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.
THE EDITOR.
Koreshan Astronomy Comports With Facts.
Editor Flaming Sword:—I understand that the path of the visible sun, according to Koreshanity, for 20 minutes or any other given length of time, is a part of a circle, and that a line connecting two points 20 minutes apart in time of travel, would be a straight line, and not as long as the 20-minute arc; but I also know that in large calculations very small differences may be ignored without appreciable error. Again, in measuring the angle made by the sun in a travel of 20 minutes, at the focal point of observation, it makes no difference whether the line of sight to the luminary is curved or straight, providing the curved and straight lines are in the same plane. Noting these exceptions, I accept your statements with regard to the curved lines. Whilst I think of it, let me note that my simple little instrument has one advantage over the most costly: It gives the angle, and by similarity of triangles, it gives the proportionate distances.
Now for the pseudoscope. Was it invented for this particular emergency? Now see if I do not reason correctly from the standpoint of the pseudoscope. The visible sun when on the equator travels more miles in 20 minutes than when on Cancer or Capricorn; but the angles at the central sun made by lines drawn from it to the points occupied by the visible sun, 20 minutes apart on the tropics and on the equator, are precisely the same; and these angles are precisely reduplicated by lines drawn from the gnomon to the points on the pseudoscope dome. Hence in the instrument, the distance traveled by the shadow should be precisely the same when the visible sun is on the equator as on the tropics.
The facts are, that on June 22 the instrument measured, as the 20-minute angle, 3.38 inches; March 22, 3.63; September 22, 3.745; and December 18, 3.35 inches. Your statements, as I understand them, mean that the 20-minute arcs subtend from the central sun precisely the same angle, and that this angle is reproduced to the observer of the pseudoscopic dome. Hence, to the observer the sun will apparently travel precisely the same distance in 20 minutes on the equator as on the tropics; it being understood that observations are taken 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after noon. Your pseudoscope says equal distances; the facts as above say 3.38, 3.63, 3.745, and 3.35 respectively.—M. S. M., South Elgin, Ill.
Our correspondent has devised a unique and original method of testing the angle subtended by the sun's movement in arcs of 20 minutes' time on the tropics and on the equator. If they are accurate, they are of value; they are at least entitled to consideration and analysis. From the basis of calculation, we accept the facts of observation noted above as approximately correct. They are in no way contrary to the Koreshan Cosmogony; they are not only very readily explained, but very easily shown to be out of harmony with the accepted system of astronomy.
Several weeks ago, we promised to answer all the questions which have grown out of our correspondent's series of experiments, which has covered a period of a year or more. Suggestion was made that observations of the sun's altitude at different times during the year, and of the 20-minute angles referred to, seemed to militate against the Koreshan conclusions. In an article several weeks since, we discussed the subject in a general way, with the view to showing that when the factors which apparently reverse the relief of the physical heavens were taken into consideration, the objections were easily removed. In the general treatment of the subject we did not enter into detail of the finer measurements made. We now consider them and complete our reply to the entire series of questions propounded.
The illustration of the pseudoscope was not an invention to suit the occasion of our reply. The pseudoscope was invented by Wheatstone, of England, many years ago. It is an optical instrument, well known in optics and physics. Our reference to it was entirely regular. If we readily present so many illustrations, corroborations, and evidences of the truth of the Koreshan conclusions, it is because the System is so true that every fact fits in it without inharmony.
Our correspondent has not reasoned correctly concerning the angle subtended at the central sun by the arcs of 20 minutes in length on the equator and the tropics. 20 minutes of time is equal to 5°. Inasmuch as the circumference of either tropic is not as great as the circumference of the equator, and inasmuch as the tropics do not lie in the same plane as the equator, it follows that an arc of 5° on Cancer or Capricorn cannot possibly be as long as 5° on the equator, and therefore cannot subtend as large an angle at a central point in the plane of the equator.
Start two imaginary radii of the heavens in the plane of any two meridians 20 minutes apart, at the equator, and move them toward the pole. As the two radii leave the equator they approach more and more, until at the polar points they unite. If the circumference of the heavens be considered as 19,276 miles, 5° on the equator is an arc 267.5 miles in length; and 5° on Cancer or Capricorn is an arc 248.6 miles in length. Now if 248.6 miles are equal to 267.5 miles, then the two arcs subtend the same angle at the center of the equatorial plane.
We must measure the 20-minute angles at the central point. 5° on the equator constitute an arc which, if laid on either tropic, would cover 5.75° of the lesser circumferences; but 5.75° on either tropic would represent 23 minutes of time; and 20 minutes of time as measured on a tropic subtends an angle of only 4.66° on the equator. These angles are reproduced in the reversal of the relief of the sphere of the heavens, and are observed from the central point of observation, and, of course, manifested in the instrument by means of the shadow. If the sun moves 5° in 20 minutes of time when on the equator, it moves only 4.66 such degrees in the same time when on the northern tropic. Therefore, if the angle of 5 equatorial degrees measures 3.63 inches in the instrument, we can translate 4.66° into inches also, as follows: 5° are to 3.63 inches as 4.66° are to 3.38 inches. This calculation gives the same result as those obtained by the processes of measurement on March 22 and June 22 respectively.
If the heavens were perfectly spherical, and if the sun's annual motion (that is, from west to east about 1° per day) were uniform, the proportion of relation of arcs on the equator and on the southern tropic would be the same as those obtained in the preceding calculation. The slight discrepancy is due, first, to probable slight error in measurement; second, the sun's motion in its annual orbit is not uniform—apparent solar time alternately differing from mean solar time to the extent of 15 minutes fast to 16 minutes slow—therefore the hour angles differ accordingly, and therefore there would be a slight difference between the 20-minute angles on the two tropics; and third, because the heavens are not perfectly spherical, but slightly oval, the greatest diameter being between the celestial poles.
Thus the arc of any celestial meridian is slightly elliptical, and the apparent dome of the heavens is slightly flattened; and thus by measurement of angles on the tropics—3.38 and 3.35 inches respectively, as indicated in the instrument, the apparent flattening of the dome, would place, to all intents and purposes, the apparent position of the sun about one one-hundred-and-twelfth farther away on Capricorn than when on Cancer. This would make the 20-minute angle on December 18 a little less than that obtained on June 22.
Now what do the above facts prove? Why, first, that the sun actually moves on a larger circumference on the equator than on the tropics; therefore the heavens are practically spherical, not an infinity of space; second, that the heavens revolve, not the earth; and third, that the Koreshan System fits the facts of observation. We affirm that if the earth rotated on its axis every 24 hours, 92,000,000 miles from a comparatively stationary sun, and observations were taken from one point, as were the above, the measured angles in the instrument would be the same for every day of the year because if the earth rotated diurnally, there could be no variation in such motion. Sidereal time is absolutely uniform.
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The source scans remain the record. This page preserves the periodical's text as an editorial transcription; its claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 16, No. 31 · Jun 20, 1902 · PDF pp. 13-14