US Navy Ordered to Listen for Martian Radio Broadcasts in 1924

Interesting article about the US Navy listening for extraterrestrial transmissions as far back as 1924.

Guess they'll have to rewrite the history books for Project Ozma and SETI.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/477ff4aacb9b.jpg[/atsimg]

It seems that a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) experiment happened decades before the Project Ozma occurred in 1960. The historians at the blog Letters of Note have uncovered a telegram sent in 1924 by then Chief of Naval Operations Edward W. Eberle instructing the United States Navy to listen for radio transmissions from the planet Mars.


The telegram read:

“NAVY DESIRES COOPERATE ASTRONOMERS WHO BELIEVE POSSIBLE THAT MARS MAY ATTEMPT COMMUNICATION BY RADIO WAVES WITH THIS PLANET WHILE THEY ARE NEAR TOGETHER THIS END ALL SHORE RADIO STATIONS WILL ESPECIALLY NOTE AND REPORT ANY ELECTRICAL PHENOMENON UNUSUAL CHARACTER AND WILL COVER AS WIDE BAND FREQUENCIES AS POSSIBLE FROM 2400 AUGUST TWENTY FIRST TO 2400 AUGUST TWENTY FOURTH WITHOUT INTERFERRING WITH TRAFFIC”

Link

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

reply to post by karl 12


wow.... thanks karl...

i suppose the history books are so messed up..... thats why they seem to be messing with time lines..... loooool

reply to post by mcrom901


Mcrom -you're not wrong about those history books.

B posted this other description of the experiment on UM and I found it quite interesting - especialy the last bit describing the actual results (too bad they were confiscated by the U.S Government. )

During the closest approach of Mars to the earth in August 1924 the U.S. Government ordered all radio transmitters in the country to maintain radio silence for 5 minutes on the hour, every hour for 2 days in which to listen for signals during the close transit with Mars [35,000,000 miles from Earth] from August 21 to August 23rd. This was called "National Radio Silence Day." All American military transmitters were ordered shut down during this time.

The leader of the project was Dr. David Peck Todd, former head of the Amherst College astronomy department and friend of Percival Lowell. .

Heading the operation for the Army was Major General Charles Saltzman and Admiral Edward W. Eberlen, Chief of Naval Operations.

World renowned code expert William F. Friedman, then Chief of the Code Section in the office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army was standing by to translate any messages that may have come from Mars. Friedman became chief technical consultant to the National Security Agency in 1952 and two years later became the special assistant to the director of the National Security Agency.

At the US Naval Observatory a radio receiver was lifted 3000 meters above the ground in a dirigible tuned to a wavelength between 5 and 6 kilometers to record Martian signals during the silent periods. The U.S. Naval Observatory worked with Amherst College's newly developed "radio photo message continuous recording machine" or "Radio-Camera" invented by Francis Jenkins. This machine produced flashes of light that were recorded on film whenever an incoming radio wave was detected. On August 21st the Jenkins Radio-Camera was turned on. A roll of sensitized paper about thirty feet long and about six inches wide, slowly moved past a point of light modulated by electrical radio signals fed from an antenna on Todd's dirigible aimed at Mars.

After 36 hours of recording, the film was developed and Francis Jenkins, the machine's inventor, told a press conference that the device had received signals. In addition to a fairly regular arrangement of dots and dashes clusters of signals which seemed to appear every thirty minutes. The film also showed:

"a repetition at intervals of about a half hour what appears to be a human face."

These strange patterns were reported to the public five days later on August 28, 1924 in the New York Times

The development of the photographic film of the radio signals for the 29 hour period while Mars was close to Earth, deepens the mystery of the dots and dashes heard by widely separated powerful stations. The film disclosed in black and white a regular arrangement of dots and dashes along one side. On the other, at about evenly spaced intervals, are curiously jumbled groups, each taking the form of a crudely drawn face.

The film record of the radio signals was later sent to Virginia Military Institute where it was confiscated by the NSA (National Security Agency).

