How We May Telegraph to the Moon.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 197, 2 April 1887, Page 7

How We May Telegraph to the Moon.

Some fifty years ngo, tbo astronomer, J. de Littrow, Director of the Vienna Ob-erra-tury, ataitad the idea of establishing telescopic communication with the inhabitants of tha moon. A triangle described ou the surface of the imjn by three luminous Hues each of twelve or fifteen miles in length would bo vi-ible from this earth by the aid of our lelfc&copss. Woobaeivo de tails even much smaller than this, for »xamplo iiio peculiar topographical de-i^ns seen in the circle on tho mrtuco of the moon to which the name of "Plato" ha-< been given. A triangle, then, a pqnare, or a J circle, ot auch dimensions, constructed by us onsonm va c t plain, by mean* of luminoupoiatc reflecting the ?olar light by day. arul aided by elect tic lv>M ab night, woald bo visible to tho astronomers in the moon— it those astronomer? exnt and have optical instrumetilri equal to our own. The result ot tins tenoning i* 'iraple in 'h ) extie'ne. If we were to ob>°rvo on the surface of the moon a triangle conccily described, we should be somewhat pizz'ed. We should think our Fight deceived uWe fchould ask ouisjlvce whother peivhai.ee it were possible that Ljoi'ogicil ohai-g^ could hive given bul'i to a regular geometiiml figure. No doubt we should end by admitting thi- as an exceptional po-^-i-bility. But if, all at once, we saw this? triangle changed into a tquare, and, sotuo months later, replaceJ by a circle, then we should logically a flow that an intelligent effect proves an intelligent cause, and we should with reason beiicve that such figures reveal, beyond doubt, tho existence of geometers in that neighbouring world. Thence it wo';!u be but a single etep, very e^ily made, to inquire the lahon d'etre of such mark* r.n the moon's surface, and to ask why and to what end our unknown brethren formul those figures Could it be with the idea of entering into relations with ourselvoe ? Tho hypothesis is not. preposterous. Ir may bo putfjrrh and discussed, rejected a* dogmatic, or dofended as ingenious. Why, after all, ?hould not the inhabitants of tho tnoon be more curious than ourselves, more in telligent, more tlevated in their aspirations, less entanglei than our a eives< in the elitne of tnateria'u-m ? Why should they not have suppo-ed th.it the eaith might be inhabited like their world ; and why should not those geometrical tests be applied to ascertain the facfc of our exih tenco? If so, it would not be difficult for us to answer thorn. Tney show u'i a triangle ; let ue rep; od nee it heio. They trace a circle ; let v-» nix+ato that There at once would be communication rs tablished between heaven and earth for the first time since the beginning of tho world. Geometry is the r'iaie for the inhabitants of all worlds; two and Nvo make four in ;i!l the regions of infinity, and every whore the throe angles of a trUugle are equal to two right angles. The s'gnals, theieforc, exchanged in this way between the earth <..nd the moon would not inv>lve even so nrieh obscurity as the hieroglyphics deciphered by Champollion, an i the eommu Mention once established woald soon become regular and productive of roru'te. Moreover, tho moon is not po fir otl from us. Her distance of 96,000 leagues is only equal to thirty times the dimeter of the earth, and many country postmen have gone o\ei" as much ground on foot in the course of their livus A telegram would got theio in a second and a quarter, and light takes no more' time to accomp'ish the distance. The moon is a celestial province annexed to us by TJS»+»jre herFelf Up to tho present tiaie we have ob-erved nothing on the moon's surface which can warrant us in 6u?peciing the existence of an intelligent human race inhabiting thnt little celestial islet. Yet istronomera who e-peci-ally watch our satellite, attentively and pereevoringly Btudying her peculiar aspects, are generally of opinion that this star U not so dead as she poem* to be Wo must not forget that in the pre-ent state of optical scie'lee ifc is difficult to apply practically to the study of th^ moon a magnifying power of more than 2,000. To c cc thi^ orb two