Extracted text
Editorial transcription, lightly normalized from the scan. Line-break hyphenation, spacing, capitalization, and unmistakable OCR errors have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
EDITORIAL DISCUSSIONS, CHATS, AND CORRESPONDENCE.
FLORIDA SURVEY, METEORS, GRAVITATION, AND SHIPS' HULLS.
A neighbor of mine told me yesterday that he stood on Newport wharf, which is 30 feet above the water level, and saw the hull of the steamer Santa Rosa when the steamer was on the other side of Catalina island; which island is about 20 miles from Newport at its nearest point; so that the steamer was probably 30 miles away. But according to the convex idea, the boat would be far below the observer's eye even had she been in this side of the island and close to it.
Our local astronomers account for these facts on the ground that they were seen by a mirage. Mirages must be of frequent occurrence here, as these facts can be duplicated almost any clear day!
(5) In mirages at sea, do the objects seen always appear double, or inverted? I have never heard of a single case here where the vessels were seen inverted or double.
Of course, Mr. Editor, I know that you must have threshed these questions over many times; but you must have many new readers who are puzzled by their questions, and who will be thankful to have them again explained.—D. EDSON SMITH, Cal.
(I) This and similar objections to the Florida experiments are specifically answered in the "Echoes of the Geodetic Survey" in the CELLULAR COSMOGONY. Strange that the subjective mind of the other side does not lead them to do something in favor of the theory of the earth's convexity, in refutation of what our subjective mind has accomplished; the people have waited 400 years for proofs of the Copernican astronomy, and haven't had one! Don't you think that they have waited long enough?
(2) Ferruginous and metallic substances are condensed and materialized through the action of the energies of cold in the upper strata of the earth's atmosphere, in the same way that snow and hail are formed in the lower strata. Meteors, bolides, and aerolites are precipitated from high altitudes of strata of atmosphere. They are composed of the kinds of substances which are in combustion in the stars; but spectroscopic analysis discovers to the astronomer no substances that are not known to exist in the earth. No substance foreign to the earth has ever descended from the sky. All of the energies of the heavens are derived from dematerialization of matter contained in the earth's shell; and necessarily precipitate and materialize the same substances again.
(3) The facts of the mutual attraction of material bodies are not derived from the theory of Newton; these facts existed long before Newton spun his threads of fallacy that tied his planets to the sun. Newton's "gravitation" is now being materially changed or rejected by many modern astronomers. All material substances left free and unsupported, do not descend. The balloon rises, the feather descends. The balloon is filled with hydrogen, which is material, and which is attracted, not toward the earth, but toward the sea of hydrogen; and it rises because it seeks its own static plane, and not because something heavier beneath it is pushing it up!
We are familiar with all the phenomena of falling bodies; we do not deny the facts of the experiments of Airy, Foucault, and others, showing mutual attraction of bodies upon the earth. Every material body is surrounded by an aura of radiating energies which it generates; two bodies placed so their enswathements merge into each other, are mutually acted upon by their energies and are thus attracted; the attraction increases as the bodies approach each other. The same is true of bodies above and attracted by the earth; in falling they increase in speed as the attractive force increases. Gravitation, as applied to such attraction, is a simple problem in alchemy; the subtle electro magnetisms generated through molecular activities in the bodies gravitating toward each other, are converted to energies of motion which move the body offering the least resistance in the direction of the newly generated impulse; in the case of the earth's attraction, the currents are modified or refracted by large bodies, such as a mountain, or the sides of a well or building.
(4) Strange that there should be so many mirages after the publication of the CELLULAR COSMOGONY! On either sea or land, objects seen in a mirage are inverted. Take the meaning of the word for instance; it means a mirror. The mirror in a mirage is a stratum of heated atmosphere above the observer, which acts as a reflector, in which is seen the images of the objects beneath it. In such case, if the objects themselves are visible this side of the horizon, the real and the image will both be seen, the image inverted. If the objects are invisible beyond the horizon, nothing will be seen but the inverted image. There are other phenomena connected with objects viewed through heated strata, but they are not mirages; neither are they seen where there is a clearly defined horizon and vessels. If the objects are clear cut at long distances, the conditions are good and normal for such observations; then there is no possibility of mirages, or of blurring and distorting refractions.
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