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PRIVATE EDITORIAL WORKING DRAFT — lightly normalized transcription. Historical claims below are attributed to The Flaming Sword and are not independently verified.
EDITOR FLAMING SWORD:—I have long intended to write you regarding a phenomenon often witnessed in southern Texas. The people here call it mirage, but it does not conform to the description of mirages as recorded in the books that I have seen. From where I live, looking north, ordinarily the horizon is not over three miles away; but several times this winter I have been able, on clear, frosty mornings, to see miles farther. It is said that the railroad is 20 miles from here, and I have seen several miles beyond the railroad, as proved by the smoke from a running train some distance this side of the horizon, as seen on such occasions, which would show that I could see 25 or 30 miles, instead of three or four, as ordinarily.
The country on these occasions seemed to rise up as a hill from the ordinary horizon line, sometimes showing objects not distorted in the raised territory; at other times making objects, such as trees and houses, appear much taller than they should. On one occasion, when the objects brought into view were especially distinct and nearer in appearance,—houses that ordinarily appear closer than they are, seemed suddenly to have moved farther away.
I have often wondered, when looking at this phenomenon, whether the country north of here could be seen in ordinarily fair weather through a telescope. Can you tell me the true name of the phenomenon I have tried to describe? I should be glad to have an explanation of the cause of it. I should also like to have readers of THE SWORD, who have the use of good telescopes and who live where the kind of phenomenon I speak of occurs, try whether a good glass will bring the distant country into view above the ordinary horizon, in usual as well as in unusual states of the atmosphere, and report to THE FLAMING SWORD.
I have had atmospheric refraction suggested many times, to meet the Koreshan statement that after a ship has passed out of sight it can be brought back by a telescope. Please define atmospheric refraction, and whether it can cause objects behind a hill to be visible above the hill in their natural form and proportions. I believe in the concavity of the earth’s surface, but am not able to answer all the questions that others as ignorant as myself may ask; I do not have to. They must disprove the correctness of the Florida survey by some other means than ignorant questions.—J. L. TRAUGHBER, Texas.
The phenomenon referred to above cannot be used as an argument against the Koreshan premise of the earth’s concavity, as demonstrated by experiments in restoring vessels to view with the telescope, which have disappeared beyond the horizon. Let it be noticed that the appearances recorded by our correspondent were seen with the naked eye, and not with the telescope; under the circumstances, had a telescope been used the objects would have appeared larger, and the horizon would have been still farther extended. The experiments of the Koreshan Geodetic Staff consisted in contrasting appearances of vessels to the naked eye and in the telescope. If refraction obtained when the telescope was applied, it would also obtain a minute before or after, to render the vessel visible to the naked eye. The kind of refraction that works intermittently to suit the telescope, stopping immediately upon use of the naked eye, is the mere refraction and distortion of mental rays in evading the subject! It is a mere subterfuge!
The phenomenon referred to is named in the heading of these paragraphs,—atmospheric refraction and magnification. It does not belong to the mirage, though it is related to the mirage in just this way: In a mirage the images of distant objects are reflected from the under surface of a heated stratum of atmosphere and are inverted; in such a phenomenon as the above, the distant objects are magnified by looking through the stratum and are seen right side up; the stratum causes an effect like that seen through a lens placed somewhat obliquely, throwing the images somewhat out of position, magnifying them a little, and extending the horizon. The visual substance tends to follow the curve of the stratum, and is consequently projected farther out on the concave surface; hence the extended view and the raised appearance of objects rendered visible by these abnormal conditions. This accounts for the magnified appearance of some objects, and the sudden diminution of others in different parts of the field of the lens-like refraction.
At the same time, if the eye were brought a few feet below the stratum, the appearance would have been a mirage with inverted images; and with the eye at different altitudes in the stratum, different appearances would be presented to the eye,—as distorted views and elongated objects. Objects on the prairie, which are ordinarily out of view because of the rolling surface or slight bulge of earth in the distance, are sometimes brought into view by the kind of refraction we refer to; but in such cases they are visible to the naked eye and not in the telescope alone. We are familiar with all the phenomena observable on land and water resulting from the various atmospheric conditions. Special observations were made daily at the Koreshan Geodetic Operating Station in southern Florida, with the view to arriving at the facts of these various phenomena and the conditions under which they may be seen.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 13, No. 21 · 7 Apr. 1899 · PDF pp. 11–12