19th century experiment proves 'flat Earth'

British writer Samuel Rowbotham once conducted a 'flat Earth' experiment at Old Bedford River, a straight and unobstructed waterway for nearly 10 km.

19th century experiment proving the Earth is flat — The Old Bedford River Canal in Welney (left) and Rowbotham's flat Earth map (right). Photo: *Amusing Planet/Bob Jones/Wikimedia Commons*

In 1838, English writer Samuel Rowbotham set out to disprove what the ancient Greeks and modern scientists had long claimed: the Earth was a sphere. A flat-Earther since his youth, Rowbotham found the perfect place to test this claim: the Old Bedford River Canal in Welney. The man-made canal was built in the early 17th century to divert some of the waters of the Great Ouse River in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, England. The canal runs completely straight and unobstructed for nearly 10 kilometers, making it the ideal location to directly measure the curvature of the Earth.

"The water is nearly still - often perfectly still - and throughout its length the canal is uninterrupted by any kind of lock or gate. It is therefore in every respect suitable for determining whether convexity exists," Rowbotham wrote in Zetetic Astronomy.

Rowbotham waded into the river and used a telescope placed 20cm above the water to watch a boat slowly moving away, with a flag pole about 1m above the water. He said the ship was always in his sight for 10km, whereas if the water curved, the ship would disappear.

With this empirical evidence and a long list of arguments, Rowbotham attempted to impose his flat-Earth view on the Cambridgeshire community. He published his observations in Zetetic Astronomy in 1849, writing under the pseudonym "Parallax". Rowbotham argued that the Earth was flat based on everyday observations such as the Earth not being convex when viewed from a hot-air balloon and lighthouses being visible at distances that would not be possible if the Earth were spherical.

Rowbotham later developed his views further in his book Earth Not a Globe. The book argued that the Earth was a flat disk centered at the North Pole and its southern edge was surrounded by a wall of ice—Antarctica. Rowbotham even suggested that the Sun and Moon were just over 3,000 miles (4,800 km) away from Earth, and that “space” was about 3,100 miles (5,000 km) away.

A drawing from Rowbotham's 1849 book Zetetic Astronomy. Photo: Amusing Planet — A drawing from Rowbotham's 1849 book *Zetetic Astronomy.* Photo: *Amusing Planet*

Rowbotham's claims did not attract much attention until 1870, when a Flat Earth advocate named John Hampden bet £500 that he could prove the Earth was flat by repeating Rowbotham's experiment. Naturalist and surveyor Alfred Russel Wallace accepted the bet.

Wallace knew that density changes in the air just above the water’s surface could cause light to bend toward the ground, allowing observers to see objects beyond the horizon. To demonstrate the curvature of the Earth, Wallace placed a series of disks on poles along a canal. When viewed from one end, the disks toward the middle of the canal appeared slightly higher than the others, while the disks at the far end appeared slightly lower. Thus, using his knowledge of physics, he avoided the errors of his previous experiments and won the bet.

Despite the evidence, Hampden refused to accept Wallace's testimony. However, referee John Henry Walsh, editor of the sports magazine The Field , ordered Hampden to pay his opponent's bet. Despite honoring the bet, Hampden continued to harass, threaten, and defame Wallace.

Meanwhile, Rowbotham continued to develop his ideas. He died in 1884, but the idea of a flat Earth lived on. His work in America was continued by the printer William Carpenter.

Carpenter published the eight-part book Theoretical Astronomy Examined and Exposed - Proving the Earth not a Globe in 1864. Carpenter then moved to Baltimore and went on to publish One Hundred Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe in 1885, which contained many falsehoods.

In 1904, British writer and social activist Elizabeth Blount repeated Rowbotham's famous Bedford experiment with similar results. She hired a photographer with a telephoto lens to take a picture of a large white sheet placed near the surface of the canal at Rowbotham's original location, 10 km away.

After setting up his camera 60cm above the water at Welney, the photographer was surprised to capture a target that he thought should have been invisible because of the low mounting point. As with Rowbotham, Blount had not taken into account the effects of atmospheric refraction. However, the photographer did notice a mirage, which he described as “a hazy mist that seemed to float unevenly on the surface of the canal”.

In 1956, preacher Samuel Shenton founded the Flat Earth Society. Shenton died in 1971, but the society he founded continues to thrive, with 3,500 members three decades later. The advent of the Internet and the popularity of social media have helped sustain the growth. Today, the number of flat-Earthers may even be in the millions.

Thu Thao (According to Amusing Planet )

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