King Electricity

1895

FARMER DUNN PREDICTS A REVOLUTION FOR EARTHLY FOLKS.

The Whole Atmosphere Soaked With Electricity — The Day Coming When It Will Supply Light, Heat and Motive Power. Coal a Curiosity.

Elias B. Dunn, the weather observer, has been studying atmospheric electricity. The sergeant, as they used to call him, the farmer, as they call him now, said that he will live to see the day when electricity, collected from the atmosphere and stored by some means which an Edison or a Tesla will have to devise will revolutionize the world.

The prophet expects that cities will be lighted and heated by atmospheric electricity; that railway trains and cars will be run, lighted and heated by it; that coal will become a curiosity; that steam heating will be granny talk to the children of the next generation; that the telegraph and telephone companies will lose their monopolies; that war will become a farce, because a touch of electricity will make the British grenadiers or the German Uhlans or the Scotch highlanders sit down on the cold ground powerless; that even the dreams of communication with the inhabitants of Mars will become realities, and that a man will be able to strike up electricity as he does a parlor match.

There will be no more trolley strikes, because there will be no more trolleys. Mankind will tap the atmosphere for almost every convenience or necessity, except food and clothing, and even the clothing will be woven and the food cooked by atmospheric electricity. Street cleaning will be as easy as the magician's "Presto, change!" and everybody will live comparatively happy ever after.

Mr. Dunn is sure that his ideas are practical and practicable. The atmosphere is his constant study, and having introduced general humidity to the public as the principal element in uncomfortable days he has determined that the most potent element for good in the air we breathe shall no longer be wasted.

"Why," he said, "The whole atmosphere is soaked with electricity. The earth, as is well known, is a storehouse of electricity. That it passes from the clouds to the earth we can see in every thunderstorm. Earth is a good conductor, especially damp earth, and water is the best conductor possible.

"Every person is possessed of body electricity. The vital force is all in the electrical power you contain in your body. When the day is damp, you become weakened through the loss of your bodily electricity, because the atmosphere is a greater conductor of the electrical fluid than your body, and consequently what is in your body will pass to this moist, damp air.

"That is the cause of that tired feeling. This passing of the electricity to the atmosphere enervates you to such a degree that a person in a naturally weak state will collapse or become much worse by the loss of this bodily electricity.

"The atmosphere being charged with electricity, and the earth being a storehouse for it, if there were some controllable method of storage devised by which you could draw off a moderate amount of electricity at will and keep that force on tap all the time, with an appliance by which power could be generated — and there is no reason why that can't be done — then atmospheric electricity would make all the wheels in the world go round.

"The coal barons would be done up," said Farmer Dunn savagely, thinking of the coal bill for his house in Brooklyn. "There would be no more need of coal. There ought to be enough electricity in the atmosphere to supply light and heat as well as to do all the work except the housework. I'm afraid it won't do away with the servant girl question, though it will modify it. I expect to live to see the day atmospheric electricity on tap. It will run everything on earth.

"It is well known that there is a greater number of deaths in the early morning, say from 1 a. m. to 4 a. m., than at any other time. Dickens was aware of that, but he didn't know the reason. You remember that poor old Peggotty, in 'David Copperfield,' went out with the tide. That's right. And it is in the early morning, that the daily ebb of the atmosphere occurs, when the daily atmospheric pressure is least. If at that time the atmosphere is in a state of saturation, very heavily charged with humidity, then the electric force leaves a person's body and flows to the atmosphere, greatly debilitating him when he is in a weakened condition. Now, should a person in that state be kept in extremely dry surroundings, so that he could be furnished with an adequate supply of artificial electricity and at the same time have the humidity reduced, there would be, in my opinion, a greater chance of prolonging life.

"If the doctors could provide means to supply in such circumstances artificial electricity instead of natural, it would probably be very beneficial. Just think of it! Here we are, spending millions of dollars to generate electricity, when it is all around us, and we are breathing it! Here's another thing: When a current of electricity is generated, where does it go? It can't die. It is somewhere. I should judge that it is simply adding to the amount of electricity in the atmosphere.

"It is natural to suppose that as long as the earth is given to us for useful purposes the atmosphere was not given for nothing. Of course it gives us health and breath, as the earth gives us what we eat, but since the atmosphere contains electricity, and we can use the earth as a power for carrying it, as is done by telegraph companies, why not use the electricity in the atmosphere?

"Once begin to use it, and there is no telling where it would end. War with atmospheric electricity as a factor would have to cease. The problem of signaling to Mars would be solved. With atmospheric electricity in control we could communicate with all the inhabited planets." — New York World.

Signals To Mars

1901

What a British Scientist Thinks of Their Possibility

In a London newspaper Sir Robert S. Ball writes of the futility of human endeavor to attract the attention of possible inhabitants of Mars. He says: "If the whole extent of Lake Superior was covered with petroleum and if that petroleum was set on fire, then I think we may admit that an inhabitant of Mars who was furnished with a telescope as good as that which Mr. Percival Lowell uses at Flagstaff might be able to see that something had happened. But we must not suppose that the mighty conflagration would appear to the Martian as a very conspicuous object.

