Dr. Todd Will Study Photograph of Mysterious Dots and Dashes Recently Recorded.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 27.--The development of a photographic film record of radio signals during a period of about twenty-nine hours, while Mars was closest to the earth, has deepened the mystery of the dots and dashes reported heard at the same time by widely separated operators of powerful stations.
C. Francis Jenkins of Washington, inventor of the device, which he calls the "radio photo message continuous transmission machine," was induced by Dr. David Tood, professor emeritus of astronomy of Amherst and organizer of the international "listening-in" for signals from Mars, to take the record.
The film, thirty feet long and six inches wide, discloses in black on white a fairly regular arrangement of dots and dashes along one side, but on the other side at almost evenly spaced intervals are curiously jumbled groups each taking the form of a crudely drawn face.
"I don't think the results have anything to do with Mars," says Mr. Jenkins. "Quite likely the sounds recorded are the results of heterodyning or interference of radio signals. The film shows a repetition, at intervals of about a half hour, of what appears to be a man's face. It's a freak which we can't explain."