SCIENCE FAILS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 30 August 1927, Page 6

SCIENCE FAILS

TO WIN MOST DIFFICULT PRIZE.

SIGNAL TO HEAVENLY BODY

Members of the French Academy of Science, after more than 35 years’ deliberation ,are still attempting to solve the problem of the most difficult prize they have ever been called on to award (says the “Daily Ex press” Paris correspondent.) The prize and its terms are contained in the will of Mme. GJara Guzman, a wealthy widow, who died in a convent in Pau, Southern France. The will when filed for probate in 1891 was found to contain the following paragraph: “1 leave to the Academy of Science of the Institute of France 100,000 francs (then £400) for the foundation of a prize to bear the name of my son Pierre. OPEN TO ALL. “This prize, to be awarded without distinction of nationality to the first scientist who will succeed in communicating with a heavenly body—that is send a signal to a heavenly body and receive a reply to this signal. I exclude the planet Mars.” Only two of the members favoured the acceptance of the legacy at the first meeting called to consider it. The decision was postponed then and at other meetings held regularly for nearly nine years until in 1900 the members voted to accent it largely on the strength of the additional paragraph in the will:— “As long as communication with a planet is not established interest on the capital will be permitted to accumulate for five years, and will constitufe a prize to be awarded to the scientist—French or foreign—who will have made the most important contribution to a more intimate knoweldge of the planets of our solar-sys-tem, either in regard to their nature or in regard to their relations with the earth.” CLAIMED BY MANY PEOPLE. The Secretary of the Academy, commenting Gn the position, says: “There has never been a prize in existence claimd by so many people. It is astonishing how many have communicated with Jupiter and Venus and Saturn. We have thousands of letters from all parts of the world. “Only one claimant ever presented even a plausible plan. He was a Bui garian soldier who had fought in France. He did not present an accomplished fact, hut submitted a scheme whereby communication might be established with one of the planets, and asked us to help him to obtain the necessary financial backing.

“The plan was to obtain a large tract of land, perhaps a mile or two square, and to instal a powerful lighting system there with millions of bulbs, all of which could be lighted simultaneously and be visible to an observer on another planet. Wo abstained from participation. I doubt whether the award will ever be made and certainy not in our time.”