Vol. 2, No. 39 · 29 Aug. 1891
Is the Earth’s Surface Convex?
LOCAL REVIEW DRAFT — A short report describes a theodolite observation from Chicago’s Auditorium tower and argues that distant Lake Michigan water rose above a tower.
PDF p. 4
Primary-source reading room
Flaming Sword Archive
This living archive transforms The Flaming Sword into a searchable, topic-driven reading room. Articles from the Koreshan Unity's historic journal are gathered into coherent thematic collections, making it easier to follow the movement's philosophy, cosmology, science, and social thought while preserving every original issue and its stable PDF-page citations.
I’m working through 785 preserved periodicals from The Flaming Sword archives, finding and organising the scientific articles they contain. The goal is to make this overlooked material easier to discover and read.
Topic sequence
The Rectilineator Experiment
The 1897 Naples survey: preparation, field reports, claimed measurements, and contemporary objections to the Koreshan geodetic method.
Vol. 10, No. 9 · Sep. 1896
Theodolite Tangents from the Standpoint of the Surveyor
A surveyor-facing argument about visual lines, geodetic assumptions, and the direction of the earth’s curvature.
PDF pp. 16–18
Vol. 10, No. 9 · Sep. 1896
Why the Air Line? The New Geodetic Rectilineograph
A technical prospectus explains why the periodical wanted a mechanical extension of the level and distinguishes the proposed air line from ordinary visual observation.
PDF p. 18
Vol. 10, No. 10 · Oct. 1896
The Old Geodesy Full of Difficulties
The periodical presents discordant meridional measurements and difficult long-distance observations as challenges to the assumptions of conventional geodesy.
PDF p. 22
Vol. 10, No. 12 · Dec. 1896
The Florida Expedition Announced
The periodical announces the Florida geodetic expedition, its equipment, proposed corroborative experiments, and the newspaper publicity campaign surrounding the work.
PDF pp. 17–18
Vol. 11, No. 4 · Apr 1897
The Geodetic Survey: Demonstration of the Earth’s Concavity the Inevitable Result
A contemporaneous Koreshan report on the Naples Rectilineator survey: stated setup, competing convex/flat/concave predictions, tide-stake readings, and the reported 8.02-inch descent after one mile.
PDF pp. 18–19
Vol. 11, No. 5 · May 1897
Concavity Demonstrated! The Air Line Extends into the Water Four Miles!
The claimed completion report: a two-and-one-half-mile mechanically adjusted line, a visual extension across Gordon’s Pass, and a reported four-mile line entering the Gulf.
PDF pp. 19–21
Vol. 11, No. 5 · May 1897
The Earth Is Concave: Reply to the Zetetic Objection
A contemporaneous exchange with the London Earth (Not-a-Globe) Review: its charge that the Rectilineator assumes its result, and the Koreshan procedural reply about line geometry and water level.
PDF pp. 21–22
Vol. 11, No. 6 · Jun 1897
The Earth Is Concave: The Survey as Scientific Premise
Prof. U. G. Morrow turns the Naples report into a general claim: the chord-and-arc result is said to establish the premise of the whole Koreshan system.
PDF pp. 8–10
Vol. 11, No. 6 · Jun 1897
The Geodetic Survey: Answers to Objections
The June methodological defense: reversal of sections, return-survey checks, and a geometric argument against both accidental and deliberate initial inclination.
PDF pp. 4–6
Vol. 11, No. 7 · Jul 1897
Koreshan Astronomy No. 6: Perpendiculars and the Air Line
A July extension of the argument: plumb-line convergence, proposed tower and mine-shaft tests, and the Naples air line as its stated experimental precedent.
PDF pp. 5–6
Vol. 11, No. 8 · Aug 1897
Lady Blount’s Questions: Practical Proofs of Concavity
A compact later restatement naming balloon views, optics, water contour, and the Naples air line as the claimed practical evidence.
PDF p. 12
Vol. 11, No. 8 · Aug 1897
The Truth Apparent: The Air Line as a Public Argument
E. M. Castle reframes the Naples air line for a general audience, insists on the survey’s careful records, and calls for its public repetition.
PDF pp. 7–8
Vol. 12, No. 1 · Nov 1897
An Appeal to the True Nobility of Chicago
A public appeal for funding and critical examination of the mechanically adjusted perpendicular-and-air-line premise.
