Flat Earth Literature

Online Flat Earth Literature

Earth Not a Globe

by Samuel Birley Rowbotham, PhD.

Description: "An experimental inquiry into the true figure of the Earth, proving it a plane, without orbital or axial motion, and the only known material world; its true position in the universe, comparatively recent formation, present chemical condition, and approaching destruction by fire, etc. A treatise on Zetetic Astronomy."

• Earth Not a Globe
• Original Pamphlet (1849) (16 Pages)
• First Edition (1865) (225 Pages)
• Second Edition (1881) (416 Pages)

Zetetic Cosmogony

by Thomas Winship

Thomas Winship presents evidence demonstrating that the world is not a rotating-revolving globe, but a stationary plane circle. This in-depth study provides further supporting evidence for the work of Samuel Birley Rowbotham by way of test, trial, and experiment.

• Second Edition (1899) (215 Pages)

Kings Dethroned

by Gerrard Hickson

Description: "A History of the Evolution of Astronomy from the Time of the Roman Empire Up to the Present Day; Showing it to be an Amazing Series of Blunders Founded Upon an Error Made in the Second Century B.C."

• Kings Dethroned

One Hundred Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe

by William Carpenter

William Carpenter (1830-1896) maintained that "There are rivers that flow for hundreds of miles towards the level of the sea without falling more than a few feet" notably, the Nile, which, in a thousand miles, falls but a foot. A level expanse of this extent is quite incompatible with the idea of the Earth's 'convexity.'" Carpenter also presents aeronautic testimony that even at the great observable heights no curvature of the earth is observed, and fits with the idea of a flat-earth, since it is the nature of level surfaces to rise to a level with the human eye.

• First Edition

Article: $5000 for proving the earth is a globe

by Modern Mechanics, Oct 1931

Description: "Would you like to earn $5,000? If you can prove that the world is a sphere, floating in space, turning on its own axis, revolving around the sun, you can earn a prize of that amount. Such a prize has been posted for years, offered by Wilbur Glenn Voliva, general overseer of Zion, 111. Post and Gatty didn't fly around the world, according to Wilbur Glenn Voliva, they merely flew in a circle around the North Pole. This article presents Voliva's theory of a flat world, and tells you how you can win his offer of $5,000 for proving that he is wrong."

[ed: $5,000 (1931) is $91,430 (2021) adjusted for inflation]

• Modern Mechanics Article Link

The Anti-Newtonian

by Author Unknown

The Anti-Newtonian is a Flat Earth work written in the early 1800's by an unknown author, which is believed to have been the basis for Earth Not a Globe. This model features three poles, as opposed to the later Flat Earth models which featured one or two poles.

• The Anti-Newtonian

The Plane Truth

by Robert Schadewald

Full Text Link

The Plane Truth is a historical account of the Zetetic movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Offline Flat Earth Literature

Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea by Christine Garwood

Contrary to popular belief, fostered in countless school classrooms the world over, Christopher Columbus did not discover that the world was round. The idea of the world as a sphere had been widely accepted in scientific, philosophical and even religious circles from as early as the fourth century B.C. Bizarrely, it was not until the supposedly more rational nineteenth century that the notion that the world might actually be flat really took hold. Even more bizarrely, it persists to this day, despite Apollo missions and widely publicized pictures of the decidedly spherical earth from space. Based on a range of original sources, Garwood's history of flat-earth beliefs - from the Babylonians to the present day - raises issues central to the history and philosophy of science, its relationship with religion and the making of human knowledge about the natural world. "Flat Earth" is the first definitive study of one of history's most notorious and persistent ideas, and evokes all the intellectual, philosophical and spiritual turmoil of the modern age.

• Limited Preview

Citations/Peer Reviews

A woman named Lady Blount (Archive) was among the first to peer review Rowbotham's work:

  “ The Old Bedford Level was the scene of further experiments over the years, until in 1904, photography was used to prove that the earth is flat. Lady Blount, a staunch believer in the zetetic method hired a photographer, Mr Clifton of Dallmeyer's who arrived at the Bedford Level with the firm's latest Photo-Telescopic camera. The apparatus was set up at one end of the clear six-mile length, while at the other end Lady Blount and some scientific gentlemen hung a large, white calico sheet over the Bedford bridge so that the bottom of it was near the water. Mr Clifton, lying down near Welney bridge with his camera lens two feet above the water level, observed by telescope the hanging of the sheet, and found that he could see the whole of it down to the bottom. This surprised him, for he was an orthodox globularist and round-earth theory said that over a distance of six miles the bottom of the sheet should be more than 20 feet below his line of sight. His photograph showed not only the entire sheet but its reflection in the water below. That was certified in his report to Lady Blount, which concluded: "I should not like to abandon the globular theory off-hand, but, as far as this particular test is concerned, I am prepared to maintain that (unless rays of light will travel in a curved path) these six miles of water present a level surface. ”

Mrs. Peach recently found a reference of photographic evidence from The English Mechanic:

The Flat Earth: another Bedford Canal experiment" (Bernard H.Watson, et al)
ENGLISH MECHANIC, 80:160, 1904

Bedford Canal, England. A repeat of the 1870 experiment.

  “ A train of empty turf-boats had just entered the Canal from the river Ouse, and was about proceeding to Ramsey. I arranged with the captain to place the shallowest boat last in the train, and to take me on to Welney Bridge, a distance of six miles. A good telescope was then fixed on the lowest part of the stern of the last boat. The sluice gate of the Old Bedford Bridge was 5ft. 8in. high, the turf-boat moored there was 2ft. 6in. high, and the notice board was 6ft. 6in. from the water. The sun was shining strongly upon them in the direction of the south-southwest; the air was exceedingly still and clear, and the surface of the water smooth as a molten mirror, so that everything was favourable for observation. At 1.15 p.m. the train started for Welney. As the boats gradually receded, the sluice gate, the turf-boat and the notice board continued to be visible to the naked eye for about four miles. When the sluice gate and the turf-boat (being of a dark colour) became somewhat indistinct, the notice board (which was white) was still plainly visible, and remained so to the end of six miles. But on looking through the telescope all the objects were distinctly visible throughout the whole distance. On reaching Welney Bridge I made very careful and repeated observations, and finding several men upon the banks of the canal, I called them to look through the telescope. They all saw distinctly the white notice board, the sluice gate, and the black turf-boat moored near them.

Now, as the telescope was 18in. above the water, The line of sight would touch the horizon at one mile and a half away (if the surface were convex). The curvature of the remaining four miles and a half would be 13ft. 6in. Hence the turf-boat should have been 11ft., the top of the sluice gate 7ft. 10in., and the bottom of the notice board 7ft. below the horizon.

My recent experiment affords undeniable proof of the Earth's unglobularity, because it rests not on transitory vision; but my proof remains printed on the negative of the photograph which Mr.Clifton took for me, and in my presence, on behalf of J.H.Dallmeyer, Ltd. A photograph can not 'imagine' nor lie! ”

See Also

• The Flat Earth Library — tfes.org
• The Flat Earth and its Advocates: A List of References — Library of Congress