The general description of this experiment is derived from accounts carried in the Washington Post, August 21-22, 1924. The New York Times, August 23, 1924. & Edwards Frank, Flying Saucers -Serious Business. Published in 1966 Pages 75-78.

www.stevequayle.com...


Video:



Cheers.

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Another signal report from England featured in the New York Times, August, 1924.

RADIO HEARS THINGS AS MARS NEARS US; A 24-Tube Set in England Picks Up Strong Signals Made in Harsh Dots.

select.nytimes.com...

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

New York Times newspaper reports from 1924 - the Mars Story (pdf)

query.nytimes.com...

I suspect the signals were misinterpreted but here's another interesting newspaper headline from August, 1924.

"Mysterious Signals Picked Up"

In late August 1924, the planet Mars was closer to Earth than it would be for a hundred years. That lent exciting credence to our Page 1 story:

"Mysterious signals picked up at Point Grey wireless station during the past few weeks culminated this morning in a recognized group of sounds which led the operators to believe that Mars has succeeded in establishing communication with the Earth. Four distinct groups of four dashes came in over the ether at 7:12 a.m., when Mr. W.T. Burford was on duty. These dashes were not in any known code but started on a low note, gradually ascending and concluding with a 'zipp.' The signals were not sent by spark nor continuous wave and the theory that Mars has at last managed to 'get through' is gaining support."

Vancouver Province " Our First Century ".

Link

Honestly i don't really think there is any life on mar's at all but i'm pretty postive there was life on that planet severel million's of year's ago.
There is sign of river's and it could possibly substain human life.
It would be very amazing if we found some sort of remain's of any organisms.

Star and Flag for this thread, honestly this was a good piece of information to read while eating my breakfast. Especially since it's something that I had not run across before, though I'm wondering could these signals perhaps be coming from another source not in our solar system, but out from the Universe in general.

Originally posted by Wormholez
It would be very amazing if we found some sort of remain's of any organisms.

Wormholez, thanks for the reply -they've discovered plumes of Methane coming from inside the planet so you never know.

Mars methane discovery hints at presence of life

Originally posted by Gigantea Rosa
Star and Flag for this thread, honestly this was a good piece of information to read while eating my breakfast. Especially since it's something that I had not run across before, though I'm wondering could these signals perhaps be coming from another source not in our solar system, but out from the Universe in general.

Gigantea Rosa, its certainly an interesting historical aspect I'd never come across before and although I suspect the 1924 signals may have been 'misinterpreted', the original article does make an intriguing comment about the US Government confiscating the photographic film.

The development of the photographic film of the radio signals for the 29 hour period while Mars was close to Earth, deepens the mystery of the dots and dashes heard by widely separated powerful stations. The film disclosed in black and white a regular arrangement of dots and dashes along one side. On the other, at about evenly spaced intervals, are curiously jumbled groups, each taking the form of a crudely drawn face.

The film record of the radio signals was later sent to Virginia Military Institute where it was confiscated by the NSA (National Security Agency).

Link

Cheers.

This is a fun little puzzle. How long before the ATS Tesla apostles show up to state that this was the message from god that Tesla heard on his equipment at Colorado springs back in 1899? Tesla left few clues, he was using a sensitive avalanche design of detector that would not have been able to draw faces like the more modern 1924 detection equipment did.

The Navy clue, why 1435 minutes?

[edit on 11-4-2010 by Bordon81]

great thread, i have never heard of this before great find.

maybe something was on mars at the time, or something is, who knows.

star and flag

Thanks for the replies -there's some very interesting reading at the link below about the role of the U.S. Navy in this experiment (and UFO research in general):

...Most certainly the Navy was not immune from this viewpoint. The navy's historical experience with strange "celestial phenomenon" seen at sea, had to have developed into a preoccupation that surely influenced the naval intelligence community. The UFO phenomenon had been observed and reported in ships logs and journals dating back to at least the time of Christopher Columbus's discovery of the new world.