PDF p. 9
Vol. 12, No. 2 · Nov 1897
Correspondence and Brief Replies: How to Repeat Naples
A reader asks for the apparatus and method needed to repeat the Naples experiment; editors point to published material but reserve practical use to their experts.
PDF p. 12
Vol. 12, No. 4 · Dec 1897
In the Editorial Perspective: The Earth Review Challenge
A December column repeats the May challenge to the London Earth (not a globe) Review and treats its silence as a failure to answer.
PDF p. 11
Vol. 12, No. 29 · Jun 1898
Blodgett’s Survey of the Air Line Demolished: The Florida Geodetic Survey
REVIEW DRAFT — Samuel Blodgett’s detailed challenge to the Naples operation—staff, verification, visual extension, geometry, and curvature ratio—followed by the Flaming Sword’s reply.
PDF pp. 8–11
Vol. 12, No. 31 · Jun 1898
Latest Conclusions from Government Geodetic Survey
REVIEW DRAFT — A response to a newspaper report on government geodesy, arguing that triangulation cannot distinguish a concave from a convex surface.
PDF p. 4
Vol. 12, No. 32 · Jun 1898
Interpretation of Astronomical Phenomena
A correspondent’s objection about stellar fixity followed by a Koreshan editorial reply that demands field evidence and mechanics before astronomical appearances are interpreted.
PDF pp. 5–7
Vol. 12, No. 38 · Aug 1898
The Published Diagram of the Visual Extension
A scan-verified source-led dossier of a boxed Cellular Cosmogony sample page: its diagram legend, visual Air Line projection, boat observation, claimed witnesses, and closing advertisement.
PDF p. 13
Vol. 12, No. 39 · Aug 1898
The Basis of Modern Astronomy: A Request for the Rectilineator
REVIEW DRAFT — A professor requests cuts, operating principles, and a clear account of the apparatus; the editors defer the complete answer to the forthcoming Cellular Cosmogony.
PDF pp. 12–13
Vol. 12, No. 42 · Sep 1898
View of the New Astronomical and Geodetic Work
REVIEW DRAFT — A publication announcement and its printed Cellular Cosmogony contents, naming the proposed Florida-survey dossier, apparatus, tide measures, witnesses, air-line extension, and replies to objections.
PDF pp. 5–6
Vol. 12, No. 46 · Sep 1898
Blodgett’s Visual-Line Objection Revisited
A detailed defense of the final telescopic extension: claimed endpoint, sightline curvature, telescope focus, tide level, and the final-station angle.
PDF pp. 11–12
Vol. 14, No. 8 · 12 Jan. 1900
An Argument Against Koreshan Cosmogony Proves Fatal to Modern Astronomy
A front-page argument answers an objection about the perpendicular and the level used in the Geodetic Rectilineator, treating the objection as damaging to the conventional alternative.
PDF pp. 3–4
Vol. 18, No. 23 · 15 Nov. 1904
The Principles of the New Geodesy
A later explanation contrasts ordinary geodetic assumptions with the Koreshan claim that a mechanical right-angle apparatus could test the direction of curvature.
PDF p. 7
Vol. 24, No. 11 · Nov. 1910
Concavity of the Earth Proven
A later retrospective gathers balloon reports, mine observations, long-distance visibility, and the Naples survey into a broad claim for concavity.
PDF p. 21
Topic sequence
Optics & Vision
The Law of Optics sequence and related writings on sight, perspective, the retina, and the horizon.
Vol. 1, No. 14 · 8 Mar 1890
The Law of Optics: Paper No. 1
The formal optics sequence begins, tying retina, visual force, and a central-sun hollow globe into a single Koreshan model.
PDF p. 1
Vol. 1, No. 16 · 22 Mar 1890
The Law of Optics: Paper No. 2
Continues the optics series with a direct horizon argument: distant objects diminish in vision, then are used to dispute a convex Earth surface.
PDF p. 1
Vol. 1, No. 19 · 12 Apr 1890
Optics the Stepping Stone to Astro-Anthropology
Places optics at the threshold of a larger religious cosmology, restating the world as a shell whose inhabited surface is concave.
PDF p. 2
Vol. 10, No. 2 · Feb. 1896
The Law of Optics or Vision
A four-page account of retinal perception, visual force, refraction, and a claimed distinction between apparent and actual sight lines.
