100 Proofs Earth is Not a Globe (eBook)

Here is a downloadable (or readable online) pdf of W.B. Carpenter's excellent 1895 book "100 Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe":

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/library/pamphlets/One%20Hundred%20Proofs%20that%20the%20Earth%20is%20not%20a%20Globe%20(William%20Carpenter).pdf

hey all,

just started this book

"100 Proofs That The Earth Is Not A Globe" by W.M. Carpenter

i'm at Proof 3 & already noticed/learned some stuff; worth kicking off here

Carpenter's language [english] is more direct & 'brutal' compared to Rowbotham, who was apparently his friend & FE collaborator; the beginning of this book is saying he's carrying the torch [left by ol 'Parallax']

he's saying outright that the Bedford Level Experiment proves it, & that the experiment can be done at thousands of places throughout Earth; so do it for yourself

he's saying check water [dummy]: it's level; even the language people use to describe their Globe Earth Model sounds like a concave plane [he elaborates this point]

actually, i'll quote this:

"First then, Mr. Proctor tell us HOW you find that the Earth is not flat, but a globe! It does not matter that "we find" it so put down in that conglomeration of suppositions which you seek to defend: the question is, What is the evidence of it?--where can it be obtained? "The Earth on which we live and move seems to be flat," you tell us: where, then, is the mistake? If the Earth seems to be what it is not, how are we to trust our senses? And if it is said that we cannot do so, are we to believe it, and consent to be put down lower than the brutes? No, sir: we challenge you, as we have done many times before, to produce the slightest evidence of the Earth's rotundity, from the world of facts around you. You have given to us the statement we have quoted, and we have the right to demand a proof; and if this is not forthcoming, we have before us the duty of denouncing the absurd dogma as worse than an absurdity--as a FRAUD--and as a fraud that flies in the face of divine revelation! Well, then Mr. Proctor, in demanding a proof of the Earth's rotundity (or the frank admission of your errors), we are tempted to taunt you as we tell you that it is utterly out of your power to produce one; and we tell you that you do not dare even to lift up your finger to point us to the so-called proofs in the school-books of the day, for you know the measure of absurdity of which they are composed, and how disgraceful it is to allow them to remain as false guides of the youthful mind! Mr Procotor: we charge you that, whilst you teach the theory of the Earth's rotundity and mobility, you KNOW that it is a plane: and here is the ground of the charge. In page 7, in your book, you give a diagram of the "surface on which we live," and the "supposed globe"--the supposed "hollow globe"--of the heavens, arched over the said surface. Now, Mr. Proctor, you picture the surface on which we live in exact accordance with your verbal description. And what is that description? We shall scarcely be believed when we say that we give it just as it stands: "The level of the surface on which we live." And, that there may be no mistake about the meaning of the word "level," we remind you that your diagram proves that the level that you mean is the level of the mechanic, a plane surface, and not the "level" of the astronomer, which is a convex surface! In short, your description of the Earth is exactly what you say it "seems to be," and, yet, what you say it is not: the very aim of your book being to say so! And we call this the prostitution of the printing press. And it is all the evidence that is necessary to bring the charge home to you, since the words and the diagram are in page 7 of your own book. You know, then, that Earth is a Plane--and so do we."