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Et Tu Nick Redfern..
No, it is from 1928. But it has one "cuss word" in it. Hold on, I'll see if I can retrieve it. I typed it all up last night. The man, in question, is passionate about what he believes, placed his family, money, and reputation on the line, and did so in full international media.
I was researching HP Lovecraft's life, by coincidence, when I first discovered it. But when I reread it, I realized that Dr Wu's discussion of Charles Fort's theory that we were being visited and influenced by Martians - well, this is exactly the same time Fort was writing his opinion to the newspapers. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Enjoy, Carol:
_____
The Pittsburgh Press
22 October 1928
by Keith Jones
United Press Staff Writer
London, Oct. 22 – Dr. Mansfield Robinson, who will attempt t communicate with Mars by radio Wednesday, stirred new interest in his project today by asserting he had a dictaphone record on which the national anthem of Mars was recorded.
He placed the record, which he also said contained a Martian love song and the alphabet used on our sister planet, with the national laboratory for psychical research at Kensington.
Robinson said he obtained the record through the co-operation of two women – one on Mars and the other on the earth. The woman on Mars, he said, is "Oonaruru," {sic} who guided his eternal body when it made a trip across the 35,000 {sic} miles to the planet.
Oonaruru's earthly assistant was Mrs. St. John James, a medium, who is said to have emitted strange noises, including wails, groans and hideous laughter while she was in a trance receiving the message.
Scientists Divided
On Wednesday Robinson will send a message over the powerful Rugby radio station and then wait a half hour for an answer from Mars. Scientists were divided today on the feasibility o his project and the English people were frankly skeptical, but everyone will follow the attempt with great interest.
Prof. A. M. Low, a well-known member of England's younger scientific group, added data today on the women of Mars.
Low said he had a friend who had visited Mars, but refused to reveal his name. The friend, Low said, told him that the women on Mars had two thumbs on each hand and had telescopic eyes and knew all about the earth.
"I do not believe a message can reach Mars,: Low said. "Because I doubt whether radio waves would be able to traverse space beyond the earth's atmosphere. Nevertheless I approve the test."
Lo said it would be possible to communicate with mars by having a fleet of airplanes lay down a smoke screen 14 miles long and seven miles wide. If the Martians have telescopes similar to ours they could see such a signal, he said.
Lodge Disapproves.
"When an experiment in communication with Mars can be conducted for 18 pence (36 cents) a word." Low said, "It is the cheapest big scale experiment I have ever heard of.
Sir Oliver Lodge said he is not favor the amendment.
"We are completely ignorant of whether Mars is inhabited," he said.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said he is not concerned with the experiment, but that he had no doubt that attempts to communicate with Mars eventually would succeed.
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The Evening Independent
St Petersburg, FL
Monday, 27 December 1928
Another Attempt to Send Mars Radio Message Fails
Listeners Wait in Vain for Reply From Physician-Psychologist's Martian Girl Friend of Inter-Planetary Romance
Rio de Janeiro
Dec. 17 – (UPI) -
Dr. Hugh Mansfield Robinson's {Maritan, sic} Martian girl friend, beautiful big-eared Oomaruru, remained coldly silent today after his latest message to her.
Nothing happeened when just before midnight the Companhia Radio-Telegraphica Brasiliera, a radio corporation subsidiary, broadcast a message from Dr. Robinson to Oomaruru from its Septiba station.
"God is love – earth to mars," the message said.
Dr. Robinson hoped that Oomaruru, whom he met in a telepathic flirtation, the first inter-planetary romance on record in real life, would reply.
But while he waited in his London offices, his cars caressing the earpieces of a special apparatus, which he confided sadly cost him $50, engineers at the Septiba station also waited in vain for a flash through the other that Oomaruru had received the message.
Second Flop
It was the physician-psychologist's second attempt, on a scientific basis, to communicate with Oomaruru. The first was made in England several months ago, and likewise was a flop.
After the English failure, Robinson decided to try from a point near the equator, hoping the atmospheric conditions would be better.
His message was broadcast at 11:20 Saturday night from the Septiba station. Experts started a high-tension alternator working at 11. Then, at the set time, Chief Technical Director Grasser of the Brasilerio company sent out his call signal in Oomaruru's general direction. The apparatus he used had antennae 1 1/2 miles in length. The wave length was 21,818 meters. This Robinson had said, was the correct one for communication with Mars.
Grasser made his dots one second long, and his dashes three seconds long, with four second intervals between signals. Faster transmission than this, Robinson had told him, might confuse the Martian receivers, who apparently are not so good.
No Sound
Immediately after the last signal was sent, a group of engineers and newspaper men put on special earphones, with connections for listening in on a 32,000 metre {sic} wave length. They strainedtheir ears until 12:15 a.m., but no sound came out of the ether that might even distantly have been connected with an attempt by Robinson's spiritual sweetie to reply to his message.
Everyone here was sorry. Robinson's luck with radio transmission has been execrable on both occasions he has tried it. Strangely he has been able to communicate almost at will with Oomaruru when he depends on simple mental telepathy.
So great was his success several months ago that Oomaruru was able to take him on a spiritual trip to Mard, he has said, and he described it in so me detail life on the neighbor planet. One of his main impressions was the importance which Martians attach to big ears. These are considered a sign of beauty, and Oomaruru's, Dr. Robinson says – he is a convert to the idea they are great aesthetic assets – are lovely and large, like elephant ears except that they stick out.
"Received It."
London. Dec. 17 – (UP) – His large bald head buried despondently in his hands, Dr. Hugh Hansfield Robinson sat in his little surgery in Spirit square. Whitechapel today and wondered whether big-eared Oomaruru, his Martian "heart," was toying with his spiritual affections.
But not for long. As he sat, wondering why he had received no reply from his message, broadcast to Oomaruru, Saturday night at Rio de Janeiro, Oomaruru's sibilant voice came through on his private telepathic brain-length.
He brightened up, raised his head, smiled happily and said:
"They received it. Oomaruru herself sent me a reply. They think up there that Rio must have received the message, whether they know it or not. It was aimed right at the Brasilerio company's station.
"Atmospheric Strong"
"Unhappily, from what they say at Rio, something must have happened to prevent reception. Atmospherics were strong at the time the message was broadcast, and long-wave telephony, apparently from the United States, interfered somewhat."
As the message was broadcast from Rio, Robinson, two radio experts and other witnesses were gathered in his surgery around his radio set.
"Oomaruru has told me," he aid as the zero hour was reached at 2:30 a.m. London time, "that the Martians are agog. They are doing their damedest {sic} to get through, she told me – not in those words, of course. She is a lady in every sense of the word."
Robinson and his companions feverishly awaited receipt of any signal from mars in reply to the Rio message. They used a specially constructed three-valve set, with a 40,000-meter receiver.
Out Some Money
"The adjustments alone cost me $50." Robinson confided.
He paused and twirled the various gadgets on the instrument.
"I don't see how it can fail," he resumed. "The only thing that could happen would be that the Martians don't know sufficient English to make out what is said. Or again, something else might intervene – my wife? No, not this time, She is staying at the seaside."
The last was in reference to a slight unpleasantness that marked Dr. Robinson's previous attempt to radio Oomaruru. His wife got angry when he told newspapers that he had a sweetie in mars, and that he had been on a telepathic visit to her. Mrs. Robinson invited him to spend the next few nights in his martian love nest, and refused to let him in the house. Friends intervened, and explained that Oomaruru and the doctor were affinities in a purely spiritual way.
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