“IN OTHER WORLDS.”

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1920, Page 2

“IN OTHER WORLDS.”

MYSTERIOUS WIRELESS SOUNDS. ASTRONOMERS’ OPINIONS. . (By Electric Telegraph—Copyngnt.. (Received this day at 8.40 a.m.) LONDON, Jan.'27. Marconi’s fascinating speculation is being keenly discussed. Dyson, the astronomer, says the ,-e----ception from other plants is quite possible, hut adds that he is unwilling at present to enter any further opinion. Marconi, interviewed 1 amplified his statements. He describes the sounds as being very persistent when an operator uses waves of one hundred kilometres (3 or 4 times the length ordinarily required for commercial wirelessing). They are curious musical sounds —often three short raps, translat .'.hie into several letters. It presently wV 'he necessary to emphasise that people should not jump at the conclusion that the sounds are signals, as there is nothing in the nature of a message as yet that has been picked up. The Company's operators have jjeen ; sked to supply detailed reports.

THE MYSTERY STILL UNSOLVED. GUARDED OPINIONS, (Received this day at 0.20 a.m> LONDON, Jan, Norman Loekyer declares ihat planetary signals are nop impossible. Soddy says that the Marconi conir mniiication is obviously of the greatest interest. K. Nobel points out that we have no ground for believing that Hertz'an waves travel through the celestial apace, E. Maunder disbelieves the pos ability of planetary communication, and favours the theory of magnetic disturbances in the Sun. Professor Turner considers that the signals are probably from somewhere in the Solar system, though not necessarily from intelligent life; though he thinks it miglily probable that life exists in other bodies of the Solar system. Commander Slee, of the Naval Wireless, does not deny the possibility of thp grgat advantage in wireless, wb'eh opens up a vast field for research. Flammarion, interviewed in Paris for the “Daily Mail,’’ says that while agreeing that the Marconi interrupt: >ns are possibly due to disturbances in the Sun, he adds that perhaps the planet Mars has been sending out signals for centuries, we nof fniowing how to reply.

PUJILit! INTEREST, ARE THEY SIGNALS FROM MARS? ANf 'INTERESTING THEORY. MARCONI ENGINEER’S OPINION, (Received this day, flt p.£}o fy.m.) LONDON, Jan. 37 Public interest is increasing ip Main corn’s speculations. Scientists and other expi-l'tij are freely discussing and speculating.

Major MncCajlum, superintending J engineer at Marconi llouse, states that he believes the interruptions arc < amiug too frequently to he accidental, hut if emanating from the Moon or Mars why i s it coming in Morse code. MacCallum suggests an interesting theory that the Martians are probably in a more advanced stage of civilisation than the earth, and perhaps have been experimenting with wireless for hundreds of years. An extra sensitive Martian record may have picked our code messages apd worked them out, as we did German messages ip flip wpr, apd are now trying to got in touch with the Earth at regular intervals. Mac-Eal-lum advises careful investigation and exact records, in order to make certain. He adds that Mans could certainly overcome the distance, with a sufficiently powerful transmitter travellilng 186.000 miles per second.