MIRAGES—GORDON 345 
How is energy, in the form of the light carrying the picture or image, 
conveyed through the atmosphere for great distances with no apparent 
loss of potential? The city or ship that looms so large has not been 
magnified by any telescopic effect. As nearly as we may judge, it 
simply failed to get smaller with distance as one would expect accord- 
ing to the laws of physics. Its light power faded little if any, which 
seems to present an irrational situation. That is what will need to be 
explained. Two rather fantastic suggestions are offered, very tenta- 
tively. One is that there may be channels of no resistance in the atmos- 
phere along which such a shaft of light may travel intact, without 
dissipation. I am told that the Navy has trouble with radar beams 
being deflected from a straight course, probably by atmospheric con- 
ditions as occurs with light beams; also that radar beams seem some- 
times to find channels of no resistance and reach many times their 
normal range. We know that radiobroadcasts will sometimes be 
heard at amazing distances, possibly by bouncing from layers in the 
upper atmosphere or, it is possible, by finding a channel of no resist- 
ance. The other suggestion may seem no more realistic. Is it possible 
that a shaft of light, perhaps traveling in parallel beams, might be so 
compacted by a cohesive force, like the lens in the road, that there is 
no dispersion? In either case the paths would run approximately 
parallel with the earth’s surface. Neither suggestion takes into 
account the inverted image unless it may be formed by secondary 
refractive action. 
As a basis for either one of these suggested possible explanations, 
some form of No. 2 lens must be presupposed which would be able to 
pick up the picture and put it into a roughly horizontal course instead 
of returning it to earth as is the more usual procedure. Apparently 
it would travel in such a course or channel until it struck a second 
No. 2 lens where refraction should turn it down to the observer or 
observation area. This explanation would call for the refracting air 
lenses to be a few hundred to several thousand feet above the ground 
near the point where the mirage is to be seen. Why city mirages are so 
much lower than those of ships is far from clear, but this seems to be 
true over the desert country. 
Just what is it we see when we look at a mirage? Referring back 
to the No. 1 lens, we seem to see water in the road or dry lake bed. 
The picture or image is in effect projected on the air lens much as a 
picture in the theater is projected on the screen. The mirage is just 
as far away as the lens is. This is not true, however, for the Opera- 
tions Liftup and Distortion. The mirages turned out by both of these 
types of lens activity appear to be at their true distances, but lifted 
up, or lifted and distorted. We get no impression of the location of 
the lens at all. But for Operation Long Distance we go back to the 
No. 1 lens type of procedure. Location of the second lens is the loca- 
