Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-04-05
PEOPLES PULPIT
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"sPAcE FILLED WITH LUMlNlF-
ERoUs ETHER"
Editor Courier:
! In your issue of March %, Mr..
Graves says that if the doctrine" OF
the earth's concavity had been advanc-
| ed in earnest 800 years ago, its au-
thor would have been burned at the
stake. Well, methods have changed.
During the 81 years of his promulga-
| ton of the the cellular theory, DR..
Teed, it's author, was continually re-
viled, prosecuted, and misrepresent-
ed by leaders of modern thought. On
| Oct 13, 1906, he was attacked by a
mob of prominent citizens Of FIT.
| Myers, Fla, who were inf1amed by
hatred of his peculiar" beliefs. -Four
reputable physicians concurred in The
opinion that his death was due direct
ly to the injuries received at the hands
of the mob We do not burn people
at the stake these days.
J Passing over the probability" that
the earth was in preparation by ma
ture millions of years. before life was
| possible, which Mr. Graves frankly
admits is only guess, let us con-
slider his contention that Webster's
definition of space corroborates mis-
claim that space is "any quantity of
extension; boundless." Why not con-
suit Webster about the meaning of the
| word quantity A "boundless guam
tity" is quite a scientific combination
| of terms. And what about extension? q
You have to start somewhere, when
extending anything; and there is one
limit to begin with He says that
! scientists cannot imagine any limit to
the space occupied by the heavenly
bodies. While he is at it, he might
investigate the meaning Of the word
occupy" Scientists are tolerably
unanimous in the opinion that space
is filled with luminiferous ether. Truly
science is great. 1t can "f1lr' that
which has "no limit" No wonder Mr..
Graves puts his trust in it.
He springs Halley's comet on me,
which is claimed to be $4,000 miles
in diameter, with tail 62,000,Occ
miles long" and remarks naively that
it would find pretty close quarters"
in cave 5000 miles in diameter
Now, I should be absolutely exiting
uished by this startling proposition.
That is worse than the camel crawl
ing through the eye of the needle.>
But do you suppose it ever occurred
to Mr.. Graves to question the Claim
ed" dimensions of that celestial racer
that is to ungallantly switch it's tail i'll
our faces the 10Th of May? To get
down to the cold facts Of the case,
every measure ment of the dimensions
Of heavenly bodies made by the mod
ern astronomer is calculated from the
basis of the primary assumption of the
earth's convexity. The values they get
are entirely fictitious, for the earth's
conyexity has never been demonstrate
ed, But, says Mr.. Graves, when
boy at school was taught a few rea-
sons for believing in It, One, the APP
proach of a ship at sea, when the
masts and the higher parts Of the ship
could be seen first, and as the ship
came nearer the lower parts became
visible"
Now, I wonder if that does not set
tie the question for all time. In my
simplicity, had supposed that the
laws of perspective and visual fore
shortening we're factors in the occula-
ton of the lower portions of objects
approaching from distance. But MI.
Graves proclaims, and the biographies
and astronomers bear him witness,
that said occulation is due to the inter-
vention Of a portion of the earth's
convex curvature between the OBJ
server and the object. So long as no.
body thinks 1t worth while to investi-
gate Science" is secure in this posi-
ton. But it happens that this Is the
day Of the telescope. And numerous
observations are on record of ships
half-mast down" to the unaided Wis
ion being restored entirely to view by
means of the magic tube" Ships so
far away as to be wholly invisible TO
the naked eye have been seen down
to the waters edge through powerful
telescope; this, too, with the observer
stationed at sea level. Any one ia
miliar with the geometrical principles
involved knows that such observations
would be absolutely impossible from
the convex basis.
Another one, that men have sailed
around the globe" That does not
prove convexity, for we can sail
around the inside surface of the hollow
sphere just as easily as the outside sur
face of convex globe.
"Also, the shape of the earth's shad-
ow on the moon during an eclipse"
Scientists assume that because the
shadow on the moon during an eclipse
is always circular, the eclipse Is due
to the spherical earth coming between
the moon and the sun. for the reason
that only sphere will cast circular
shadow. This is an error, for a disc
will also cast circular shadow. But
there Is another rather peculiar fact
about this shadow business. Let Mr..
Graves make an eclipse of his own
some time, by causing sphere to
cast shadow upon smaller distant
sphere, viewing it from point be-
tween the two spheres. At first con-
tact the shadow edge will be circular,