It’s October and time again for my annual column where science meets Halloween. That was my goal when I began this column, however the link proved tenuous. I’ll give you a heads up when we get to the Halloween part.
I want to discuss an early experiment with radio but first I wish to explore the romance humankind seems to have with the mysterious planet of Mars. Of the planets that circle our Sun, Mars has often been the object of speculation that life, perhaps intelligent life, existed or exists on Mars.
The romance of Mars may have begun with scientists. “In 1895 Percival Lowell published a book entitled Mars which speculated about an arid, dying landscape, whose inhabitants had been forced to build canals thousands of miles long to bring water from the polar caps to irrigate the remaining arable land. Lowell built upon ideas introduced by Italian astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli, who in 1877, observed geological features on Mars which he called canali (Italian for “channels”). This was mistranslated into the English as “canals” which, being artificial watercourses, fueled the belief that there was some sort of intelligent extraterrestrial life on the planet.” (Wikipedia [1])
In 1898, H. G. Wells published The War of the Worlds. The novel “is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race.” (Wikipedia [3]) The book was very popular and increased speculation about Mars.
Here it is, the long awaited link between Mars and Halloween: In 1938, Orson Wells adapted the H. G, Well’s book into a radio play that was broadcast on Halloween. The story was so well portrayed that many listeners feared earth really was being invaded by extraterrestrials. Orson Wells had to apologize for the convincing tale he and his Mercury Players presented.
In the early twentieth century, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the first of eleven books about John Carter and the inhabitants of Mars. Published in 1912. His books were very popular and further fueled interest in life on other planets.
Then still early in the twentieth century, “The Planets, Op. 32, … a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917, further raised awareness of Mars with the first movement named, Mars: The Bringer of War. This music begins tense and then, in turns, is moody and mysterious, then frightening and triumphant.
Then in 1924, occurred a most interesting sequence of events. “’In scores of observatories, watchers and photographers are centering their attention on that enigmatic red disk,’ the journalist Silas Bent wrote on Aug. 17, 1924. He added that it might be the moment to ‘solve the disputed question of whether supermen rove his crust, and whether those lines, which many observers say they have seen, really are irrigation canals.’” (Ferreira, 2024)
During the weekend of August 23-24, 1924, the planet Mars and the planet Earth came close together; just 34 million miles apart. This opposition (as these events of being close are called) stirred much interest among both scientists and the public. Along with being able to see Mars, scientists were hoping to hear Mars by listening to the radio waves. The two men who headed up this experiment were David Peck Todd and Charles Francis Jenkins.
“Scientists plotted for years to make the most of the Martian ‘close-up.’ To aid the experiments, the U.S. Navy cleared the airwaves, imposing a nationwide period of radio silence for five minutes at the top of each hour from Aug. 21 to 24 so that messages from Martians could be heard. A military cryptographer was on hand to ‘translate any peculiar messages that might come by radio from Mars.’ … Then, lo and behold, an astonishing radio signal arrived with the opposition.”
It was a series of dots and dashes that were heard and recorded on a photographic strip. Since the world had silenced its radio transmissions, the scientists presumed what they heard came from Mars. It may have come from anywhere, but scientists tried to make sense of it. Articles were published in newspapers. The two scientists, who ran the experiment, were objective and never claimed to know the origin of the signal they picked up.
The event did further interest in the mysteries of the red planet, Mars.
References
- Was There Life on Mars?, NASA, 2023.
- A Princess of Mars, Wikipedia [1].
- Edgar Rice Burroughs, Wikipedia [2].
- The War of the Worlds, Wikipedia [3].
- The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama), Wikipedia [4].
- The Planets, Wikipedia [4].
- Scientists Seeking Life on Mars Heard a Signal That Hinted at the Future, Becky Ferreira, New York Times, 2024.
- Listening to Mars: 1924, Shorpy – vintage photography.
- Vintage Radio for Listening to Mars (for Aliens!) During Moments of ‘Military-Imposed Radio Silence’ in 1924, Adafruit, 2016
- Photograph of the radio receiver used in the experiment. It was a Navy SE 950, NC-4 Type, manufactured in 1918 by National Electric Supply Co, image from the National Air and Space Museum.
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