Arcturus starlight signals at Chicago World's FairIn 1933, a searchlight shot a great beam above the “Century of Progress” Chicago World's Fair, activated by starlight from Arcturus. It linked that event symbolically with the great Columbian Exposition, some 40 years earlier, by using light that came from (as then thought) 40 lightyears away. The light that left Arcturus in 1893, at the time of the earlier event, travelled across space in the intervening 40 years, and by being focussed by four major observatory telescopes using the latest photocell technology, generated the signals forwarded to the 1933 Fair. The network provided better odds of clear skies at one of them. Each transmitted the current using Western Union telegraph lines. A crowd of thousands saw the signals arrive on a huge display at 9:15 pm. (Arcturus is now measured at 37 lightyears away.)« |
