AUTOMOBILE AND WANT AD
v SECTION. ;
PART THREE
HE
OMA
AUTOMOBILE AND WANT rAD
SECTION, '
PART THREE
VOL. XLIX NO. 18.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, ; OCTOBER 19, 1919.
1 C
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS
"HELLO
MARS!" SIGNALS
TO
GO FROM
FORT OMAHA
AND SCIENTISTS EXPECT TO GET RETURN FLASHES
, Prof .Todd Will Attempt to Rise 50,000 Feet
'in Biggest Balloon Ever BuiltLeo Stevens
to Be PilotExpect Ascension in Near Fall
That Mars Is Inhabited Is Firmly Believed by Soundest Scientists in the World
-It Is a "World a-Thirst," Says Prof. Lowell, Without Water, the Canals
Being to Convey Melted Ice From the Poles Has Little Specific Gravity and
Elephants Could Spring About Like Gazelles 50,000 Feet Will Take Astron-
: omer and Pilot Into What Is Called a "Vacuum" They Will Have Oxygen
Tanks Great Height Will Enable Observer to Rise Above Dust Aura of
1 Upper Atmosphere. v. .
Astronomers and meteorologists
of the whole world are tremendous
ly interested in the balloon trip to
be made 50,000 feet into the air from
Fort Omaha by Prof. David Todd,
the noted American astronomer, in
an attempt to signal to the planet
Mars.
Notable experiments and explora
tions of the upper air from balloons
have been made by the United States
Weather bureau. July 30, 1913, it
sent, up from Avalon, Catalina
Island, balloons with recording in
struments which reached the enor
mous and American record-breaking
height of 32,643 meters, or 20J4
miles. v It was also at the famous
Lowell observatory at Flagstaff,
Ariz., that the late Prof. Percival
Lowell spent more than 10 years
studying the planet Mars, reaching
his famous and much-debated con
clusions that Mars is inhabited, that
the intelligent beings there are light
ing for life, as their planet is a des
ert plain without oceans or other
natural water bodies, all of which
have evaporated.
"A World A-thirst"
The inhabitants of Mars, which
Prof. Lowell calls "a world a-thirst,"
have, therefore, the astronomer
Lowell declared, constructed a huge
network of waterways or canals,
connecting the centers of popula
tion north and south, with the polar
caps, to get the melting snows to
furnish the, necessary water to crops
and vegetables and stave off the
final drying up of the planet. Vis
iting astronomers to Mt. Wilson
observatory, Pasadena, have also
taken photographs there of Mars
from the 60-inch telescope, and as
soon as the new 100-inch telescrope
on Mt. Wilson is completely assem
bled and in working order it is ex
oected that other specialists on
- Mars will visit there and take other!
ntintrtrrnnti anrt nhrtf3tirin.c Ttli
is the largest and best equipped as
tronomical laboratory in the world.
The staff of the observatory itself,
though interested in all forms of
astronomical research, are primarily
onn.a.n.il .111 f 1. e- 1 1 J X r 1 1 r. f m
WUIICl IKU Will. VUHI
position of the sun, and to the sci
entific world the Lowell observa
tory at Flagstaff has been consid
ered the foremost Mars laboratory
for the study of the most interest
ing of the world's planet neighbors.
For, though Mars is 35,000,000
miles away at its closest point, it
has always possessed a great inter
est for astronomers, first, because
the seasonal changes on Mars are
, not unlike those on the earth; sec
ond, because the planet, though one
fourth the size, is much , older than
the earth, and, says Prof. Lowell,
"the struggle for existence in the
Mat's decreptitude and decay would
tend to evolve intelligence to cope
with circumstances growing mo
mentarily more and more adverse
here."
Biggest Balloon in World.
Professor Todd's great attempt to
communicate with Mars will take
place this fall, according to the an
nouncement made by A. Leo
Stevens, United States balloon in
structor at Fort Omaha. The bal
loon will be the largest ever made,
and will be piloted by Mr. Stevens,
who is one of the pioneer balloon
ists of the country. Mr. Stevens
says the balloon will be divided into
two compartments, the upper one
containing hydrogen gas and the
lower one fresh air. Professor
Todd, who has visited all parts of
the world in brder td study Mars
under the best possible conditions,
has, Mr. Stevens says, constructed a
special signalling apparatus to use
in his efforts to talk to Mars.
