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Editorial transcription, lightly normalized from the direct scans. Line-wrap hyphenation, spacing, capitalization, and unmistakable OCR scars have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
Our Geodetic Staff started out having in view the mechanical experiments essential to the demonstration of the Cellular Cosmogony. Associated with the Staff was a gentleman—if we may apply the term—whose sole purpose, according to his own statements, was to discredit our work and to neutralize it to the extent of his ability to do so. He was employed to assist the Staff regardless of any preconceived opinion. In the first trial for the purpose of testing the accuracy of the Rectilineator in a distance of 456 feet, the line deviated forty-eight one hundredths of an inch from a direct course. This was after the instrument had been transported from Chicago to Southern Florida, and before it had been subjected to critical tests for its final application. This slight discrepancy was the occasion for the gentleman in question to bring into requisition an array of mathematical sophistry to discourage some of the members of the Staff who were not thoroughly grounded in the conviction of our truth. It is not surprising that when the time approaches for the overthrow of the modern foundation for all the opposition to the truths of the Jewish and the Christian church, the devil should be present to thwart, if possible, the application of the principles of truth. Once overthrow modern astronomy and chemistry, and the "higher criticism," which is practically atheism, has lost that upon which it predicates its argument against the plenary inspiration of the Bible.
We herewith subjoin a report from Prof. Morrow, of experiments and observations made on the Gulf coast and the Bay of Naples, by our Geodetic Staff. Not only is this report very interesting, but the results must forever settle the question in the rational mind, of the contour of the surface of the earth.
Remarkable Observations by Experimenting Staff on the Gulf of Mexico and the Naples Bay, Florida.
The objection has been so often urged by illogical critics, that tests upon inland waters were not satisfactory, that it was decided that observations be made upon the Gulf itself, the conformity of which to the contour of the earth no sane mind will question. Against the results of such observations no subterfuge can be brought to bear. For this reason also, the "air line" will be surveyed upon the Gulf coast.
Six and one half miles lie between the points of the main land extending into the Gulf at Gordon's and Doctor's Passes. These points are long sand-bars, the elevation of which is equal to the high tide of the Gulf. On the point at Doctor's Pass a large target 3½ feet square was fixed upon supports; the top of the target was just 5 feet above low tide. On March 2, the mounted telescope was taken to Gordon's Pass, and the visual axis of the instrument was fixed at an elevation of 3½ feet above low tide. At this altitude above the low tide level all of the surface of the target was visible, and the white line of the sandy beach lying beneath it was distinct. No convexity was observable at this elevation.
On the morning of March 3, at a time when the Gulf was calm, the observation was repeated. Also with the telescope fixed 2 feet above the water level, the target was still visible; the same at 18 inches, and finally, by reclining at the water's edge, with the axis of the instrument 12 inches above the water's surface, the target was still in view. Under the conditions of the last observation, if the water were convex, the horizon would be only 1¼ miles distant, leaving 5¼ miles of the surface of the Gulf to decline downwards, amounting to 18⅓ feet. As the target was only 5 feet above the low tide water level, it would be 13⅓ feet below the line of vision. After deducting nearly one seventh of this declination to make up for the usual allowance for refraction, 11⅓ feet would remain as the amount of depression of the target below a line extending through the visual axis of the telescope over the horizon to the distance, of 5¼ miles beyond the horizon. All of these observations were repeated in the afternoon, with the same results.
Experiments on Naples Bay.
A straight reach of 4½ miles was found upon the smooth waters of Naples Bay. At the most southern extremity, a target of white cloth 20×30 inches was fixed upon an upright with cross-arms; the top of the target stood 2 feet above the high-tide mark, leaving a space of 4 or 5 inches to the water's surface. On March 4, at time of high tide, the Experimenting Staff sailed to the farthest point northeast from which the target could be seen with the telescope. To the naked eye the target was entirely invisible. The horizon seemed to occult the lower limbs of the belt of mangrove trees constituting the background of the views.
