Appendix B:
Additional Notes on Zetetic Astronomy:
Earth Not a Globe, 1st ed. 1865
[A] datum HORIZONTAL LINE, which shall be the same
throughout the whole length of the work, or any branch thereof
respectively; and shall be referred to some fixed point stated in
writing on the section, near some portion of such work; and in the
case of a canal, cut, navigation, turnpike, or other carriage road,
or railway, near either of the termini [emphasis presumably added by
Rowbotham]....
To a flat-earther, horizontal means flat, not some uniform distance
above sea level.
It was not just Newtonian gravitation that Rowbotham rejected, but
much of Newtonian mechanics. He noted that a ball dropped from the
masthead of a ship strikes the same place whether the ship is moving
or not. That would be conventional, except that he claimed that on a
moving ship, the path of the ball is a diagonal lin....
(The path would be curved.) More unconventional was his claim about
what happened when the ball is thrown upward from the masthead. In
this case, he claimed that the ball would expend its vertical and
horizontal momentum simultaneously, and drop
straight down from its zenith. This would cause it to miss a moving ship....
He claimed that if such an experiment were tried from a moving earth,
it should have the same result.
 |
| Air-gun experiment according to Rowbotham. |
The book opens with these words: “The term ‘zetetic’ is derived
from the Greek verb zeteo; which means to search or examine—to proceed
only by inquiry.”
Rowbotham says further, “Speculative men, by force of genius
may invent systems that will perhaps be greatly admired for a time;
these, however, are phantoms which the force of truth will sooner or
later dispel; and while we are pleased with the deceit, true
philosophy, with all the arts and improvements that depend upon it,
suffers.”
Rowbotham argued that the Copernican system is without a proven
foundation.—“The foundations or premises are always
unproved; no proof is ever attempted; the necessity for it is denied;
it is considered sufficient that the assumptions shall seem to
explain the phenomena selected.”
Let the practice of theorising be cast aside as one fatal to the full
development of truth; oppressive to the reasoning power; and in every
sense inimical to the progress and permanent improvement of the human
race.
The hatred of theories was a recurring theme throughout the
book, as further evidenced by quotations given in Chapter 1.
If the earth is a globe, standing water must be convex. Standing
water is the key from the beginning.
Rowbotham writes a very similar description to one found in his first flat-earth publication (1849) describing
one of the experiments upon which zetetic astronomy was based:
In the county of Cambridge there is an artificial river or canal,
called the “Old Bedford.” It is upwards of twenty miles
long, and passes in a straight line through that part of the fens
called the “Bedford level.” The water is nearly
stationary—often entirely so, and throughout its entire
length has no interruption from locks or water-gates; so that it is
in every respect well adapted for ascertaining whether any and what
amount of convexity really exists. A boat with a flag standing three
feet above the water, was directed to sail from a place called
“Welney Bridge,” to another place called “Welche’s
Dam.” These two points are six statute miles apart. The
observer, with a good telescope, was seated in the water as a bather
(it being the summer season), with the eye not exceeding eight inches
above the surface. The flag and the boat down to the water’s edge
were clearly visible throughout the whole distance!
Many of the conventional “proofs” of sphericity were easily dealt with. How can the earth be circumnavigated if it is not a sphere? Rowbotham suggested that the skeptical might experiment by walking around a small table. Is the table then a sphere?
The crop statistics are for
Norfolk
and are derived from Kelly’s Directory of the Counties of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk
(London: Kelly’s Directories Ltd., 1937).
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