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.
"In a talk with one to whom I had previously spoken regarding the earth's concavity, I was told that he had been informed by an astronomer, that with such a magnifying power as that possessed by the telescope in the Lick Observatory, we should look eastward and see New York, or westward and see Chicago, if the concave theory be true. I gave him an answer, but I am in doubt as to its correctness."
The fact that the modern scientific world utterly ignores the principles of perspective and geolinear foreshortening in all their observations and surveys, is a demonstration of the Koreshan declaration that the astronomers do not know enough about the actual processes of visual perception to accurately define all the principles which enter into the apparent enlargement of objects viewed through the telescope. The astronomer thinks he sees trillions of miles into space, because the theory to which he adheres forces him to conclude that the most immense distances imaginable exist between the place of observation and the stellar points which dot the sky. He must therefore conclude that his telescope is a most marvelous instrument, endowed with a magical power of penetration into the "infinite depths." The universe has no such dimensions—or lack of dimensions; and the so called penetrating power of the telescope is all in the ignorant imagination!
The astronomer thinks that if the earth is concave, we should be able to observe what men are doing on all the streets of the great cities of a hemisphere. He is so used to making assumptions that when he wishes to urge an argument against the Koreshan System he must make yet another assumption, for the previous stock might not seem to meet the issue. The astronomer coming in contact with the Koreshan System for the first time considers himself able to define what would be the conditions in a concave earth if it existed—while on numerous points in relation to his own system he is yet in doubt, after years of study of the conclusions of generations of men; for there he meets hundreds of unsolved problems.
Let us reverse the picture: If the earth were convex it would be physically impossible, even with a telescope of the highest power, to observe objects on the water at such distances as would place the objects below the light of the sight of the unaided eye, over the convex bulge or hill of water—for it is obvious that the telescope could neither enable us to look "around" the bulge nor see through it. Now, this is not a mere conception of our own, for Proctor freely admitted that if objects could be seen at such great distances with the objects and the telescope near the water line, it would prove that there was something wrong with the accepted theory of the earth's convexity. We know from actual observation that objects on the water, such as ship's hulls, targets, points of land, etc., not only may be seen at long distances under these conditions, but much greater distances than would be at all possible on an earth curving convexly eight inches to the mile. The restoration of the ship's hull after it has disappeared to the naked eye, is an ocular demonstration of the earth's non-convexity.
Vision by means of a telescope over the earth's surface is as much subject to the operation of the laws and principles of perspective and geolinear foreshortening as is the unaided vision. It is by virtue of the apparent contraction of the earth's surface in the distance, in proportion to the altitude of the observer, that the horizon line is formed, which is the vanishing-line of lateral vision. If a telescope be employed at same altitude, the horizon line will be apparently extended—and the distance to which it is apparently extended depends upon the power of the telescope; but the higher the altitude observation, the smaller will be the difference between the horizon of the unaided vision and the telescopic horizon.
The transformation takes place in the focus of the instrument, in which the picture viewed is thrown on the surface of a plano-convex lens, and magnified by the eye-piece. The visual angles are increased and the picture appears larger. We neither peer into the depths of infinite space by means of the telescope, nor look half way round the earth at our cities—not even with instruments of the highest possible power, because no telescope ever constructed can in any way nullify the principles of foreshortening, through the operation of which the horizon line is formed over the concave extense.
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The Flaming Sword · Vol. 18, No. 26 · · PDF p. 12