. To Penetrate Vacuum.
The experiment t of Professor
Todd is extremely interesting, as
Professor Todd is an astronomer of
standing in the scientific world. If
he reaches a height of 50,000 feet
he will be the first person to have
gone that far into the upper air,
though Dr. Berton reached a height
. of six and one-half miles (34,320
feet),) and we have an airplane rec
ord of 30,500 feet made on January
2 last, at Dayton.
v Professor Todd at 50,000 feet
should experience a temperature of
55 degrees below zero. It is per
fectly possible to stand this, how
ever, in a balloon, with . " heating
foods, etc. The air, of course grows
thinner as we go upward, so that at
the height the balloons reached of
2054 mles, there was recorded a
thinness of air which might be called
a vacuum. At a height of 50.000
feet, Professor Todd, as he of course
' knows and has planned, will need
tanks of oxygen in order that he
may breathe for any length of time.
Above Dust and Clouds.
,"" The experiment will be awaited
with interest, and by making it Prof.
Todd doubtless desires to escape
. the dust particles existing m the
lower air: also reaching a region
free of clouds and from radiation.
These advantages, it must be re
marked, are relatively of little lira
Dortance compared to the limited fa
cilities a balloon would afford for
' actual work of signalling. It would
seem, all things considered, more
practical to erect on the surface of
the earth, where the air is free from
moisture and dust some sort of sig
nalling ai paratus of gigantic propor
tions. The pu'Xx interest attending
Prof. Todd's experiment will have a
beneficial effect in that it will direct
widespread attention to other worlds
than ours.
What may the scientific worjd rea
sonably expect to result frenn the
balloon trip of Prof Todd? In the
first piaco, the experiment indicates
that Prof. Todd la'ieves that there
must be some foundation of truth
for Dr. Lowell's long-derided belief
that Mars was (and is) inhabited.
"Hello, Mars."
Assuming the Martians, as Prof.
Lowell did. to be more intelligent
than the people of the earh, they
would it once recognize regular and
intelligently produced flashes as an
attempt to say "Hkllo, Mars," and
it is hoped, by astronomers, that
Mars will, with return flashes, like
wise signal "Hello, Earth."
If such flashes do come, they will
be automatically received and ob
served at the Flagstaff (Ariz.) ob
servatory, where Mars is always un
der observation and every change
there registered and noted.
Prof. Lowell stated in lectures
and books that the inhabitants of
Mars were well worth knowing, be
cause they are older, planetarily
go for the latest information con
cerning Mars, with . which Prof.
Todd desires to make the first seri
ous effort ever made from the earth
to communicate with a planet, and
to do which he will reach a point
above the earth farther than man
has gone up to this time.
Based entirely on the facts he
says he learned as the result of
many years' study of Mars, Prof.
Lowell gwes a picture of life as it
must be on that dying planet. The
gravity there being three-eighths of
the earth, load would weigh no
more than a stone on the earth;
falling bodies would sink with grace
ful motion. Denizens of Mars, says
Prof. Lowell, would be accustomed
to this air, and, in fact, having
known nothing else, would be able
to get along very well, and perform
feats of canal digging for instance,
which would be considered marvel
ous by earth dwellers.
On tne physical makeup of Mars,
itself, as presented by Prof. Lowell,
the pictuie is a bleak one. He calls
it a world-wide desert, a.,flat plain,
all land, where fertile spots are the
exception, and where water is every
where scarce. He calls it a "world
athirst," where water is the one
thing needful. But nature gives forth,
so says Prof. Lowell, "one line of
salvation to it (Mars) and
that lies in the periodic unlocking
, . .
jgj
iK.