PDF pp. 6–9
Vol. 13, No. 21 · 7 Apr. 1899
Atmospheric Refraction and Magnification
LOCAL REVIEW DRAFT — A Texas correspondent reports distant objects appearing above the ordinary horizon; the editorial reply answers with atmospheric refraction, magnification, and the Koreshan telescope argument.
PDF pp. 11–12
Vol. 13, No. 45 · 29 Sep. 1899
The Telescope and the Convex Bulge
LOCAL REVIEW DRAFT — A correspondence exchange disputes whether a telescope can restore a ship or target hidden by a convex bulge, turning on refraction, visual angles, and the telescope’s actual function.
PDF pp. 11–12
Vol. 16, No. 44 · 19 Sep. 1902
Geolinear Foreshortening and Telescopic Power
LOCAL REVIEW DRAFT — An inquiry about telescopes and a concave surface receives an extended reply on geolinear foreshortening, the vanishing-line, and the limits of terrestrial vision.
PDF pp. 12–13
Topic sequence
Astronomy & Cosmogony
Definitions of the Koreshan world-model, its astronomical claims, and its distinction from other hollow-Earth theories.
Vol. 1, No. 8 · 18 Jan 1890
Cosmogony
The earliest recovered statement of the concave-world model. It sets the theodolite, telegraph-pole, apparent contraction, and horizon argument against the familiar curvature calculation.
PDF p. 1
Vol. 1, No. 16 · 22 Mar 1890
Koreshan Cosmogony
A direct statement distinguishing the Koreshan inner-world model from Symmes-style hollow-Earth theories: Earth is described as a shell, its inhabited surface as concave, and stars as focal points rather than worlds.
PDF p. 1
Vol. 3, No. 8 · 20 Feb. 1892
Cosmogony: The Plumb-Line and the Horizon
A continuing cosmogony article argues from the plumb-line, horizontal, horizon, and visual foreshortening toward the periodical’s concave-world premise.
PDF pp. 1–2
Vol. 4, No. 2 · 9 Jul. 1892
Koreshan Astronomy: Horizontal and Perpendicular
This installment defines the periodical’s relation between the horizontal, perpendicular, horizon, and theodolite observation before turning to foreshortening.
PDF p. 14
Vol. 4, No. 3 · 16 Jul. 1892
Koreshan Astronomy: The Horizon and Foreshortening
A near-consecutive installment repeats and extends the horizontal-line argument, using visual convergence and foreshortening against the conventional interpretation of the horizon.
PDF p. 14
Vol. 10, No. 12 · Dec. 1896
Koreshan Astronomy (No. 1): Consideration of Common Objections Urged by Investigators Against the Cellular Cosmogony
The first recovered installment in the later Koreshan Astronomy sequence answers objections to the cellular cosmogony and frames practical experiments as tests of the earth-shape premise.
PDF pp. 19–21
Vol. 11, No. 2 · Feb. 1897
Koreshan Astronomy (No. 2): Seeing Across the Hollow Globe
This installment addresses the objection that inhabitants of a hollow globe should be able to see across its full diameter, connecting the question to light, vision, and the inner-world model.
PDF pp. 20–21
Vol. 11, No. 3 · Mar. 1897
Koreshan Astronomy (No. 3): Limit of Vision in Concave Earth
The third installment develops a limit-of-vision argument using perspective, apparent horizon behavior, and calculations for one-, two-, and six-mile distances.
PDF pp. 18–19
Vol. 11, No. 4 · Apr. 1897
Absurdities of Science So Called
A polemical article carries the periodical’s optical and astronomical objections into a broader attack on the explanatory authority of contemporary science.
PDF pp. 6–7
Vol. 11, No. 5 · May 1897
Koreshan Astronomy (No. 5): The Cause of Day and Night
The fifth numbered installment argues that a projected central sun and the rotation of the heavens account for day and night, the seasons, and the ecliptic.
PDF pp. 17–19
Vol. 14, No. 27 · 25 May 1900
The Eclipse of the Sun
LOCAL REVIEW DRAFT — The Flaming Sword explains eclipse prediction, the May 1900 path of totality, and its map captioned ‘The Solar Eclipse in the Hollow Globe.’
PDF pp. 8–9