Page 300 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

tend to bend light, especially horizontal light viewed near the surface of the Earth, or over a body
of water. If a temperature inversion exists, such as is common above the surface of a cold canal on
a warm day, or a warm canal on a cold day, this effect can be magnified, enabling people to view
things which are beyond the horizon.

This experiment by Rowbotham reveals the peril of trying to draw conclusions when natural
principles are not fully understood. Without having a knowledge of optics, a man can be deceived
when making visual observations. Light rays are distorted through an array of variables and can
make objects appear larger, smaller, closer, farther away, different colors, and even inverted.

To give an example of how such an error in conclusions can be made, suppose you are a high school
student living in Denver, Colorado. You are told by your science teacher that water boils at a
temperature of 100 degrees Celsius or 212 degrees Fahrenheit. You want to prove this claim, so you
stick a thermometer in a pot of water and slowly raise the temperature. You discover, however, that
the water boils at 95 degrees Celsius or 203 degrees Fahrenheit. You return to class and tell your
instructor he is wrong. He then tells you that there is another factor you have to consider, and that
is elevation. Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level, but Denver is 5,000 feet above sea level.
Due to the lower atmospheric pressure at higher elevations, water boils at a lower temperature. When
we don’t understand all the variables, and account for them, we can arrive at wrong conclusions.

Many flat-Earthers cite Samuel Rowbotham’s experiment, or their own experiments taken under
similar circumstances, as proof that the Earth is flat. If they checked out Mr. Rowbotham’s
reputation they might be less inclined to cite him as a reference. Samuel Rowbotham published his
findings in a 16 page pamphlet titled Zetetic Astronomy under the pseudonym Parallax in 1849. He
later expanded this to a 430 page book titled Earth Not a Globe which he published in 1865. In 1861
Samuel Rowbotham at the age of 45 married for a second time to the daughter of the woman who
did his laundry. The young girl was 16 years old. He used the name “Dr. Samuel Birley” (Birley
being his middle name) and sold “secrets for extending human life and curing every form of illness.”

Rowbotham’s flat-Earth beliefs were taken up in the United States by the Christian Catholic
Apostolic Church of Zion, Illinois which was founded in 1896 by John Alexander Dowie and
continued by Wilbur Glenn Voliva. The church operated much like a commune. Dowie bought up
a large parcel of land and built homes. Outside of the town the church erected signs such as the
following.

The sign reads, “No one except a low down scoundrel, a person lower than the dirtiest dog, yes,
lower down than a skunk would call the Earth a globe in Zion City.” If the names of Dowie and