Skteorograph tohi'eh rose fo a heigh- of 9.7ie feet from
Grafon. CatcJjna Istand .
speaking, than' we are, and, if one
may. carry out Prof. Lowell's con
clusions, the inhabitants of Mars
will certainly cry out for water
when they signal back to the earth,
for Mars is a desert, Prof, Lowell
contended, and is slowly but surely
drying up to the point where life
will eventually be extinct a rate,
incidentally, which scientists also
predict tor the earth and other
planets not already dead.
Previous Reported Flashes.
Soeakine from the standpoint of
an astronomer. Mars A. Baumgardt,
in charge of the astronomical ob
servatory of W. A. Clarke, jr., said:
I have read 'with interest of rrof.
Todd's balloon . experiment, and I
judge that he intends to attempt to
signal Mars by means of mirrors.
Several years ago there was a re
port that signals or flashes had been
received from Mars. Doubting not
that such flashes had been actually
seen, it was later srenerally be
lieved that the flashes might have
come from the reflections on large
seas of ice or snow at the polar
caps of Mars. I do not believe that
Prof lodd intends to try to do any
actual telescopic studying of Mars,
because he would gain nothing tor
his purpose by going 5U.UUU teet
nearer Mars than the earth, and also,
the instabrlity of a swaying balloon
would make any telescopic work
impossible. A telescope cuch as Mr.
Clarke s six-inch glass on West
Adams street was placed on an iron
framework which rests on a con
crete base deep in the ground, and
no part of the frame touches the
building on which it stands. The
rumbling of wagons or cars on
West Adams street would affect the
stability of the telescope were it not
so placed, so one may see from this
that a moving balloon is impossible
for any but signaling purposes'
Astronomer's Interested.
Those who decline to follow the
conclusions of Prof. Lowell that his
long observations of Mars proved
the existence of intelligent life there.
admit, however, that the discoveries
at Flagstaff aroused a lively inter
est among astronomers as to what
is taking place on Mars, that inter
est taking its lates form in the' bal
loon trip of Prof. Todd.
The Encyclopedia Britannica de
clares that, apart from the sound
ness or unsoundness of his conclu
sions, the work of . Prof. . Lowell
placed him at the head of all Mars
authorities. Therefore, to the Flag
staff astronomer's views one must
ato ,
. . 1 77-" .
fell A"' (fete ,-P I
:m mi W Weteht rf Auto of
mine .v t IK wiMir tr n r.
ifS
MK&milSi idea of a "fttrhanZ
of the remnant of water that each
year gathers as snow and ice about
the poles.'
People Worth Knowing.
Prof. Lowell, writes: "Thus, not
only the observations we have scan
ned lead us to the conclusion that at
this moment Mars is inhabited, but
they lead us to the further one that
these denizens are of an order whose
acquaintance would . be worth the
making. '
Whether we shall ever converse
with them in any more instant way
is a question upon which science at
present has no data to decide. More
important to us is the fact that they
exist, made all the more interesting
by their precedence of us in the path
of evolution. Their presence cer
tainly ousts us from any unique or
self-centered position in the solar
system, but so with the world did
the Copcrnif an system, the Ptol
emiac, and the others survive this
deposing change. So may man. To
all who have a cosmoplanetary
breadth of wind it cannot but be
pregnant to ' contemplate that we
have warrant for believing that such
life now inhabits the planet Mars. .
V ; Last Spark of Life. ,
"A sadder interest attaches ' to
such existence that is, cosmically
speaking soon to . pass away. , To
our eventual descendants life on
Mars will no longer be something
to scan and interest. It will have
lapsed beyond the hope of study or
recall. Thus to us it takes on-an
added glamor from the fact that it
has not long to last. For the proc
ess that brought it to its present
pass must go on to the bitter end,
until the last spark of Martian life
goes out The drying up of the
planet is certain to proceed until its
surface can support no life at all.
Slowly but surely time will snuff it
out. When the last ember is ex
tinguished the planet , will roll a
dead world through space, its evolu
tionary career forever ended."
The original discoveries : of the
long, regular, straight lines on Mars
were made in 1877 by the astrono
mer Schiaparelli, and the study of
these markings taken up by Prof.
