Thoughts of a Scientist on Nearby Bodies Which Might Signal the Earth.
Whether wireless disturbances are attempts at inter-planetary communications or not there are astronomical bodies within 50 miles of the earth's surface which have attempted for some time to come into communication with the earth and such communication will be established more quickly than most scientists realize, according to Charles Fort, author of "The Book of the Damned."
He believes it may be one of a number of non-luminous planets closely adjacent to the earth's surface which is attempting to establish contact with us.
"There is a large mass of data," the scientist declares, "which points to the fact that there are planets within a few hundred, some perhaps within 50 miles of the earth's surface. Thus, for example, there have been many unexplained eclipses which coincided with earthquakes; these incidents lead to the conclusion that some other planet is at that time close to the earth, but that, because it is not light-reflecting, it has not yet been observed. There are at least 30 eclipses on record which point strongly to the conclusion that a planet passed between the earth and the sun in such close proximity as to cause perturbations within the earth itself."
The best substantiated instances of attempts to communicate with the earth, says Mr. Fort, are those in which luminous hieroglyphics were seen in the sky by correspondents to the American Meteorological Magazine and to the English Mechanic. These hieroglyphics were well formed and persisted for a considerable period of time.
Mr. Fort has collected incidents on record of falling vegetable and animal matter, decaying and germinating plants, putrefying fishes and other substances which point to the passage close by of other inhabited planets.
"New and virulent epidemics may fall upon the earth from some closely traveling planet," he explained.
"On several occasions swift plagues have visited the earth. We may expect, without doubt, that some nearby planet will give the world a new disease. It is a matter of record that putrid falling bodies have dropped upon the earth from an undiscoverable place. And these bodies, putrid and bacteria bearing, may be disease carriers."
Mr. Fort maintains that the Newtonian theory, although correct as far as it goes, is fundamentally wrong in rejecting the theory of repulsion as a complement to the law of gravitation. Astronomers, he says, are too lazy to admit the truth of repulsion because they would then be forced to make their calculations and formulae all over again.