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Source-led transcription, lightly normalized from the cited page scans; historical claims remain attributed to The Flaming Sword.
KORESHAN COSMOGONY FOR JUNIORS Apparent Sun-Rise and Sun-Set. In fact, Old Sol Bursts Forth (£b Recedes from View T IS A FIXED law in perspective that all lines parallel each to each, vanish in the distance at the same point upon the horizon.
Take, for instance, a long row of telegraph poles.
The line of the earth in which they are set, and the line running along the tops of the poles are parallel to each other, and seem to vanish on the horizon at the same point.
Two or any num ber of tracks laid parallel, apparently vanish at one point upon the horizon.
The horizon is that line in the distance where all planes, not just lines, but planes parallel to the earth's surface, are seen to vanish.
The horizon is always opposite the eye. The plane of the earth appears to converge up ward toward it, and all planes above the plane of the eye or visual axis converge downward toward it.
These planes vanish because the angle at which the furthermost visible borders of the earth's plane enters the eye, is so sharp the eye can scarcely record what is there.
Our sense of sight fails at the horizon or plane of the eye because there is no longer an angle; the axis of the eye and the horizon are opposite.
Any plane above the horizon eventually converges downward toward the earth's plane, and to all appearances becomes part of the horizon.
If we take a more elevated position, that which was the horizon when we were standing ou the earth's level is very distinctly seen, and the earth's surface beyond the first horizon is seen from the elevated point for some distance further.
The greater the elevation, the greater the distance the second horizon is formed be yond the first.
On the other hand, if we remain on the earth's level, and a plane above us is extended as far as the horizon, it continues to appear above the level of the eye and above the horizon, until it has receded sufficiently far from us, to enter the eye just as directly as the horizon does.
It then becomes obliterated so far as our sight is concerned. The ship's mast is an instance of this.
The plane of the top of the mast, while parallel to the earth, does not disappear as quickly as the earth's surface, but is found above the earth's horizon line, as is exemplified by seeing the mast above the horizon.
As the ship recedes, the plane of the mast eventually lowers until the top of the mast becomes level with the earth's horizon, and the ship is no longer seen.
The plane has vanished, to all appearances, at the horizon of the earth's plane. Had a solid row of ships masts, the same height as the one seen at the horizon, been placed after the first ship, the result would be the same; the farthest ones would appear smaller and smaller, until the angle became identical with the axis of the eye.
In the Cellular Cosmogony, the rising and setting of the sun are explained by perspective foreshortening.
The convexity of the heavens is parallel at all points to the con cavity of the earth's surface.
The convex surface of a small ball centrally located within a larger hollow ball, is parallel to the concave surface of the larger ball at every I
point. A yolk within an egg is nearly so. The visible sun has its orbit around the heavens.
This orbit is then parallel to the concave surface of the earth. Suppose it is twelve at noon; the sun would be directly over us.
Its movement as it receded from us would be upward around the convexity of the heavens, while its appearauce is downward until it seems to drop below the horizon.
It is all due to the princi ple of perspective just described—the vanishing of planes parallel to the earth's plane, at the horizon, or beyond it, which to all appearances is the same.
When the lower edge of the sun at setting has touched the horizon, it is because the plane at the lowest point of the sun has reached the point in the distance that brings it in line with the earth's horizon line, and causes it to become obscured.
While the sun is sinking it is really getting further away, until the plane of the top of the sun has also come in line with the horizon, or fallen in line behind it.
In the morning, when the sun travels down toward us on the convex arc of the heavens, the appearance is reversed. The plane of the top point of the sun conies into view first; when the sun is apparently rising it is actually coming toward us, until the plane of the lower point has become apparent at the horizon, and it is all in view over the hori zon.
The plane of the bottom or the top of the sun in creases and increases in height as the sun comes toward us, just as the lines at the top of the telegraph poles do. as they approach the observer.
There are many other points to consider in the phenomena of sunrise and sunset, but the law of perspective foreshortening is the first and most im portant principle to grasp before going into further detail.
<*> Claims Sound Can Be Seen Before It Is Audible Curious phenomena have been witnessed lately by Prof.
Matteucci at Vesuvius, and later at Mount Etna, which seem to prove that under certain conditions we can actually see sounds a perceptible second before we hear theni.
According to Prof. Matteucci, sound, which is propagated as we all know by waves of air alternately compressed and expanded, becomes visible to the eye by a refraction of light before it is audible to the ear, whenever these same waves of air are of different densities.
