SIGNALS FROM THE UNKNOWN

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1920, Page 9

SIGNALS FROM THE UNKNOWN

"SIGNOR MARCONI RECEIVES MYSTERIOUS SIGNALS FROM FAB DISTANCES WHICH HE CANNOT r INTERPRET. p I: —— y London, Jan. 30. 8 Signor Morconi, the wireless genius, h has just repeated to the Daily Mail J some striking statements which he had t previously made to Mr. Harold Beghie. C "Senator Marconi avers," says the Mail, "that for some considerable time 1 strange wireless signals have been re- j ceived which cannot be accounted for as \ originating from any instrument on j earth. Mathematical calculations sug- s gest that they come from an enormous j distance—from space far out beyond tie ; earth' 6 atmosphere—because they are t felt with equal force at stations widely t apart on the surface of our placet. £ FROM FAR DISTANCES. j "The distances from which these aig- 1 rials seem to come forbids the explana- J tion that they are due to 'atmospherics' ' or electrical disturbances in our own air- 3 There are two possible explanations if ' they come from planetary space. The ' first is that they may be caused by * electrical storms in the sun, such a's are < believed to cause magnetic storms on the ' earth. But in that case ft fs not easy > to see why some letters should regularly recur as they do with special frequency, i Or they may come from intelligent be- 1 ings in one of the planets. f "It is very curious that on grounds | quite independent of these signals there j has recently been a tendency among £ astronomers and scientists to admit that j hoth the moon and Mars may be in- 1 habited. If so, we should expect the , first indication of these beings' existence to be revealed by such signals as j are now reaching the earth. ( "Are we, therefore, on the verge of j the greatest discovery in human history? Or are these romantic possibilities destined to fade away and to be explained by some new solar phenom- ( enon!" 1 IN THEIR STILL CABINS. "For some time past wireless operators both by day and night have been ■ puzzled by interruptions to their sig- ' en Is," says the Mail. "Thcic interruptions take the form of apparently meaningless combinations of letters. They were noted before the war. and since its close they have been carefully investigated. "One of their peculiarities is that they , are not confined to one country or even ] one continent. Operators in "the stillness 6f their cabins have heard these mysterious signals both in London and New York; indeed, they have been observed; simultaeously in both cities. WHAT MARCONI SAID. '"Senator Marconi, in his statement regarding these signals, said:— ""W e occasionally get very queer sounds and indications which might come from somewhere outside the earth. We have had them both in England and in America. We have also noticed that in these interruptions some letters occur with much greater frequency than others. The letter "S" (three dots in the Morse code) is one of these. n " 'Not only have these interruptions occurred simultaneously in London and , New \ork, but also their intensity has i been identical on these occasions. This seems to indicate that they must have i originated from a very great distance—a distance compared with which that between London and New York (some 3,200 miles) must be relatively small. 'As yet we have not the slightest proof as to the origin of the interruptions. They might conceivably be due ) to some natural disturbance at a great , distance, suih as eruptions on the sun, which might cause electrical disturbance.' ' NO PROOF. "When asked, 'Do you consider that there is any possibility of the cause being attempts on the part of another planet to communicate with the earth?' Senator Marocni replied: „ "'I do not rule out that possibility, but there is no proof. It might or might not be. We want to investigate "the matter much more thoroughly before we can venture on a definite explanation.' "He added that these phenomena had begun to be noticeable before the war, which suspended further investigation of their cause. The strange sounds are not confined to any particular period of the twenty-four hours and are as frequent by day as by night." "There are two source s from which they might come," adds the Mail. "The first is the moon. Professor Pickering, an astronomer of high reputation, has caused extraordinary interest in the United States by recently announcing that hp seis signs of life on the moon. "Quite independently, and looking at the moon from a totally different viewpoint, Professor Soddy, as a chemist and physicist, has declared (in the work which we reviewed recently) that the inoon cannot possibly be dead, which is the orthodox old-fashioned view. The distance of the moon from the earth is relatively small—as distances go in the solar system. It i. 3 about 238,000 miles. "The second source is the mysterious planet Mars. It is distant from the earth 49,000,000 miles. Recent investigation by Professor Lowell with his giant telescope has given strong reason for believing that life in some form exists there. The canals are not easily to be explained as natural features; and they seem to change fslowly with time, as do the works of rational beings, who modify their plant to suit neiv conditions. "If they are artificial, and Professor Lowell is convinced that they are, they give evidence of such mechanical and organising power in the Martians as would justify all Mr. Well's romantic fancies. The beings who could pilan and execute- those canals, which completely dwarf all the puny works of man, should also be capable of planning and constructing the instruments to signal to other planet?. "We may be o.n the threshold of the most tremendous discovery which the human race has yet made—the Jiacovprv that somewhere in the vast and interminable emptiness of space other beings exist." 1 1