WIRELESS PHENOMENA

Otago Witness, Issue 3438, 3 February 1920, Page 18

WIRELESS PHENOMENA

EXPERTS PUZZLED. ASTONISHING THEORIES. (By Cable.) LONDON, January 26. The Daily Mail gives publicity to a remarkable statement made by Signor Marconi, the purport of -which is that ior some time past wireless operators day and night have been puzzled by interruptions and signals taking the form of meaningless combinations of letters. The,..sounds are not confined to any country or continent, and are heard simultaneously .n London and New York. Signor Marconi describes some very queer sounds, which, from indications, might come from somewhere outside the. earth. Some letters particularly occur with the greatest frequency, but in no case yet has anything been picked up that can be translated as a definite message. The combinations are of* identical intensity, and would seem to emanate from the greatest distances. There has not been the slightest proof of their origin, and they are possibly due to natural electrical disturbances, such as eruptions in the sun. Asked if it was possible that another planet was attempting to communicate with the earth, Signor Marconi replied: '' I cannot rule out that possibility; Out there is no proof." The strange sounds are not confined ',o any particular period, but are as frequent during the day as during the night. The phenomena were first noticed before the war, which suspended further investigation of the cause.

The Daily Mail, in discussing the sun theory in relation to the Marconi statement, says: "It is difficult to see in that case why special letters should recur with special frequency." Regarding the two other possible sources—the moon and Mars—the paper quotes Professor Soddy's (professor of chemistry, Aberdeen University) cabled theory that the moon is hot dead, and points out that Professor Pickering (director of the astronomical observatory of Harvard College) caused extraordinary interest in America by his recent announcement that he saw signs of life on the moon.

Discussing Professor Lowell's and other theories in reference to the existence of life on Mars, the Mail asks : " Are we on the threshold of the most tremendous discovery for the human race—that somewhere in what has been thought of as the vast interminable emptiness of space other beings exist?"

January 27. - Marconi's fascinating speculation is keenly discussed. Sir Frank Dyson, the Astronomer Royal, says that reception waves from other planets are quite possible, but adds that he is unwilling \t present to venture a further opinion. Signor Marconi, interviewed, amplified his statements. He describes the sounds as very persistent when operators use waves of 100 kilometres and three or four times the length of those ordinarily required for commercial wireless operations. They are curious musical sounds, often three short raps, translatable into several letters. It may presently be necessary to emphasise that people should not_ jump to conclusions that the sounds are signals as nothing in the nature of a message has yet been picked up. The company's operators have been asked to supply detailed reports. January 28.

Public interest is increasing in Signor Marconi's speculations. Scientists and other experts are freely discussing the question and speculating on the cause of the strange musical sounds. Major MacCallum, -superintending engineer at Marconi House, states that he believes that the interruptions are coming too-' frequently to be accidental, but if emanating from the moon or from Mars, why are they coming in the Morse code 1 ? Ma'jor MacCallum suggests the interesting theory that the Martians are probably in a more advanced stage of civilisation even than that on the earth, and perhaps ha/e been experimenting with wireless for hundreds of years. An extra sensitive Martian record may have worked up our code messages and woi'ked them out, as we did the German messages during the war, and the Martians may now be trying to get in touch with the earth at regular intervals. Major MacCalhim advises careful investigation, and exact records in order to make certain. He adds that Mars could certainly overcome the distance with a sufficien'tlv powerful transmitter travelling 186,000 miles per second.

INTERESTING THEORIES. LONDON, January 28

Sir Norman Lockyer, dh-ector 6f Hill Observatory, declares that planetary signals are not impossible. Professor Soddy (Aberdeen) says that Marconi's communication is obviously 0'" the greatest interest. MrEdward Ball Knobel (astronomer and Oriental scholar) points out that we have no ground for believing that Hertzian waves travel through celestial space.