Lowell, who, after years of observa
tion of them at his Arizona observa
tory, declared in his book. ; "Mars
as the Abode of Life" (Macmillan),
"there is nothing in the sky so pro
foundly impressive as those canals
of . Mars." He declares that they
are absolutely straight, and some
are 250 miles long, and one, named
the "Eumenides-Orcus," runs 3,450
miles. As Mars is only 4,220 miles
through, a canal 3,450 miles long
curves in its own plane, and thus
may be likened to a straight line
running from London, England, to
Denver, Colo., or from Boston,
Mass., to Bering strait. Studying
the biannual quickening and darken
ing of the lines or canals, Prof.
Lowell reached the point where he
declared the canals were filled with
water from the meltinar polar snows.
which, passing through the canals,
brought vegetation along the canals
of life. Prof. Lowell also discov
ered immense double canals and
oases or junctions. Canals to the
number of 585 had been charted up rence Lowell of Harvard,
to im
Elephants Good Jumpers.
Fighting for life as the inhabitants
of Mars must be, according to
Professor Lowell and remembering
that a ditch can be dug seven times
easier on Mars than on earth, the
construction of this immense net
work of canals was a task that could
be and was accomplished. There
were no mountains to dig through,
and as an elephent on Mars could
jump as easily as a gazelle, think of
what the workers with intelligence
could accomplish in their desperate
fight for water! The oases are some
75 miles across, giving sufficient
space for living and the means to
live, and those may will be the cities
of Mars. ,
A Sound Scientist.
Prof. David Todd, who plans to
make the balloon trip to study
Mars, has been director of the Am
herst (Mass.) College, Observatory
since 1881, and has been at various
times in charge of government as
tronomical expeditions to Tripoli,
Barb&ry, Russia, and the Andes to
study the eclipses, and was chief of
the Mars expedition to the Andes in
1907. He is a member of all of the
leading astronomical societies of the
world, and is regarded as a sound
conservative scientist, given only to
publishing his discoveries and mak
ing no unsound conclusion there
from. Professor Percival Lowell,
was a brother of President A. Law-
the as
tronomers of which university, in
cidentally, never agree with Profes
sor Lowell's conclusions about
Mars. Professor Lowell always de
clared that he made no surmises in
stating that the lines he saw on
Mars were the result of intelligent
construction, but the facts them
selves lead to no other conclusion
than that Mrs was inhabited. Prof.
Lowell, who was a man of independ
ent means, endowed his observatory
at Flagstaff, and his Mars works is
being carried on there by Dr. V. M.
Slipher and other scientists who
were Professor Lowell's associates.
Finds Two-Headed Snake.
Waynesboro, Pa., Oct. 18. A
baby snake with two separate and
distinct heads was found by S. E.
Fitz, a local fisherman. The heads
are divided at the neck and each is
thoroughly equipped to function as
a head tongue, fangs, eyes and all.
Fitz made the discovery following
a battle with a mother snake. He
was wading in Conochegue creek
when the old reptile attacked him.
with head uplifted and hissing like
escaping steam. Fitz killed the
snake and took it to the bank, where,
after dissecting it, he discovered the
freak.
Future
Is Problem for Builders
Upkeep of Car Depends on its Weight and the Ma-
i 1 tin. I-U A T T 3 I rnnnwiinfiAn'
teriaia wmcn Are useu in ius wuowuwvu,
Cost of. Operation Is the Main Issue.
By H. A. TARANTOUS. .
Unquestionably the most serious
problem that has confronted engi
neers since the beginning of the au
tomobile industry has been to so de
sign a car as to make it economical.
Upkeep has been a retarding influ
ence even in the purchasing of cars,
for the initial cost is hardly ever
given so serious consideration as up
keep. There are three factors of
automobile upkeep which interest the
engineer and user alike. These are:
Tires, gasoline and repairs. These
three fundamental controls of the
cost of keeping a car running are re
duced almost in the same proportion
as the car is scientifically reduced in
weight. At the same time that this
all-important upkeep is reduced by
lightweight construction there comes
of necessity a simplification of the
chassis and easier handling.
lhe car of the future will be a
better riding car, a lighter car, a bet
ter perfoimer, and paradoxical as it
may seem, a larger car than the
present one.
