What Experts Thought About Mars In 1924

Experts and writers alike had been talking about what was really on Mars for decades, and here is where that discussion was in the 1920s. This is an abridged version that excludes some of the denser science discussion.

[@janerkenbrack3373]

Remarkable how accurately they predicted what we would find. Though the Martian giants turned out to be more inclined to war than they mentioned. After there failed attack on us in October, 1938, I didn't think we'd ever find a way to make peace with our planetary neighbors. I guess it all worked out for the best, and cruising the Canals of Mars has to be the best vacation ever.

[@hankw69]

That was good. I love Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, and yes, even the Martian Chronicles TV mini-series...

[@redshirt1917]

"Oh, you have made me very angry. Very angry indeed!" - Marvin the Martian

[@radicalross7700]

Clearly you've never read DC Comics, the one true source of real info about Martians. "Marvin" is just one of many forms and aliases used by J'onn J'onzz. Another was Ray Walston. Naturally, after the real Walston's death, J'onn stopped using his likeness out of respect.

[@sherirobinson6867]

Marvin is awesome... one of my favorite looney tunes

[@radicalross7700]

Every time he even thinks of that article, J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter practically busts a gut laughing. It's still as funny to him now as it was when he first read it in 1924.

[@normajeancaballero7959]

Mars will always be a mysterious planetary curiosity.

[@apfelsnutz]

EXCELLENT !

[@williamharvey8895]

Haven't watched it yet, but this was fascinating stuff at the time. There were even attempts to contact the Martians with a sort of like semaphore system whose field was like a few square miles large.

[@randomguy1769]

I actually prefer this article to the reports we've been getting from NASA and their rovers.

[@DavidTheHypnotist]

Oh dude! In the background you can here my favorite song ever! Ray Miller’s Orchestra “The Sheik (of Araby)! Nice!

[@stevefaure415]

Not much has changed. The technology has improved and along with it the jargon but the question is the same. Funny

[@Muonium1]

Love these. A delight to listen to the ways in which the imagination naturally and immediately reels if given even the scantest shreds of evidence for a provocative thesis - and keep in mind this was written by Waldemar Kaempffert, a scientifically learned and relatively sober writer! We should not be so foolish as to believe our marginally more space-exploration-jaded minds are any less susceptible to such wild confabulations either. We're just as guilty. It would take another 4 decades before the Mariner 4 flyby mission to Mars returned its fantasy shattering images of the barren and cratered wasteland that is the true martian surface. The Mariner missions would reveal another surprise; contrary to there being "no elevation higher than 2 or 3,000 feet" as guessed here, Mars is of course home to the biggest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, at a staggering 72,000 feet high.

[@glennso47]

Was he a relative of orchestra leader Bert Kaempfert?

[@wellston2826]

Them little green Martians are tricky little goomers, flying around in their flying cups and saucers, their the ones who kidnapped Elvis, you know.

[@radicalross7700]

Yes they're tricky all right, but every reader of DC Comics knows that in their TRUE form, Martians 2 meters tall and possess all the powers of that overrated Kryptonian sun moocher, Kal-El, plus a few powers he doesn't have.

[@robkunkel8833]

… and Elvis is still performing at the Mars Bar near Canal 66. The country air has suited him well.

[@glennso47]

Did they also kidnap JFK? 🤔

[@glennso47]

Are Martians related to the Floogals? From the planet Floog?

[@apfelsnutz]

Where can I find the whole paper ? Thank You !

[@The1920sChannel]

You can find this issue of "The Forum" (Aug. 1924) on The Internet Archive

[@glennso47]

In the little brown shack outback.

[@psychicrenegade]

I had no idea that Mars had seasons...and sometimes appears blue/green in regular intervals. Is any of this actually true???

[@robkunkel8833]

Well … I’m convinced. Why wasn’t this explained to me before? If they have cats, they could like look like water buffalo. I wonder if we can buy stock a Mars canal?

[@glennso47]

Scientists tried to call Mars but the line was busy.

[@davidcross4384]

NASA's Devon Island Mars.. nothing has change about fable Mars🤣

[@indyanna5683]

All fiction not real, sealed system, Gods Firmament...Mars is a light in the sky. This is how long they been brainwashing us! NASA/ Not a Space Agency.

[@martletkay]

Oh the irony and naivety that he thinks the people of Earth would set aside all differences in the face of a looming water and climate crisis to help one another, or even take it seriously at all no matter how many grave warning there are from scientists, and no matter many islands sink under the rising sea, and whole countries worth of people die of famine, and extreme heat, and water shortages.... Yup, we humans sure rally together to fix these huge issues alright.

[@christosgiannopoulos828]

Of all the inaccuracies in that video, this was the one that's furthest from reality

[@glennso47]

WEF says that “You’ll own nothing and you will be happy.”

[@b.lloydreese2030]

Barsoom is inhabited

[@kimlerner389]

It's pretty amazing that the writer augured the coming of climate change on earth.

[@johndonaldson3619]

*I want to believe*

[@glennso47]

I believe that I’ll have a dish of ice cream.

[@glennso47]

Did Christ die for them too?

[@glennso47]

I look to find a reason to believe. By Rod Stewart?

[@jcksnghst]

Golly bum, I wished there were aliens. Andromeda is the closest galaxy to our Milky Way at 2,500,000 light years away from my front porch. It'd take 3.5 million generations to get from there to here or visa versa. There are no aliens.

[@dreadfulspiller8766]

They might be from another universe.

[@glennso47]

Experts! What do they know? 🫢🤨