Mr B. W. Mounder (founder of the British Astronomical Association) does not believe the possibility of planetary communication, and favours the theory of magnetic disturbances in the sun. Professor H. H. Turner (Professor of Astronomy, Oxford University) considers that the signals are probably from somewhere in the solar system, though not necessarily from intelligent life, though ha thinks it highly probable that life exists in other bodies of the solar system. Commander Sleo, of the Naval Wireless Department, does not deny the possibility of the great advantage in wireless which opens up a vast field for research. M. Camille Flammarion (astronomer and astronomical author), interviewed in Paris for the Daily Mail, while agreeing that the Marconi interruptions are possibly due to disturbances in the sun, added that perhaps Mars has been sending out signals

for centuries, and that we have not known how to reply.

ARGENTINE PHYSICIST'S OPINION. LONDON, January 29. _ Professor Bominico, an Argentine physicist, expresses the opinion that the regularity of the mysterious wireless signals S roves that they are not accidental. He iscards the theory that they are wireless waves, rehitting the apparatus with altered density after travelling round the earth. He adds: "Nothing contradicts the hypothesis that they are electric waves sent out from another planet. Electricity travels better in airless interplanetary spaces; hence it covers enormous distances. PROBLEM FOR WIRELESS EXPERTS. MELBOURNE, January 30." In reference to Signor Marconi's mysterious wireless signals Mr Balsillie, the commonwealth's wireless expert, said that there is no question that electrical disturbances have been recorded at highpower stations sometimes resembling signals. These might be due purely to natural causes. But there can be no question that they do not emanate from any other, stations on the globe. He declined to express an opinion as to the possibility of the signals originating in Mars. Mr Baldwin, Government Astronomer, said the matter was one for wireless experts. As a non-expert, however, it seemed highly unlikely to him to seek "n other worlds for the cause of electrical disturbances. COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER WORLDS SCIENCE ACADEMY'S OFFERPARIS, January 28. French scientists refuse to accept the theory of another planet communicating with the earth till all the wireless stations in the world synchronously receive similar waves. The Eiffel Tower station has not yet received such waves, but this may be explainable on the ground that only the Marconi system has been affected. A recent meeting of the Academy of Science decided to offer 100,000 francs for the first communication with another planet, but ruled out Mars as being too easy. CHRISTCHURCH SCIENTIST'S OPINION. OHRISTGHUROH, January 31. Dr Coleridge Fan-; professor of physics at Canterbury College, toid a Lyttelton Times reporter to-day that he was sceptical regarding the sensational interpretation which had been placed on the strange sounds and interference with signals reported by Signor Miiconi. Dr Farr said: "'There is no inherrent impossibility about the transmission of signalg through inter-stellar space. Light waves, which are of the same nature as the electromagnetic waves used in wireless telegraphy, but very rnuoh shorter, are transmitted from every star. The difficulty about supposing these signals to come from a. region outside the earth's atmosphere is that they would find considerable difficulty in penetrating the atmosphere, owing to the extreme rarity of the air in the upper regions of the atmosphere. It is an electrical conductor, and hence any waves coming into the atmosphere from i.he outside would probably suffer considerable reflection. The presence of this conducting layer in the upper regions of the atmosphere is partly responsible for the fact that wireless signals started within the atmosphere bend round and follow the curvature of the earth, being confined within the atmosphere by this upper reflecting layer, though there are other contributory causes which help to bend them. That cause which helps to keep waves generated within the atmosphere from going outside it would also tend to block those from without from coming in. This applies only to waves over certain limits of wave lengths, not to the short eleetro-magnetio waves which we call light, and it does not apply tow,waves of very much greater length than those ordinarily used in wireless telegraphy. The ordinary,, wave length in commercial wireless is 600 metres, while waves discovered by Marconi are 160 times as long as this. If waves of 600 metres, and., indeed, much longer than that, are known to bo blocked from getting out of the atmosphere, one would expect waves of 100,000 metres to be very considerably blocked from getting in. Otherwise, there seems to be no reason why signals should not be transmitted. The medium is there to transmit them Whether they are signals started by intelligent beings somewhere outside the earth's atmosphere is quite another matter, and one which will take a lot of proving.