MESSAGES FROM MARS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17779, 30 January 1920, Page 9

MESSAGES FROM MARS.

MARCONI’S SPECULATIONS. PUBLIC INTEREST INCREASING. LONDON, Jan. 28. Public interest is increasing in Marconi’s speculations. Scientists anl other experts are freely discussing and speculating on the subject. Major MacCalium, superintending engineer at Marconi House, states that he believes the interruptions are coming too frequently to be accidental, but, he asks, if emanating from the moon or Mars, why are they coming in Morse? Major MacCalium the interesting theory that the Martians are probably in a more advanced stage of civilisation than the earth, and perhaps have been experimenting with wireless for hundreds of years. An extra sensitive Martian record may have picked up our code messages and worked them out, as we did the German messages of war, and are not trying to get in touch with the earth at regular intervals. Major MacCalium advises careful investigation and exact records, in order to make certain. He adds that Mars could certainly overcome distance with a sufficiently powerful transmitter, travelling 186,000 miles per second. Professor Norman Lockyer declares that planetary signals are not impossible. Professor Soddy says that Marconi's communication is obviously of tluK greatest interest. Professor Knobel points out that we have no ground tor believing that Hertzian waves travel through celestial space. Professor E. Maunder disbelieves the possibility of planetary communication, and favours the theory of magnetic disturbances in the sun? Professor S. Turner considers that the signals are probably from somewhere in the solar system, but not necessarily from intelligent life, though he thinks it highly probable that life exists in other bodies of the solar system . Commander Slee, of the Naval Wireless, does not deny the possibility of a great advance in wireless, which opens up a vast field for research. Professor Flammarian. interviewed in Paris for the Daily Mail, while agreeing that the Marconi interruptions are possibly due to disturbances in the sun, adds that perhaps Mars has-been sending out signals for centuries, we not Snowring how to reply.