The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-10-13
Scientists Are Determined TO
Bare the Secrets of Mars

New York, Oct. S.-Rocket, radio
or camera-which will be the first to
Law bare the secret of Mars?
OF course, it isn't at all certain
that any one of the three will prove
q successful Sherlock Holmes of the
skies, but SCIENTISTS, lured on by an
age-old curiosity concerning our
neighboring planet, are pressing
along all three paths.
The latest development to set the
scientific world again agog over the
old question Of whether there was
life on Mars was the announcement
from. Paris of B. McAfee, American
scientist, and Prof. David Todd,
American astronomer, that they pro-
posed to snapshot the planet by U.s.
ing an abandoned mine shaft in Chile
as the barrel for telescope.
Only a short time before Signor
Marconi, of wireless fame, had put
q pick of interest in the most fantas-
tic of scientific inquiries by suggest
ing that a radio signal of 10000
meters which he had picked up might
have come from some Marian armed
with a mammoth sending set.
But it was left to Prof. Robert H.
Goddard, Of Clark college, in Worces-
ter, Mass, to suggest making an in
yestigation of the moon by means OF
a multiple-charge, high efficiency
rocket, capable of carrying cameras
or other recording apparatus needed
to explore the unknown regions OF
the upper air. AS the claim was mace
that a rocket could be constructed or
unlimited crushing power, it has been
suggested that it might be shot up to
Mars instead of the moon, winch
many scientists affirm is uninhablted.
One or two daring individuals even
have volunteered to be shot up in
place of camera.
Great Curiosity Excited.
The possibility that some folk
might be wandering up and down the
valleys of Mars has excited the curl
osity of astronomers and laymen
throughout all the ages, for Mars IS
the nearest planet to the earth ana
the easiest to observe.
Imaginative writer's took thelr
readers on trips to the moon ana
laid the scenes of their stories In the
surroundings of Mars, Saturn ana
other planets, but there was little
scientific knowledge to furnish a
basis for such fiction
The perfecting of the high-powered
telescope and the adoption of pho-
Biography to the use of the astrono-
mers auickened their interest IN the
Mars, which was seen to have large
areas of an ochre red, with patches OF
white at the poles, was belleVeo oy
many astronomers to be capable OF
supporting life in some form.
schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer
announced in 1871 that he had founo
the surface of one planet SCARED oy
many lines, which were per1ecelS
straight, and seemed to have some
system like vast engineering WORKS.
He called the lines canals and salo
he believed they had been construct
ed and were not simply cracks in the
surface of the planet.
May Be Systems OF Canals
Prof Percival Lowell erected an
observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona
many vars ago and commenced sys-
tematic observation of Mars. More
than ten years ago he startled the
world by expressing his belief that
Mars was inhabited by intelligent or
sanisms living in a civilization mucn
farther advanced than ours.
The canals, he said, were really big
bitches bringing water from the pores
to irrigate the rest of the planet. Tne
ochre red areas on the surface OF
Mars. he asserted, were deserts Oh 1al-
law fields, which became blush green
as the water flowed along the canals
in the seasons.
Later he said that he had Watcheo
the blush greenEarea, denoting land
springing to life with the coming OF
the water, spread down the northern
hemisphere along the borders OF the
canals to be the equator of the planet
and then gradually turn reddish
brown with the waning of the season.
The water, he claimed, was from lce
melting on the polar caps OF the
planet.
Other scientists took the opposite
point of view. Some said the canals
were only cracks in the surface OF the
o]anets filed with sand, impregnated
.;+h eo,te of variouS kinds, Wh1cn De-