The reality that Earth may indeed be the object of visitation by another intelligent species from the planets had to have matured to the point where some element of naval intelligence was searching for the place of origin for the broadly reported phenomenon. In July, 1922 the code and signal section of the Naval Communications Service was assigned the organizational title of OP-20-G. Later the X subsection of this cryptological group became responsible for radio direction finding, communications interception, and the analysis of all electromagnetic emissions within the radio spectrum. Because of the tremendous distances involved in oceanic communications naval signal intelligence was positioned at the highest levels in the nation's intelligence organization. Naval Cryptology was responsible for sending and deriving information from the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

OP-20-G was one of the first sections in the intelligence community to compartmentalize intelligence. This was not a security classification like top secret. Access was limited to those individuals who had a definite need to know specific information gained by cryptology. If there were indeed electromagnetic emissions emanating from the enigmatic "Celestial Phenomenon" seen at sea, the people who worked at the secret OP-20-G section in naval operations would have been the first to know.

The futuristic flight characteristics and observed flight formations indicating intelligent control should have been the factor that motivated the Department of the Navy to create the first SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) project in 1924. The projects focus was on Mars as the planet came within 34 million miles from Earth. The unique combination of mysterious radio transmissions and unidentified flying object sightings certainly was an indicator to some military scientists that Mars was inhabited by intelligent beings and they were visiting earth. The impact on government and military thinking by H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" certainly influenced the decision to focus on Mars for any electromagnetic emissions as it approached Earth in 1924.

The seriousness of this first SETI project required that the government order all radio transmissions to cease at the time of the experiment. A navy admiral ordered world wide radio silence for the entire naval fleet at this time. Cooperation for this period of radio silence worldwide was obtained through American diplomatic channels. Dr. David Todd using the Jenkins radio-camera for the Naval Observatory recorded a series of dots on sensitized paper during the time of the test. The first digital communications ever received were recorded from an unknown source during this first period of world scientific cooperation.

Even world renowned code expert William F. Friedman, then Chief of the Code Section in the office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army was standing by to translate any messages that may have come from Mars. [9] Friedman in 1952 became chief technical consultant to the National Security Agency and two years later became the special assistant to the director of the National Security Agency.

Link

Cheers.

Originally posted by Bordon81
The Navy clue, why 1435 minutes?

Hey Bordon, you make some interesting points there about Tesla's equipment and I am intrigued about the 1435 minutes, could you expand on that?
Cheers.

Originally posted by karl 12
Gigantea Rosa, its certainly an interesting historical aspect I'd never come across before and although I suspect the 1924 signals may have been 'misinterpreted', the original article does make an intriguing comment about the US Government confiscating the photographic film.

Pretty interesting stuff, thanks for posting.
One thing that is not making sense to me from the article you posted, is what I quoted above. The NSA was founded in 1952; when was the footage allegedly confiscated? And if it was confiscated, how does anyone know that it exists (and have people attempted to obtain it via FOIA requests?)

Originally posted by JustMe74
One thing that is not making sense to me from the article you posted, is what I quoted above. The NSA was founded in 1952; when was the footage allegedly confiscated? And if it was confiscated, how does anyone know that it exists (and have people attempted to obtain it via FOIA requests?)

JustMe74, thanks for the reply and that's a good point about the date -there's a pre-1952 NSA historical timeline below and the U.S. Navy does seem to feature quite a lot (especialy in 1924) but I don't know about the footage or FOIA requests.

NSA Timeline.

1923 Chief of Naval Operations directed U.S. Navy to undertake intercept of foreign communications
1924 U.S. established COMINT site in Shanghai
1924 January 1 U.S. Navy established Radio Intelligence Office
1924 January 1 Laurance Safford became Officer in Charge, Cryptographic Research, U.S. Navy.

link

Cheers.

Copy of telegram ordering all U.S. Naval stations to monitor for Martian transmissions - there's also a good exert at the link from the book 'Going To Mars' by Brian Muirhead and Judy & Gar Reeves-Stevens.

"Here's a 1924 telegram from then Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Edward W. Eberle, instructing all Naval stations to monitor the airwaves for any unusual transmissions due to anticipated contact from Martians. August 22nd of that year was witness to the closest Mars opposition since 1804 (a mere 55,777,566 km), and as such provided desirable conditions in which to receive radio signals from the Red Planet..

link

Originally posted by karl 12
reply to post by mcrom901

 

Mcrom -you're not wrong about those history books.

