle DIRK Or EnEt IA +la aLaaS