The Washington herald., 1907-01-06
.SAYSIT DOESN'T MOVE
freshman Thinks Earth Has
Solid Foundation.
EXPLOITS SOME FREAK IDEAS
Having Plenty of Money He started
Magazine 10 Advocate Scientific
copied Fncts-5IakinE Money by
POking Fun at Astronomy.

Correspondence " The Washington Herald.
I London, Dec. 29.-Ireiaud has furnish
/ ed most interesting recruit TO the list
Of those who reject the commonly accept
/ ed scientific theories about the motion
/ Of the earth and other m0mentous mat
/ ter. Matthew X. Ryan is his name. Nj
/ Ryan believes that the earth rests on solid
/ foundations, and that instead Of revolv-
/ ing around the sun the sun revolves
around H. Two years ago Ryan was q
comparatively unknown Tipperary farmer.
/ To-day he is a rich London editor, and
much talked Of man with a magazine OF
/ his Own in which be assafls popular sci
entihc theories that are accepted as Cos
/ pei truths by the man in the street.
/ When he first set his novel ideas on
paper they appeared so startling that rdi-
/ tors refused 10 publish them. SO when
Mr. Ryan Unexpectedly inherited for
/ tune lie abandoned farming and started
/ publishing his own paper. in which Of
! course. he has fun scope TO do and say
what ne pleases His periodical. Civil
/ Engineering, while bare six months
/ old. is already a financial success and one
OF the most frequently quoted papers in
/ England.
! His first article was on the question.
/ Does the Earth Revolver" Following
/ up his contention that it does not. but
rests on a solid foundation. he remarked
that the first disc0vercr of the north Or
south poles may be also the discoyerer of
new hemispheres- Each month he springs
a new question as remarkable and sen
satiOnal as the first
Thinks Earth Doesn't RevOIve,
This month Ryan publishes an article
! IN which he undertakes 20 refute one Of
the proofs put forward by scientists
that the earth revolves. He says.
M. Foucault's pendulum suspended
from high building made circles in
sand placed on a table, and this was sup
/ posed to be caused by the revolutions of
the earth. But if the earth old revolve.
did not the table and the building re-
/ yolve with Il?
our position with regard To signs Of
! the zodiac is said 10 be constantly
changing. but is il not much more prob
. able that the solar system moves, while
We are stationary? Some weII-known as
. tronOmers do hold that the sun has a
relative motion 10 the earth
i If the earth does revOIve there must
be some force to produce that motion It
cannot be the force OF gravity. for that
| would be "a vertical and not "a centrifugal
motion. The force of gravity outside the
earth would also be- greater than the
force Of gravity inside the earth and We
are told that gravity holds Us on the
earth Astronomers also appear 20 for
get that If the earth is revolving 1T the
rate of 80 yards second that the tan
genital force would be much greater than
the force Of gravity, and We would he
thrown into space at once The atuo-
sphere Is also said 20 be revolving with
the earth, bat does not the wind blow IN
all directions? II there IS anything more
certain than another. il is that if this
earth reyOlves. the proofs thar have been
put forward by astronomers are not con-
elusive"
Another article Of Ryan's which re-
Gently caused a sensation was on the mil
lennium- Mr. Ryan declares il is a fall
lacy for CleTgymea 10 preach that the
world viii be destroyed by FIRE He
claims that the New Testament state
meut refers 10 the destruction of Jeru-
salem and Jewish poIity
The final destruction of the earth viii
come. he thinks from a Titanic earth
quake or a series OF seismic vibrations.
The Pacific Ocean. he says. is sinking
there has lately been a subsistence over
an area of 5000 square miles-and water
IS percolating through TO the volcanoes in
the bowels Of the earth. The earth's
crust Is thinning rapidly To show the
intensity of the pressure. it Is estimated
that the contraction OF the earth
by one millimeter- one twenty-hfth Of an
inch-would cause 800 earthquakes
Proposes Railway Round the World
Another of Mr.. Ryan's ideas is for a
continuous railroad around the earth. He
proposes a COnvOcatiOu of the worlds
powers and an international railway
board The TWO important straits to be
tunneled are, Of course, the Straits Of
Dover and Boring Strait. Since the
publication Of Mr.. Ryan's article there
has been much activity among the sup
pOTters of the Dover-Calais and the Ber-
ing Strait tunnel projects. MI Ryan
suggests also that the Straits of CibraI-
tar be tunneled 50 that one could go
from London 10 Capetown without chang
ing Pullman cars II the other tunnels
are built, one viii be able TO Journey i'm
through car from New York 10 London.
Many of Mr.. Ryan's original ideas re-
fer purely 70 local and British affairs.
yet he makes one suggestion which any
number Of cities can use. if they will He
proposes that London lay big pine to
the seacOast and pump pure sea water
into the city with which TO flush and
] cleanse the streets. He shows that The
cost would be slight in comparison to the
benefits accruing, as expressed by medi-
cal men, chemists, and sanitary ensi-
| neers.
Mr.. Ryan is a thorough Irishmar. He
was born in a historic manor house in
Tipperary, the home OF his family for
400 years His father owned and farmed
5000 acres OF freehold land situated i'm
five counties. There We're nine i'm the
family. There is = lawyer. an engineer.
two army officers, a naval officer and
three sisters who are married. Matthew
Ryan Is the Benjamin of the flock His
father wanted 10 make a farmer out of
him, but when his schooling began he
developed a fOndness for science and par
ticularly astronomy. His first tutor was
the parish priest, a learned man and
great thinker. With his help Matthew
Ryan wrote several articles on scientific
questions, over which he and his father
quarreled. His father threatened 20 dis
inherit him. Before the will could be
changed, however Mr. Ryan senior died
and Matthew Ryan found himself sole
owner Of the homestead and sharer Of
the big property with his brothers and
sisters. MAYNARD EVANS.
Wages and Living in New Jersey.
From the Philadelphia Ledger
T The annual report on wages and the
cost of living in New Jersey. just sub
mitted to Gov Stokes by the chief Of the
state bureau of labor. shows that the in