Extracted text
‘‘What proof have you that the lines of vision are curved? I ask your kind assistance that I may comprehend the following: If the moon is a reflection from the metallic strata constituting the shell of the earth, please explain how rays of light penetrate the opaque substances between the strata and the surface. I am asking these questions for my own information on this most interesting subject, and would be grateful for reply.’’
The idea that rays of light are straight in a universe containing atmospheres—that is, spheres of air, the strata of which are in themselves curved—is on a par with the old idea that an object once set in motion would continue forever in a straight line unless acted upon by some force to change its course or stop its motion. The medium of transmission of light, so far as we see it, is our common air; and as its planes or strata are not flat, rays of light and vision are not straight. The paths or lines of radiation are in the direction of least resistance.
But the atmosphere itself is but one of several factors which have to do with the various phenomena of the heavens and the horizon. Perspective and geolinear foreshortening operate to produce apparent displacement of position of objects seen in the earth and sky. We may illustrate: Alongside a railway track, perfectly straight for a long distance, place a tube with center aperture and cross-hair (or a transit instrument will answer) so that the tube is perfectly parallel with the rail, and at a distance of about eight or ten inches. At intervals of every hundred yards or so, place horizontal projections across the rail so that they may appear to project to the perpendicular cross-hair. If, then, measurements be made of the length of the projections, they will be found to elongate in proportion to the distance from the point of observation. This is because perspective has operated on the side of the rail, causing the visual lines to curve away from the straight rail.
We may know positively that the visual lines curve, by referring them directly to the surface of the earth. Through a leveled transit instrument, read a point on the staff some distance away—say one mile. If both the transit instrument and the staff be referred to the same piece of still water, it will be found that the point read on the staff is higher than the center of the tube of the instrument, to the extent of five to seven inches.
The ordinary way is to suppose that the lines of vision are straight, and that the earth curves downward from the straight line of sight. Thus the idea of the earth’s convexity is founded upon a guess. First demonstrate the direction of the earth's curvature, and a foundation is laid not only for astronomy, but for physics, and all other branches of science. By the same methods which surveyors employ to ‘‘prove’’ the earth’s convexity, we may show that a straight bar curves four different ways at the same time!
A very graphic form of demonstration of the curvation of the rays of light in our atmosphere is found in the appearance of the tails of comets. Comets are within our sea of air when visible. They are produced by the sunlight passing through the head or lens of the comet; the tail of a comet is the luminous trail of the light after leaving the lens. The tail is often curved, and is always turned away from the sun. Comets are rarely visible, but excellent photographs of them appear in text-books on astronomy.
Concerning the transmission of the substance of light through the crust of the earth, it has been conclusively shown by means of the X-ray, that apparently opaque objects may be penetrated—even by the vision, when the X-ray is used. Even photographs are taken through what is termed opaque substances. Long before the X-ray was discovered, the ultra-penetrable ray found place in the Koreshan Cosmogony.
We see the planets, the mercurial discs in the shell of the earth, by the universal X-ray, as directed from the discs to the planes of energy in the sky. We look against the planetary mirrors in the sky and see the discs in the earth. Correspondingly, we are enabled to see the earth from the outside, as it were, in the earth’s lunar picture in the sky, by means of the ultra-penetrable rays. They are much more powerful than can ever be made artificially, and are so refined as to pass through materials without obstruction.
Editorial transcription checked against the cited scans; historical claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 19, No. 39 · Mar 6, 1906 · PDF p. 12