SIGNALS TO MARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 461, 8 June 1909, Page 2

SIGNALS TO MARS.

Professor Wiuiam Hknry Pickering, one of the famous brothers who are in charge ot the astronomical observatory at Harvard, is prepared, he asserts, to communicate with the inhabitants of Mars next July if he can obtain the ,£2,000,000 necessary for the operation. Mr Pickering (telegraphs the New York correspondent of the Daily Mail), who constructed the celebrated observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, believes with Professor Dowell that Mars is inhabited by people of high intelligence. In July, he says, Mars will be 5,000,000 miles nearer the earth than ever before. Professor Pickering’s plan is to establish a series of mirrors occupying an area of a quarter of a mile, which will be attached, to one great axis paralled with that of the earth, and will be run by motors timed to make complete revolutions every twenty-four hours. “ The light thus reflected,” he says, would easily be discernible by the aid of telescopes by the Martians. We should begin a series of flashes, cutting off the sun’s rays for an instant, and then throwing them on the mirrors again, repeating this at irregular intervals according to the telegraphic code of dots and dashes. This ought at once to attract the attention of the Martians who will give an answering signal. Once such a sigual'is received, it will be a comparatively easy matter to establish a code and transmit messages.” Professor Pickering is ready to furnish such a code, and says that he is confident that if this proposed plan could be adopted we ou earth should be able eventually to converse with the Martians.