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 EARTH appears to be flat, and the sun appears to rise until directly overhead, and then descend lower and lower until it sets. Does investigation justify us in accepting these appearances as demonstrable facts? No; on the contrary, the earth upon which we dwell has been sufficiently explored to establish the knowledge of its rotundity; it has been repeatedly circumnavigated from many points. The direction of the curvature of the earth's surface has not been so thoroughly investigated, for conclusions are reached upon appearances merely, in regard to direction of curvature, instead of upon careful, mechanical tests.
A ship sailing out to sea appears to vanish from our view hull first and mast last; hence it is concluded that the ship has gone over a convex bulge and is gradually hidden, hull first, by that bulge, from our view. This conclusion is further borne out in its apparent correctness, when the spectator of the vanished ship ascends to an altitude sufficiently above the supposed intervening convex bulge, and again views the receding vessel, hull and mast. From this higher point the spectator again observes the ship vanish, hull first and mast last, as it continues to recede from view. It would seem reasonable to conclude that the earth curves convexly, having made this observation. The spectator could ascend to a greater elevation, as many feet higher as the bulge had increased in height, and still behold the ship. If his vision failed to discern the vessel from the more elevated position, he could see the vessel again, hull and all, by the use of a telescope. But what is one to conclude if, by the aid of a good telescope, the ship can be brought to view at either of the lower elevations, after it has vanished? When it is known by mathematical calculation that a ship at a certain distance would be behind a bulge of a certain height, what are we to think when it can be brought into view with a telescope? Can an observer with telescope penetrate the body of water obstructing the view? Should the convex theory be accepted as a fact when so apparent an objection to it is known?
Optics becomes a factor in explaining the appearance of the vanishing ship. The powers and peculiarities of the eye of the observer must be known, to understand why the ship disappears hull first. The imprint of the ship or any object is reversed or pictured upside down upon the retinal coat of the eye. The hull and surface of the water on which it rests reach the vanishing point, or point of obliteration, in the eye, before the mast and nearer surface of the water do.
The earth being round, there is but one other way for it to curve, and that is concavely. Where, then, are the sun, moon, and stars to find an abode, within a hollow globe only 8,000 miles in diameter? The sun is said to be 92,000,000 miles away. How, then, can it be brought within the environing walls of the earth, which measures only 25,000 miles in circumference? How can a ship be brought to view after it has receded behind the bulge of the supposed convexly curving surface of the earth? When the last question has been answered, the first can be satisfactorily explained.
Koresh, the discoverer of the concavity of the earth, declared the earth to be cellular, on the basis that all life is cellular; therefore, universal life must also be cellular. The universe is a great egg. A mechanical test of the accuracy of this declaration has also been made. By running a line at right angles to a perpendicular, namely, a perfectly straight line, regardless of the earth's curvature, the direction of curvature can be and has been ascertained. If convex, then the earth's surface would curve away from the straight line; but if concave, the line would touch the earth's surface at a distance proportionate to the height of the perpendicular from which the line was extended.
Many of the truths of the concave theory are derived through correspondential analogy, for the universe is like man in his least and greatest form. The macrocosm (great universe) is the earth or great physical universe, the one in which we dwell; and the microcosm (little universe) is man. The biologic universe is humanity, regarded as the great or Grand Man. There is a correspondence between the three, which a careful study of each reveals.
The center of the physical universe is the sun; it radiates heat, light, and many other qualities to the circumference, where they materialize as substances, as each reaches its specific degree of gravity from the sun. The sun is re-supplied by an inflow of energies from the circumferences, something as the heart of the body receives and distributes the blood. The sun has a light and a dark side, and revolves once in every twenty-four hours, thereby causing night and day. It has other movements also, whereby other phenomena are explained; as, for instance, a spiral motion from north to south, which causes the seasons.
We do not see the central sun, owing to the fact that our vision cannot penetrate the atmospheres that surround it. The sun that we observe is a projected focalization of the central sun. Immediately surrounding the central sun is a sea of aboron, and upon the outer surface of this is a projected image of the sun. The rays from this projection are refracted and brought to another focalization on the outer surface of the sea of hydrogen, and that is the sun we see. The central sun is a focalization of forces emanating from the circumferences of the universe, and as its rays proceed from it, they carry all known substances back to the circumferences to be rematerialized. At the time a substance in a ray reaches its rest plane and materializes, that part which belongs to a lower plane penetrates the first mentioned plane, and proceeds to its own. Each constructive or productive ray is accompanied by a destructive one. The old and effete matter, for example, in the strata of iron, is thereby destroyed and carried off as waste in the mercurial amalgam passing between the metallic plates in the earth's crust.
The heavens, including the projected visible sun, the moon, planets, and stars, are about 900 miles above the earth. The heavens are a convex globe within the concave earth. The sphere of the heavens revolves once in every twenty-four hours, and its equator and poles are directly above those in the earth. If one stands at the equator, the entire field of the heavens is visible within twenty-four hours' time. If one travels 1° north, the north pole of the heavens appears 1° in altitude. Polaris, the north star, would then be scarcely visible on the horizon to a person 1° north of the equator. At 26° north latitude, Polaris is seen at 26° altitude in the northern sky. Traveling south of the equator, Sigma Octanis, the telescope star near the south pole, could be brought to view. To those living north of the equator the invisible part of the southern sky is called the occult.
While the sphere of the heavens is really convex it appears to be concave. When the sun appears to rise, it is really coming down, or just coming into view around the convex bulge of the heavens. The phenomenon is explained by perspective foreshortening, where again, optics is a factor to be considered in explaining cosmogonical phenomena. If a light were placed at the vanishing point of a very high fence, it would appear to be where the top and bottom of the fence seem to meet in the distance. One could not be sure whether the light were at the top or the bottom of the fence. If the light were moved along the top of the fence toward the observer, it would appear to rise higher and higher from the ground, or bottom of the fence. Now, suppose the earth's surface and the field of the heavens represent the top and the bottom of a very high fence, and the sun, the light at the top of the fence. Is it any wonder, then, that it appears to rise from the ground and reach a great height overhead, where it is in practically the same conditions as those attending the light on the smaller fence? It is "all in the eye," and we must not judge by appearances altogether. A good mechanical test of the direction of the curvature of the earth's surface is the surest and best method in arriving at a correct solution.
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The source scans remain the record. This page preserves the periodical's argument and reported observations without presenting its conclusions as independently established results. The claims remain attributed to The Flaming Sword.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 25, No. 9 · Sep 1911 · PDF pp. 18-19