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that several philanthropic people have suggested signalling to
them as a mark of sympathy. It is said that a fortune was
bequeathed to the French Academy for the purpose of communicating
with the Martians. It has been suggested that we could flash
signals to them by means of gigantic mirrors reflecting the light
of our Sun. Or, again, that we might light bonfires on a
sufficiently large scale. They would have to be about ten miles
in diameter! A writer in the Pall Mall Gazette suggested that
there need really be no difficulty in the matter. With the kind
cooperation of the London Gas Companies (this was before the days
of electric lighting) a signal might be sent without any
additional expense if the gas companies would consent to
simultaneously turn off the gas at intervals of five minutes over
the whole of London, a signal which would be visible to the
astronomers in Mars would result. He adds, naively: "If only
tried for an hour each night some results might be obtained."