thousand times nearer than the is in the heavens is only to bring her within forty eight leagues. And what can wo di-< tingui=h at a distance of a hundred and forty-four miles? An army on the march ? A lar^e city ? Perhaps ; but it 13 very doubtful. W hat we know fur certain is that puzzling changes do ac*ually take place on the imon'B surface, especially in the aiena of "The Circle of Plato" whrreof we ep-)ke above What is a' c o certain is that the lunar oib, forty nine times smaller than the earth, and eighty-one times leps heavy, ex crts on its surface ? gravity of only one-nxth the power which exi^te on the surface of our planet, so that an atmosphere analogous to that which we breathe would be times more rarefied and difficult to perceive from the earth. There is nothing surpjising, then, in the fact that thia neighbouring world differp po much from ours. Moreover, when viewed from a balloon at a height of only four or five thousand yards the earth appears dc-crt, uninhabited, silent as a vast cemetery, aad anybody who came from the moon in a biUcon might inquire, even at that minute distance, whether there were any people in France or any noise in Paris. The cold and dead aspect of our pale satellite offered litt'e encouragement for realiping the original project of the astrono mer, J. de Littrow, and soon forgetting our adjacent province, the imagination of certain astronomers ventured to soar even to the planet of Mars, which never approaches nearer to us than inurteen million leagues, but which is the best known of all the heavenly orbs, and which presents so many points of resemblance to our planet that we should scarctly fael otherwise than at home if we traneorted thither our household gods. The appearance of Marp, in fact, eorcetvhat compensates us for that; of the moon. We can, indeed, believe ourselves in some terrestrial region. Continent?, seae, islands, shores, peninsulas, capes, gulfs, watera, clouds, rains, inundatione, springs and autumns, days and nights, morninirs and evenings, — all are found nearly the same as with ua. The years aro longer, since they last for six hundred and eighty-seven days, but the effect of the eeaeorcs ip exactly the same as here, the inclination of the axis being the same a3 our 9. Tho dftya there are also a little longer since tbe diurnal revolution of that world takes twenty -four hours thirtyeeven minutes twenty -three seconds ; but, a^ we see, the difference is not greet. And notice that aIJ this is precisely known ; this diurnal rotation, ftor instance, is fixed to the tenth part of a Fecond ! When, during the beautiful starry nighty we examine that world by the aid of the telescope, whin we see those | polar snows which melt in springtide, thoee continents bo sharply defined, Ihosa inland eeae wrh their long gulfs, that 'geographical outline so suggestive and «>o varied, we cannot help asking ourselves whether the sun which shines on that world, as on oars, lights up nothing living ; whether those rains fertilise nothing ; whether that atmosphere is breathed by no being,and whether that worldof Mars whioh rolls swiftly through space is like a railway trata which speeds along empty, without

p/weeng'r'* or gooJs. The notion fcha the world w bereon we live could proceed a: ifc does mund the sun without being inhabited by any ma<uro "whatsoever, appears &n sneineietent that it i* difficult to entertain it. By what permanent miracle. jof eteril i.y should the forces of nature, l which ace there as thry do here, romaia eternally inactive and unproductive? Thoy h-ivo ju«t fii:ihhcd, in the Uciilecl States, the moat p iwerful tele.-cnpe that has ever beer, o instructed, ltmeafcuioe almost aniurroin 'iia'neter, and twenty in^trea in lengrh. <no of the earliest applications will bo 1o ,)-«int it towards thu neigh' bouring «o,IJ, which is sti;l a riddle to us, »• •] to endeavour lo understand rhe remarkable features pre-f-onted in is geography. Next to ateaui, the toleji'ur>o, the electric light, and the telephone .vouid not the discovery of indubitab'e evidence as to the existence o£ a humanity inhabiting another region of our polar archipelago be the moat uiarvelloua apotheofi- of Foientific glory in Ihe Ninettenth Ceutuiy ?