The times., 1898-06-26
Is THE GLOBE NOT A eLoBEp
Or Have Astronomers Been I'm Erroz
All AlOngf
CFrom the Kansas City star.)


(From the Kansas City star.)
One OF the every day statements that ws
have been making for several years now
with something like absolute confidence
is that the world Is round. OF course.
grown people talking with each other
and wishing TO be exact. have spoken Of
the world as an oblate spheroId. some
what fiattened at the poles. But for ths
use of children we have always described
the earth as round like a ball, and have
Herewith been content. We have told
the children also that the motions or
apparent motions OF the sun and moon
and other heavenly bodies depend
ed on the sphericity OF the earth. BE
cause ths world is round. Johnny. men
Of science are able TO calculate 10 the
thousandth part of a second when the sun
will be in eclipse" and Johnny takes his
own smoked glass and sees that It Is
so. But now, after all this faith In the
round earth, comes the coast and ge0detfo
survey and says that the earth Is verg-
ing toward a tetrahedrOn, and IL anybody
would like to know what tetrahedron IL
like, 1t may be said that a tetrahedron
is a solid bounded by four triangIes. or
triangular pyramid. which would be q
nice looking world, TO be sure.
The most mortifying feature af this dis
coyery Is that It should be made after so
| much trouble had been taken to demon
strate that the world was a sphere. Not
guesswork, you understand, but scientific
demonstration After all OF the scientists
had settled the question that the world
was round and the people who said IL mas
anything else were absolutely laughed
out of countenance there arose about the
IlI
as to whether the spheroidal form OF the
earth was oblate or probate. and expedf-
| tiOns to measure were started of, one TO
| Peru on the equator and the other to
Lapland. as near the pore as possible. The
| expeditions were gone seven years and
| when they got back and compared notes
| they decided that the world was an OBJ
| late spheFOid. and that was supposed to
have settled II, but it seems that 1t did
| not
Had there been a proper disposition TO
| let well enough alone the measurements
| of the earth would have ended with the
Peruvian and Lapland expeditions. As il
| turned out these experiments only melted
| others In 1877 a German scientist named
Bersel determined the figure OF the earth
/ and his figures were accepted as conclus
/ sive from 1S4l TO 1866: In 1866 Col. Clarke
made the earth larger and fatter at the
| poles, and our coast survey adopted what
| was called Clarke's spheTOid in 1880 And
| row further measurements have result
ed In this tetrahedral catastrophe.
II will be said that the conclusion that
| the experts are to force upon US will be.
| first, that science IS nothing. How can
| one speak OF exact science. when science
| comes to the conclusion that the earth
| is round and then that 1t is not? What
| confidence can be placed in scientific cal
| culatiOns even If apparently verified TO-
| 600 times over. which are upset by other
| calculations? II a man may accept all
| his life the belief that the world Is o
| sphere only to abandon his faith for q
| tetrahedron, where is the use in his be-
| teving anything?
All our literature which is based on
| the spheroid theory must be revised and
| made over. We have been singing about
Every nation, every tongue
| On this terrestrial ball.
But there isn't any terrestrial ball. only
| a terrestrial tetrahedron. q word, by the
| way, which will not fs into psalms,
| hymns or other species Of versifcati0n.
The great end and aim OF learned dis
covery is TO make II plain that the pre-
ceding generation did not know any
| thing. In the twentieth century they will
be talking about the ignoramusas OF the
nineteenth century who supposed the
earth on which we live was an oblate
spheroid when 1t was really tetrahe-
| dron.