Astronomers on Tesla's Ideas of Inhabitants of Mars

Astronomers do not seem to take kindly to Mr. Tesla's hypothesis that the inhabitants of Mars may be transmitting electrical signals to Earth. Edward S. Holden, formerly director of Lick Observatory, in a recent article in McClure's Magazine, is disposed to be sarcastic: "Mr. Nikola Tesla has announced that he is 'almost confident' that certain disturbances of his apparatus arise from electric signals received from some source beyond the earth. They do not come from the sun, he says; hence they must be of planetary origin, he thinks; probably from Mars, he guesses. It is a rule of sound philosophizing to examine all probable causes for an unexplained phenomenon before invoking improbable ones. Why fasten the disturbances of Mr. Tesla's instruments on Mars? Are there no comets that will serve the purpose? May not the instruments have been disturbed by the Great Bear — or the Milky Way — or the Zodiacal Light? Until Mr. Tesla has shown his apparatus to other experimenters and convinced them as well as himself, it may safely be taken for granted that his signals do not come from Mars." Mr. Holden is perhaps unnecessarily severe on Mr. Tesla; but, unfortunately, the electrical inventor has invited criticism of this sort by the vague, mystical way in which he chose to make public announcement of the disturbances on which his assumption is based.