To Weigh Less. ,
The light weight construction,
which is inevitable in the future car,
and which already is being used on a
number of present models, may be
obtained in numerous ways all of
which go to produce a vehicle which
will show:
1. Lower operating cost. The av
erage cost should -not exceed rail
travel. '
2. Lower consumption of fuel.
The average car should give 30 miles
per gallon.
3. Less tire wear. The average
tire should give at least 20,000 miles
service.
4. Better performance. x
All of these results may be accom
plished for the benefit of the car
owner, the manufacturer, the roads
and the country as a whole, through
the proper use of the correct mate
rials, the proper proportioning of the
weight of the car, proper design so
that lighter materials may be used.
That this may be done to produce a
superior vehicle has already been
shown, since there are a few cars
on the market which exhibit prac
tically all the characteristics men
tioned. In going over these cars
and in- studying the subject of light
weight vehicles one will find that
there is a greater use of alloy steels,
aluminum and pressed steel to sup
plant the heavier metals such as car
bon steels, parts of larger sections,
cast iron, etc. In other words, if an
iron part weighing 50 pounds can be
discarded for a pressed steel part
weighing one-third as much and do
ing the same or better work there
seems no logical reason why the lat
ter should not be used. At the same
time that a change of metal is con
sidered the subject of cost comes up.
In some cases an actual saving may
be made by the substitution, but in
others it means an increase in cost.
However, the point to be carried in
mind is that the initial increase in
cost usually is slight compared with
the aggregate savings due to the ac
complishments of the lightweight
vehicle.
More Wood Used.
A short time ago it was suggested
by one engineer that the body could
,be made of plywood and the frame
and axles could be made of wood.
While the plywood idea is new and
no doubt will be taken up, tne use
of wood for frames and axles is far
from new. The single cylinder
Brush runabout used a wooden axle.
Franklin even now continues to use
a wooden frame. The point is that
car manufacturers in the past have
been adhering too closely to con
vention instead of carrying the light
weight idea to some logical end.
Especially have axles been neglect
ed and weight reduction here is a
most important matter. At the
present time, there are some ex
tremely good cars on the market
good in every respect except that
they "eat" tires and gasoline. This
is due to the carrying around of
too much "dead" weight (weight
which is useless). The hard riding .
which many cars exhibit with much
so-called rebound is due in greater
measure to the heavy rear axle and
the lack of appreciation by the en
gineer of the proper ratio needed
between the sprung weight and the
unsprung weight (weight below the
springs).
Better Hill Climber.
There is another very important
result which light weight brings
about. We all know that it re
quires more effort to move a heavy
mass than it does to move a light
one. The lighter mass (the light
weight car) will then accelerate bet-
ter, it will climb hills better, it will
show a higher maximum speed on
the road. These are truths which
every engineer and many light-car
owners appreciate. ' t t .
The serious consideration of de
sign toward a reduction in weight,
the use of lighter materials will un
questionably bring the weight of
the average touring car of the fu
ture down some 500 pounds. In the
larger, more expensive cars the
weight reduction may be greater
than 1,000 pounds. Even our so
called lightweight cars of today will
be far lighter.
Skeletons Unearthed on
Massachusetts Beaches
Br International Mew Service.
Gloucester, Mass., Oct 18. Two
skeletons have' been unearthed on
the beaches here.
One skeleton, apparently that of
a young woman, was found at
Wigersheek beach. Another skele
ton, .that a man, was found on the
same shore by two boys. !-
Pieces of wood, in which long
nails had been driven, were found
around the skeletons, as if the
bodies were originally in a box.
Nothing to identify the skeletons
was found.
Death Punishment Resumed .
for Murder in Missouri
Br International Mew Berrta.
Jefferson City, Mo., Oct 18.
After having been abolished for
practically two years, death punish
mept is again in vogue in Missouri.
At the last session of the legisla
ture a bill restoring capital punish
ment for murder was passed.
Despite much agitation against
the passage of the bill, it was passed
by the solons, who believed it woM
aid in the prevention of crim
1
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