Mars and its Canals

by Percival Lowell

There can be no doubt that Lowell was an accomplished mathematician. His calculations concerning gravitational perturbations to the movement of the planet Neptune, paved the way towards the discovery of the planet Pluto, some 14 years after Lowell's death.

When it came to Mars, however, things were quite different. Undoubtedly Lowell was influenced by Schiaparelli. Yet he believed increasingly that the geometrical patterns he maintained he could see on Mars were the work of intelligent beings, irrigating on a truly vast scale, a vegetation whose seasonal reawakening spread from the poles to the equator. He published a number of very popular books on the subject which enjoyed great influence and success. Lowell's maps of Mars became more geometrical.

Even at the height of the popularity of the Martian canals theory around the turn of the century there were a few experienced and keen sighted observers who would have none of it. Eugene Antoniardi was one such astronomer, blessed with acute vision and with access to the finest telescopes in Europe, situated at altitudes where atmospheric 'seeing' conditions were at their best. At close oppositions when through the most powerful instruments, Mars can look no better that a 'shaky' golf ball held at arms length. Antoniardi maintained that Lowell had been on the verge of seeing true fine detail but he ended up 'joining the dots'

'Little green men'
Percival Lowell's books on Mars and its canals were not only popular, they influenced a number of popular fantasy writers of the day. H. G. Wells published his 'War of the Worlds' in 1898, shortly after Lowell's first Mars book.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Astronomy

450 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1906

Reviews

[Barry Haworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who grew up reading a lot of science fiction from the 1950s and earlier I was familiar with the notion of Mars with its network of canals which its inhabitants had constructed to preserve the dying planet's water supply. Though long since debunked, it was nevertheless interesting to read this book, which I found on Project Gutenberg, and explore the origins of the myth of the Martian canals.

In this book Lovell describes the observations he has made and the conclusions that he draws from them. Some things are fully confirmed by modern observations, like the seasonal changes in the size of the Martian polar caps. Others, like the seasonal changes in appearance of features on the planet, are also correct observations, but he draws the incorrect conclusion that these are due to vegetation. Some things he gets flatly wrong, like his conclusion that Mars has no mountains or valleys, or that the polar caps are not carbon dioxide (a theory he considers only to reject). He observes the changing white spot of Nix Olympia, but fails to recognise it as a mountain peak, having elsewhere concluded that Mars has no mountains.

Most interesting is the account of how canals are observed. I had always assumed that the canals were a steady feature, at least thorough Lovell's telescope, but even for him they were a transient phenomenon, caught in glimpses in one part of the planet at a time as the atmospheric conditions changed, and having to be drawn from these brief glimpses in a long observing session.

There are of course no canals on Mars. Lovell's maps are essentially a combination of optical illusion and wishful thinking. Still, for someone with an interest in classic science fiction, or an interest in the dangers of wishful thinking, this book is a worthwhile read.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly dry overall, but interesting here and there and written very nicely.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Lowell's observations and conclusions have been debunked as merely wishful thinking, its hard not to admire the earnestness of his work and the amount of effort he put into it.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This recently came up on Project Gutenberg, so I gave it a whirl. Oh, my. The writing style is rather dense and it's a DNF; I only dipped in piecemeal. And I don't think it's worth reading in its entirety, except to a historian of astronomy.

This is also an object lesson in some kind of delusion, I suppose. Student scientists should all be required to view little fuzzy photographs of the period (circa 1906) then view Lowell's drawings of the Martian canals to compare. And then read at least parts of the chapter on the canals, and the chapter on "Life" -- yes, I mean the chapter about life on Mars -- in which Lowell states, for starters: Study of the fundamental features of Martian topography has disclosed, as we have seen, the existence of vegetation on the planet as the only rational explanation of the dark markings there...

And when you've done that, you might want to check out a more recent book like Geographies of Mars: Seeing and Knowing the Red Planet.

[Rex Libris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mars and Its Canals was written in 1905 by the "amateur" astronomer Percival Lowell. He built his own observatory outside of Flagstaff, AZ, and did extensive research on Martian topography. Extrapolating what he knew about evolutionary development on Earth, Lowell poisted that there was most likely at least vegatative life on Mars, maybe more.

Now we know the canals were mere illusionary effects, but Lowell's application of the knowledge of the time comes across as facially plausible.

I downloaded this ebook from the Library of Congress website, and it was an utter mess. It was filled with formatting and scanning mistakes from front to back. Nothing of this inexcusably poor quality would ever be put out there by Project Gutenberg. If the LOC is the country's foremost library, we are in even more trouble than we thought.