B posted this other description of the experiment on UM and I found it quite interesting - especialy the last bit describing the actual results (too bad they were confiscated by the U.S Government.

)

During the closest approach of Mars to the earth in August 1924 the U.S. Government ordered all radio transmitters in the country to maintain radio silence for 5 minutes on the hour, every hour for 2 days in which to listen for signals during the close transit with Mars [35,000,000 miles from Earth] from August 21 to August 23rd. This was called "National Radio Silence Day." All American military transmitters were ordered shut down during this time.

The leader of the project was Dr. David Peck Todd, former head of the Amherst College astronomy department and friend of Percival Lowell. .

Heading the operation for the Army was Major General Charles Saltzman and Admiral Edward W. Eberlen, Chief of Naval Operations.

World renowned code expert William F. Friedman, then Chief of the Code Section in the office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army was standing by to translate any messages that may have come from Mars. Friedman became chief technical consultant to the National Security Agency in 1952 and two years later became the special assistant to the director of the National Security Agency.

At the US Naval Observatory a radio receiver was lifted 3000 meters above the ground in a dirigible tuned to a wavelength between 5 and 6 kilometers to record Martian signals during the silent periods. The U.S. Naval Observatory worked with Amherst College's newly developed "radio photo message continuous recording machine" or "Radio-Camera" invented by Francis Jenkins. This machine produced flashes of light that were recorded on film whenever an incoming radio wave was detected. On August 21st the Jenkins Radio-Camera was turned on. A roll of sensitized paper about thirty feet long and about six inches wide, slowly moved past a point of light modulated by electrical radio signals fed from an antenna on Todd's dirigible aimed at Mars.

After 36 hours of recording, the film was developed and Francis Jenkins, the machine's inventor, told a press conference that the device had received signals. In addition to a fairly regular arrangement of dots and dashes clusters of signals which seemed to appear every thirty minutes. The film also showed:

"a repetition at intervals of about a half hour what appears to be a human face."

These strange patterns were reported to the public five days later on August 28, 1924 in the New York Times

The development of the photographic film of the radio signals for the 29 hour period while Mars was close to Earth, deepens the mystery of the dots and dashes heard by widely separated powerful stations. The film disclosed in black and white a regular arrangement of dots and dashes along one side. On the other, at about evenly spaced intervals, are curiously jumbled groups, each taking the form of a crudely drawn face.

The film record of the radio signals was later sent to Virginia Military Institute where it was confiscated by the NSA (National Security Agency).

The general description of this experiment is derived from accounts carried in the Washington Post, August 21-22, 1924. The New York Times, August 23, 1924. & Edwards Frank, Flying Saucers -Serious Business. Published in 1966 Pages 75-78.

www.stevequayle.com...


Video:

Cheers.

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Video not available.

reply to post by Wormholez


i agree with you
but i also have that little inkling inside me there may, and i mean MAY be someone or something living under the surface
it may just be childhood dreams i cant shake off but its still in my head to this day!
thanks karl for the post

Originally posted by theitalian

Video:

Video not available.

Yes, sorry -looked everywhere to try to find another upload but looks like the 'Sightings' episode has been removed for good.

Originally posted by GezinhoKiko

but i also have that little inkling inside me there may, and i mean MAY be someone or something living under the surface
it may just be childhood dreams i cant shake off but its still in my head to this day!
thanks karl for the post

GezinhoKiko, thanks for the post mate and, as mentioned in the Astronomy link below, 'there's reason to be optimistic about the possibility of life forms on Mars, even if none have ever been detected at the surface'.

Is Mars methane the breath of life?

Localised plumes of methane detected on Mars could be coming from life forms under the planet's surface according to NASA and academic scientists. The findings were revealed in a live webcast yesterday at 19:00 GMT. Though there could be other possible, non-biological processes responsible for the methane, it is the strongest clue to date that the red planet may not be a dead world.

link

Cheers.

reply to post by karl 12


thats cool karl
i just hope the discovery is made in my lifetime
real life martians baby!