"It would rather be a very small feature, but still I think it would not be beyond reach of a practical observer in that planet. On the other hand, if an area the size of Lake Superior on Mars was to be flooded with petroleum and that petroleum was to be kindled we should expect to witness the event from here not as a great and striking conflagration, but as a tiny little point of just discernible light. The disk of Mars is not a large object, and the conflagration would not extend over the three-hundredth part of that disk.

"It is sufficient to state these facts to show that the possibility of signaling to Mars is entirely beyond the power of human resources."

Telescope Reveals Ice Caps on Mars

1920

Question as to Whether Place Is Inhabited Is Declared Beyond Human Solution

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sending wireless messages to Mars and Venus, and the possibility of projecting a rocket to the moon, are subjects of recent speculation which have excited keener interest in the solar system.

"Mars always challenges interest," says William Joseph Showalter in a communication to the National Geographic Society.

"Its day is about the same length as ours, but its year is nearly twice as long. Although astronomers generally take less interest than laymen in the surmise as to whether the other planets and stars are inhabited, since they, more than laymen, realize that that is a problem that must in all human probability remain unsolved, the question is more often asked about Mars than any other planet.

Venus' Day 224 of Ours

Venus was an unusually interesting object in the sky during July of last year. Not again until February, 1921, will it appear as bright and fair in the evening sky. It has phases like the moon, and these can be seen even through a good field glass. Its day is believed to be the same length as its year, which is 224 of our days.

"It is quite generally believed that Mars has ice-capped poles. The telescope reveals white spots at the poles that have every appearance of being like our ocean Polar region. They advance toward the equator in winter and retreat in summer. In the summer of 1916 Pickering, who, with Lowell, has led the school of astronomers who believe they can see canals on Mars, said that he found the white caps stretching farther down toward the equator than he had ever seen them before.

He said that if there was any connection between the weather of Mars and that of the earth, the winter of 1916-17 would be the coldest in many years. And it was. May it yet be possible to do long-range weather forecasting on the earth by studying the waxing and waning of the ice-cap of the South Pole of Mars?

What It'd Be Like To Discover Intelligent Life on Mars

1920

FROM HOMES IN THE STARS

At midnight April 20, when Mars is approaching the nearest point to the earth, the wireless operators of the world are to listen for messages from the Martians.

When the day arrives on which word comes from the heavenly bodies that day will displace Armistice day as the greatest in all history.

Our earth is insignificant compared with some of the celestial bodies. There is no good reason presented in support of the contention that human intelligence exists on no planet other than earth. With active minds on Mars it is possible that for years the inhabitants have been signaling to us and have been puzzled at our stupidity in not catching the messages.

Mysterious wireless waves have been received of late, and scientists of the learning and practical experience of Marconi are hopeful that the messages are from out of space.

Now if, on April 21, there is positive information that Mars is talking to us, we shall await further disclosures with deepest interest.

The man of strong religious convictions will ask, first of all:

What do the Martians know of a Supreme Being? Has a Christ appeared to them?

The man of letters will inquire as to the literature of Mars.

The scientists will seek word as to the discoveries and researches.

Doctors will ask as to the physical structures, the ailments and cures.

And, if the people of Mars are 500 years ahead of us in civilization they will tell of things as strange and wonderful as wireless and electric lights, telephones and airplanes would have been to Christopher Columbus in 1492, when, landing on the shores of the West Indies, that daring navigator, 100 years in advance of his own time, thought he had reached the East Indies.

When Mars has spoken, then will come the call to other planets, and at night, when the stars shine out, each twinkle will be an eye wink from the worlds in the depths of the universe.

—The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden City, Utah, April 10, 1920, p. 4.

Marconi Listens for Signals from Mars, Doyle for Spirits

1922

MARTIANS AND SPIRITS

With Mars only about 40,000,000 miles from the earth, Marconi, the inventor of the wireless, is trying to get signals from that planet. True, the most powerful wireless outfits yet built on this planet are capable of sending messages only an infinitesimal fraction of that distance, but Marconi hopes the Martians can do better. That is, if there are any Martians.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle announces that he is installing a complete radio outfit in his London home, for use in his psychic investigations. He feels confident that by means of radio he will be able to communicate with the spirit world.

It might simplify things if the "spirit world" happened to be Mars. Then Marconi and Doyle could work together on the job.

Scoffing is easy, and it is also futile. Nobody can say with assurance that either of these gifted men is wrong. But certainly the chances of their being wrong are great. The least that can be expected of the public is an open mind, a willingness to be "shown." There is a long chain of "ifs" in both cases.

—The Monessen Daily Independent, Monessen, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1922, p. 3.

Astronomer Who Has Plan to Talk to Martians

Professor William H. Pickering, the Harvard astronomer, believes he has discovered a way to communicate with the planet Mars. The only trouble is that it will cost about $10,000,000, and no one has so far signified a willingness to put up the money. Professor Pickering has long believed that the planet is inhabited by a highly civilized people. His plan is to flash signals to the planet by means of a gigantic arrangement of mirrors fixed so as to revolve upon a great axis in exact time with the movement of the earth.

--The Mansfield News, Mansfield, Ohio, April 21, 1909, page 5.