One phenomenon which he has observed many times is that of Vesuvius, working itself up into an eruption on a large scale by quick paroxysms, shooting out quantities of old and new lava at the rate of one projection a second.
Sharp and sudden and rapid as they are, before they could be actually grasped by the sense, a thin, luminous arc could be seen flash ing upward and outward from the crater and disappearing immediately in space.
Then almost instantaneously there would follow the sound of explosion and the projection of gas and debris from the lip of the crater.
The same thing was noticeable at Etna. Prof. Matteucci insists that these are visible sound waves, and other scientists are studying the question and its possibili ties and hoping to enlarge upon it.— Chicago Tribune.
¥T APPEARS somewhat childish of Professor Matteucci to maintain that a sound can be seen. However, when we pause to consider that our optical and auricular organs are limited in their powers of perception, or sensitiveness,
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If our senses were keyed to greater sensitiveness, we would probably realize this relation much more keenly. Anything on so huge a scale as the sight and sound of a volcanic eruption, is reasonably gross enough to disclose an existing relation to even the limited perceptions of our visual and auricular senses.
We may be thankful that we hear and see no more than we do of the universal functions. Between the central sun and the earth's crust there is a constant interchange of energies.
The destruction and materialization of matter, and innumerable invisible forces are all at work within the gigantic electro-magnetic battery or cosmic cell.
Suppose we could see and hear every vapor and com bustion necessarily attendant upon the tremendous activities of cosmic life!
Our nerves would have to be reorganized to undergo the strain. How annoying to hear the evaporation of water, or see the vapors of dematerializing vegetation floating about.
Prophylactic enclosures would be in demand. Below is a clipping, taken from the Chicago Tribune, giving au account of an instrument by which the blind can hear the light of the sun and the moon: It seems a rather fantastic notion to imagine the blind as hearing the "sound" of moonlight, but such a thing is entirely possible, says the inventor of the optophone.
By this instru ment, which is a small camera-like box, a blind man, with this in his hand, can locate the window in his room, and tell the number of people passing between him and the window.
He can also hear the moon as well as the sun, from the different sounds they make.
The principle seems to be that if the optophone is pointed at the light, it causes the instrument to produce a sound which is transmitted by a sensitive receiver of the type used in the telephone.
Sfte "Song of the Shirt" "fXTITH fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags, Plying her needle and thread— Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt, And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, ■She sang the "Song of the Shirt. " "Work! work! work!
While the cock is crowing aloof! And work—work—work, Till the stars shine through the roof!
It's oh! to be a slave Along with the barbarous Turk, Where a woman has never a soul to save,
If this is Christian work! "Work—work— work, Till the brain begins to swim; Work—work—work,
Till the eyes are heavy and dim! , Seam, and gusset, and band,
Band, and gusset, and seam, Till over the buttons I fall asleep,
"But why do I talk of death? That phantom of grisly bone; I hardly fear his terrible shape,
It seems so like my own; It seems so like my own, Because of the fasts I keep; Oh God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap! "Work—work—work, In the dull December light,
And work— work—work, When the weather is warm and bright; While underneath the eave,
The brooding swallows cling, As if to show me their sunny backs And twit me with the spring. "Oh! but to breathe the breath Of the cowslip and primrose sweet— With the sky above my head,
And the grass beneath my feet! For only one short hour To feel as I used to feel,
Before I knew the woes of want, And the walk that costs a meal! "Oh, but for one short hour!
A respite, however brief! No blessed leisure for love or hope, But only time for grief!
A little weeping would ease my heart, But in their briny bed My tears must stop, for ev'ry drop Hinders needle and thread ! "
With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread— Stitch! stitch! stitch! In poverty, hunger and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch— Would that its tone could reach the rich— She sang this "Song of the Shirt!" — Thomas Hood.
S*/>e Artists' Plea ' |~HE "Song of the Shirt" is a remarkable composition, and to have it voiced in song by no less an artist than Mme. Jeanne Jomelli, in Carnegie Hall, New York City, is yet more remarkable.
Her clear, high, dramatic soprano is well suited to bring the spectacle of this wronged creature of humanity home to the heart of every offender.
Many of the very best actors, musicians, and artists, it is encouraging to see, are found more than willing to lend their talents to efforts that decry the wrongs of social condi tions.
No less an artist than John W. Alexander, took occasion recently to say, that it was his fondest hope that the influence of true art, which he expected to see furthered in America, would eventually be brought to bear upon the righting of the present lamentable social conditions.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 27, No. 3 · Mar 1913 · PDF pp. 14-15