The Gold Leaf, Henderson, NC, January 9, 1902
The Difficulty of Doing So by Means of Light.
The very largest city that this earth has ever known would be altogether too small to be visible to a being dwelling on the planet Mars, even if that being were endeavoring to see It with a telescope as powerful as the greatest and most perfect instrument in any observatory on this globe.
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 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 the reach of a practiced 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.
— Sir Robert S. Ball in Independent.
