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The Geodetic Expedition
The Scientific and Geodetic Staff of the Koreshan Unity Enters Upon the Work of Demonstrating the Earth’s Concavity.
The time has come for the commencement of the work of demonstration of the fundamental premise of the Koreshan System; that for which thousands are now anxiously anticipating is soon to be accomplished. The Koreshan Unity has now completed all arrangements for the scientific expedition, and the operating staff, with equipment of apparatus, are now upon the Gulf coast of Florida, near Naples, where the geodetic operations are to be conducted. The work of the extension of the “air line” as the chord of arc upon the concave surface will begin ere the new year dawns upon us.
The purpose of this undertaking has been presented in past issues of The Flaming Sword; and those who have followed the reports of the experimenting staff since last August are prepared to appreciate, in a measure, the importance of the proposed surveys and the stupendous revolution that will follow the completion of the demonstrations. The work of demonstration of the earth’s concavity possesses a uniqueness peculiar to the Koreshan System; the magnitude of the undertaking assumes greater proportions as the time draws near for its commencement, and from this time forward the progress of the System will be rapid and invincible.
The staff goes South prepared to satisfactorily accomplish its mission before leaving the field. To complete the several lines of demonstrations and series of experiments, it will require at least five months of persistent effort, as the plans not only embrace the surveying of a number of “air lines,” but a score of corroborative experiments relating to the laws of refraction, optics, and visual perspective foreshortening. We have embodied in specifications of experiment, and will practically apply, in substantiation of the Koreshan Cosmogony, all the principles and methods of demonstration suggested in the writings of Koresh for the past ten years, and thus collect a volume of evidence that will be so simple and comprehensive, and yet so forcible, as to completely overthrow and revolutionize all modern scientific systems.
For this reason the staff goes equipped with sufficient apparatus not only to make the demonstrations, but also to infallibly record and exhibit the facts thus determined. The equipment of apparatus consists of the new invention, the Geodetic Rectilineator; two powerful telescopes; surveyor’s transit; micrometers; mercurial levels; a complete photographing outfit; draughting materials; and so forth. The operating and managing staff will be accompanied by an able corps of assistants, among whom are an expert surveyor, a photographer, and a sketch artist.
We are completing arrangements whereby the world will be quickly apprised of the results of all the experiments; a dozen or more of the principal dailies and journals of the world will be represented in the field of survey. We thus have before us a stupendous system of propaganda, through which the presentation of the System and the news of the startling demonstrations will be published. The reportorial staff is to be provided with every facility for illustrating and dispatching the results of our work to all the world.
Already the Geodetic Service of Koreshanity is commanding widespread attention. It is noteworthy to state that scientists are considering the specific propositions of the New Geodesy. The Founder of the System has for some time been in Washington City, where he is meeting the prominent geodesists and astronomers of America, and will no doubt accomplish a great work among them; we hope, ere the surveys are completed, to have representatives from the Geodetic Survey Department. We have upon our desk a number of lengthy articles from the principal dailies of Chicago and other large cities, giving extensive descriptions of the proposed lines of survey. For the present, we append a few brief extracts from some of the Chicago dailies.
Extract from the Times-Herald
Chicago will not be deprived of the glory which may come of the investigation, because the expedition will be headed and managed by Chicagoans, who will see that the city gets its full share of the credit. When they have succeeded in destroying the Copernican system of astronomy, in dissipating the nebular hypothesis in one of its own gases, they believe Chicago will be proud to own them.
The staff of the expedition will consist of Ulysses G. Morrow, astronomer and geodesist; Lucius M. Boomer, general director; Harrison Boomer, secretary; and George W. Hunt. The investigations will be made on the Gulf coast near Estero, Florida, another Koreshan colony, and will probably require five months. The members of this expedition hope to prove that the surface of the earth is concave instead of convex. That proposition is the basis of Dr. Teed’s new religion and astronomy, and he thinks if it can be proved that the surface is concave, it will demonstrate the truth of his contention that the inhabitants of the world are living on the inside of a hollow globe.
Mr. Morrow, who is at the head of the investigating staff, has invented an apparatus by which he hopes to determine the contour of the earth. It is a purely mechanical contrivance, so simple that every man can understand it readily, and he is pinning his faith on the outcome of the experiment. By repeating this operation 1,320 times, the line will have been extended three miles from the starting point. If the line and the earth come together, he will boldly claim it as proof that the people of the world are living inside of a hollow globe. If his work turns out as he expects, he says it will overturn all the old religions and reduce all the old sciences to rubbish.
Extract from the Chronicle
Experiments have been made by investigators under the direction of Dr. Teed for the purpose of establishing his theory. Additional experiments will be made this winter in Florida, all having for their purpose the settlement of this question in favor of the new System. A party of investigators, who believe in the Koreshan System of Cellular Cosmogony, or the concavity of the earth with the sun in the center, will leave for Florida early in December and remain for four or five months, making a series of a dozen or more experiments with the new device known as the Geodetic Rectilineator.
If they should prove successful, then the believers in this scheme hold that there will be a complete revolution in the laws of physics and the consequent overthrow of all the teachings of the old schools concerning the construction of the earth and the principles governing the people thereof. The members of the party from Chicago will be Prof. Ulysses G. Morrow, inventor of the Geodetic Rectilineator; Lucius M. Boomer; Harrison B. Boomer; George W. Hunt; and an expert surveyor, whose duty it will be to run the lines.
Extract from the Journal
For the first time in the history of the world, a mechanical test is to be made to determine the contour of the earth. The test is expected by the experimenters to revolutionize all accepted theories and prove that we live inside a hollow globe. Astronomers and geographers have taught for centuries that the earth is a sphere and that the inhabitants live on its convex surface. But there never has been a mechanical straight line run to prove the correctness of this theory. The line of vision has always been the standard.
Now Prof. Morrow has perfected an instrument which is to make the first absolute, mechanical test of all theories as to the shape of the earth. The instrument is just being completed, and an illustration of the machine is now first given to the public. He hopes to give an absolutely conclusive demonstration that he is right in his position and that the entire system of sciences built up on the ancient astronomers’ theory must be torn down and built up again.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 10, No. 12 · Dec. 1896 · PDF pp. 17–18