To Talk to Mars with Niagara's Voice

Editor's note: This article was originally a composite that included these additional articles:
The Sun May Aid Us in Signalling Mars
Why the Martians Will Answer Our Signals
New Evidence That Mars is Inhabited
What the Martians Might Say to Us in Reply

“With the Co-operation of Niagara Power Companies I Am Now Preparing to Project an 800,000,000 Horse-power Message Over the 100,000-Mile Gulf Between the Earth and Mars.” — Nikola Tesla

WHEN Mr. Hiram S. Maxim, the distinguished inventor and scientist, made his recent announcement to Peter Cooper Hewitt that the next great achievement of science would be the harnessing of the whole energy of Niagara and the sending of a message to Mars, he hit the nail, in the opinion of Nikola Tesla, squarely on the head.

Mr. Tesla announces to-day that with the co-operation of power-producing companies at Niagara Falls he is preparing to hail Mars with Niagara’s power. A way has been found at last for transmitting a wireless message across the gulf, varying from 40,000,000 to 100,000,000 miles, which separates this earth from Mars. Once that has been accomplished and Mars, which is considerably older and supposedly more advanced in science than us, has acknowledged the receipt of our signal and sent back “S” for Mars, it will remain to devise an interplanetary code through the medium of which the scientists of this world and of Mars will be able to understand what each is saying to the other.

Mr. Tesla has been quietly working for several years on a wireless power plant capable of transmitting 10,000 horse-power to any part of the world, or to any of our neighboring planets, for that matter. The mere matter of distance between dispatching and receiving points is absolutely no object whatever. Wireless power, Mr. Tesla says, may be sent one million or more miles just as easily as one mile.

Several of the electric power companies with immense generating plants at Niagara Falls have agreed to co-operate with Mr. Tesla in an effort to reach Mars by wireless.

“This Will be the Next Great Achievement of Science.”—Sir Hiram S. Maxim.

These Niagara power plants, Mr. Tesla declares, are now capable of producing electrical vibrations of such intensity that, if measured according to ordinary standards, the rate at which their energy is delivered could readily be advanced to a billion horse-power. But no such performance is necessary to produce strong electrical impulses on Mars. Mr. Tesla has estimated that a rate of a few hundred million horse-power is quite sufficient to establish wireless communication with that planet.

Mr. Tesla’s wireless plant, which he has already equipped at Wardenclyffe, L. I., for the sending of long distance electric waves, will enable him to attain a rate of 800,000,000 horse-power — much more than is necessary to bridge the gulf of from 40,000,000 to 100,000,000 miles between this earth and Mars.

Now, it was explained by Mr. Tesla, if his magnifying wireless transmitter and corresponding receiver, or a somewhat similar apparatus, were installed on Mars it would be a very simple matter for the Martians to receive wireless flashes from the earth and to send us others in reply. And in sending messages to this earth the Martians would not need to use more than one-sixteenth the electrical energy needed to send flashes from the earth to Mars.

“It should be borne in mind,” Mr. Tesla wrote, “that many Martian tasks in mechanical engineering are much easier than the terrestrial, on account of the smaller mass of the planet and lower density, which, in the superficial layers, may be considerably below the mean. To a still greater degree this is true of electrical engineering. Taking into account the space encompassed by Mars, a system of wireless transmission of energy, such as I have perfected, would be there much more advantageously applied, for under similar conditions a receiving circuit would collect sixteen times as much energy as on the earth.

“The astonishing evidences furnished by Lowell are not only indicative of organic life, but they make it appear very probable that Mars is still populated; and furthermore, its inhabitants are highly developed, intelligent beings.”

“Is there any other proof of such existence?”

“I answer, emphatically, yes, prompted both by an instinct, which has never yet deceived me, and observation. I refer to the strange electrical disturbances, the discovery of which I announced six years ago. At that time I was only certain that they were of planetary origin. Now, after mature thought and study, I have come to the positive conclusion that they must have emanated from Mars.

“Such colossal transformation as is observable on the face of Mars could not have been wrought except by beings ahead of us in development.

“What wonder if they are signalling to us? We are sufficiently advanced in electrical science to know that their task is much easier than ours. The question is, can we transmit electrical energy to that immense distance? This I think myself competent to answer in the affirmative.”