90 years ago: Dr. Robinson makes his second attempt to send a message to Mars

On October 26, 1928, Dr. Mansfield Robinson, former Vestry Clerk and Town Clerk of Shoreditch, England, reportedly received a reply to a telegraphic message he had sent from St. Albans, England to Oonaruru (or Oomararu), a big-eared woman from Mars, with whom he was allegedly in contact with by telepathy. The call was sent at 2:15 A.M. on October 23 and the engineers at St. Albans listened on a 30,000-metre wavelength, but--as reported by the 1929 World Almanac and Book of Facts--received no reply, Dr. Robinson said, until October 26, when word came that Mars is a wicked planet, not fit to associate with Earth.

As reported by Henry T. Russell of United Press and published in the Pittsburgh Press, October 24, 1928 (bold in original):

London, Oct. 24--Mars still remained 48,649,200 miles away from the rest of the world today, but to Dr. Hugh Mansfield Robinson it was as close as ever, which was no distance at all.

Apparent failure of his attempt to communicate with Mars by radio early today did not discourage the psychic student. Neither did the attitude of his wife, who sniffed at her husband's spiritual wanderings among the planets accompanied by a Martian girl friend with big ears; nor the frankly sceptical attitude of the world in general and men of science in particular.

Robinson, paying the regular government rate of 18 pence a word, sent two brief messages sputtering into space from the powerful Rugby wireless station aimed at the red planet.

"Mar la oi de earth," read one. Robinson, through his Martian girl guide, Oonoruru, was given the message by telepathy, he said, and he solemnly declared it meant "love to Mars from earth." It was sent at 2:19 a.m.

SECOND MESSAGE

At 2:30 a.m. a bored wireless operator sent the second message--"Com Ga Mar," meaning "God is Love."
The postoffice department, with due formality, tuned in from its St. Albans station on what is popularly supposed to be a good martian wave length and waited for a reply.

None was officially recorded there. But in Turnham Green, where Prof. A.M. Low, well-known British scientist, has his laboratory, four men waited expectantly by the fireside and two mysterious messages, in unknown code, were received.

Robinson jubilantly hoped they were from Mars, and despite a telepathic communication from Oonoruru that static prevented reception, he convinced himself today that the messages were from the neighboring planet.

Robinson, pursued by reporters and unable to reconcile his faith in the mysterious message received at Turnham Green with Conoruru's report of failure, parried inquiries today.

"I am certain we received messages, but they require decoding," he explained.

MAY TRY IN U.S.

Robinson told the press he planned to try to have a French or United States station transmit another message on a 30,000-meter length.

Meanwhile, indignant was caused among Robinson adherents by a letter in the Evening Standard from John C. Budden, a reader. Budden derided a message from Mars which Robinson claimed he had received recently through a medium. The message was "Oom ga wa na wa," which Robinson said was Martian for "God is all in all." Budden's letter said "Oom ga wa na wa" is a common saying among Tibetan Buddhist monks.

Mrs. Robinson, wife of the experimenter, today made it clear that "there will be no more of that foolishness in this house."

Shortly after Oonaruru, the six-foot Martian maiden with whom Robinson was attempting to communicate, sent him a telepathic message advising him to go to bed, Mrs. Robinson also handed out some advice.

"I don't know anything about this Mars affair," she told newspapermen. "I have refused to have the experiments conducted in this house while I remain in it. I don't know whether anyone encouraged my husband, but there will be no more of that foolishness in this house."

Oonaruru, the "girl with the big ears and the sweet face" who, according to Robinson, guided his ethereal body on its last trip of the radio messages which he sent out from the Rugby radio station had reached Mars.

Robinson said he received the following telepathic message from Oonaruru.

"Mars received neither message. Do not attempt to use the Rugby station again, but make the last attempt in America. Now go home to bed, but do not be downhearted. You have done enough for today."

This was not Dr. Robinson's first attempt to communicate with Mars; his first telegraphic message had been sent two years earlier, on October 27, 1926. As reported by Matt Brown in Londonist, April 2014:

Robinson first heard from the Martians in 1918, and his astral body supposedly visited Mars on several occasions. He describes a planet populated by men seven to eight feet tall, while the ladies were over six feet. "They have large ears sticking out on each side of the head, a huge shock of hair massed high, and a Chinese cast of features." These are described as 'intensely religious' beings, who treat atheism as a form of insanity. "They have great airships run by electricity. All their power is electrical, run from the harnessing of the canals and waterfalls in the mountains. They are consequently many generations in advance of us in wireless knowledge", the doctor elaborated. He also spoke of their society, believing that labour strikes were unknown, that the population was decentralised out of cities, and that their numbers included a lower caste of beings lacking in intelligence, and with heads shaped like that of a walrus.

The good doctor seemed taken with one Martian in particular, the lady Oomaruru. He claimed to be in regular telepathic contact with this girl from Mars. She is described as very fair, with a sweet face and big ears that "did not especially detract from her beauty". Oomaruru, whose name meant 'loved one', was a close friend of the director of Mars' biggest wireless station. With her help, Robinson hoped to convince the world of his interplanetary psychic wanderings...

...The puzzled telegraphist relayed the message to a transmitter at Rugby. From here, it was beamed into space on a wavelength of 18,240 metres. Receivers then listened out for a reply at 30,000 metres, a wavelength Dr Robinson believed the Martians to favour.

The post office had no precedent for such a long-distance message, but was very happy to take Robinson's custom. An official from the Central Radio Office commented: "If people wish to send messages even to the moon and the man theron, and are prepared to pay for them, there does not seem to be any valid reason why the post office should refuse revenue." Robinson was billed 18 pence per word for the radio transmission, equivalent to the long-distance ship rate.

Alas, his pennies were wasted. A day later, the Post Office confirmed that no signals had been received that could have emanated from the Red Planet. Robinson dismissed the negative result, claiming that other stations might yet receive something, and later saying (but never proving) that mysterious replies had been received. Few were convinced...

...Robinson never gave up his quest to speak to the Red Planet. In 1929 he tried again using an ordinary wireless set augmented with a 'psycho-telepathic motor-meter'. In 1930 he founded a college of telepathy whose staff included a telepathic dog called Nell. Then, in 1933, he claimed to have recorded the voice of Cleopatra, now a jilted farmer's wife living in a glass house on Mars.

Dr. Robinson died on December 23, 1940 at the age of 75. As far as this blogger is aware, various probes that have flown by or landed on Mars have found no evidence of the phenomena reported by Dr. Robinson--although the alleged Martians were right to regard atheism being a form of insanity.

For further reading: London's Edwardian SETI Programme And The Girl From Mars by Matt Brown, Londonist, April 2014

Opesti nipitia secomba: The story of one man’s quest to communicate with Mars by Jamie Harris, British Telecom, updated October 26, 2018