In the water at the point of observation, the telescope was fixed at an altitude of 30 inches above the water, and through it the target stood out in bold relief. The instrument was then lowered to within 18 inches, with the same observed results. Afterwards at the height of 10 inches above the water, the entire surface of the target was still visible. Very careful observations were made and repeated with the telescope at this altitude. The target was clear cut and well defined, and the space between the bottom of the target and the water was even observable. Then, to make the test absolutely satisfactory and conclusive, the telescope was fixed upon the water's surface; with the instrument almost touching the water—indeed, it could not be placed closer without wetting the lenses—long and careful observations were made. There could be no mistake: the entire surface of the target could be seen, standing yet with a small dark line of the background beneath it. The terrestrial eyepiece was then exchanged for the astronomical eyepiece of greater power. The target was increased in size, and the relations of the target and the water's surface and the background came out still more noticeably. The object glass is 3 inches in diameter. The axis of the telescope was 2 inches above the water. On the basis of convexity, the horizon would be but one half mile away—for the declination for one half mile is considered to be 2 inches—leaving 4 miles of surface to decline from the horizon point, amounting to 10¾ feet. The target would have to be higher than 10¾ feet above the water in order to be seen; as it was at an altitude of only 2 feet, it would be 8¾ feet below the line of sight.
Water's Concavity Visible.
These are by far the most satisfactory observations made by the Experimenting Staff, because the tests were more crucial. The results were conclusive, as they afforded an ocular demonstration of the earth's concavity. A stake 2 feet in height was placed midway between the experimenting station and the target with cross-bar at top of stake. With the telescope at same altitude, the cross-bar was observed to be a little below the top of the target, with the target foreshortened by perspective to a breadth equal to above one half the length of the stake. With the visual axis of the telescope 2 inches above the water, the cross-bar was seen to be in line with the top of the target.
Besides this observation, an absolutely satisfactory view was had of the water's surface itself. With the telescope placed absolutely level, the water appeared to slope gradually upwards to the center of the telescopic field. With the objective end of the telescope placed a little upwards from the true level, and with the water still visible near the objective end of the instrument, the actual concavity of the water—a midway depression—was clearly observable. This midway depression was at the point of the stake with cross-bar, midway between the point of observation and the target, from which midway depression there was a gradual slope upwards to the target. This view was obtained by the long terrestrial eyepiece and also by the astronomical eyepiece, the concavity through the latter being the more marked. There could be no mistake as to the concave arc; the water was seen to be not convex; it did not appear to be a plane, but concave!
It will be found from reports in other columns, that the Rectilineator was verified and adjusted until it was made to traverse a distance of 228 feet, returning over the same line and distance and meeting the hair-line from which the line started. The civil engineer who was to work with the Staff until the experiment was completed (he having entered into a contract to remain until the experiments were completed), jumped at an unwarrantable conclusion from the first testing experiment. He entered the claim that if there was a deviation from a rectiline of eighty-one millionths of an inch at the end of the first section (12 feet), at the distance of three miles the departure would embrace more than the space of the distance of the curvation from the tangent claimed by the advocates of the convex theory. He never stopped to think of the overwhelming fatality of his argument to his own (which is the Copernican) system of astronomy.
We not only declare that the civil engineer in question determined to circumvent the efforts of the Staff, but we have the proofs of the fact in his own writing under his own signature. He did not intend to perform this feat honestly, for we cannot believe that he is altogether ignorant of the fact that a deflection from a tangent in a straight divergent line is a very different problem from a divergent curve from a tangent in the line of an arc having a specific amplitude of curvation. A divergent straight line from a horizontal which at the end of one twelfth of a mile has departed from the horizontal even fifteen one hundredths of an inch, could only depart twelve times fifteen one hundredths of an inch at the distance of one mile, which would be about two inches,—this being about six inches in a distance of three miles. This would have been close enough for any practical purpose, but it will be seen by the reports that this discrepancy was overcome and the instrument was proven to be absolutely perfect. Our instrument embodies all the principles necessary to overthrow the assumptions of the modern astronomers. No doubt of the results of extending a straight horizontal line into the earth at two directions from a perpendicular post has ever offered itself since we first demonstrated to ourselves, by other methods, the fact of the concavity of the earth.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 11, No. 3 · Mar 1897 · PDF pp. 12-13