I am reading
The Plane Truth: A History of the Flat Earth Movement by Robert J. Schadewald and this passage caught my eye in the
chapter about Samuel Birley Rowbotham:
In 1819, an anonymous author published a 38-page pamphlet entitled The Anti-Newtonian: or, A True System of the Universe, with a Map of Explanation, Proving the Sun to Be a Moveable Body and Central Circling Equator of Equal Time, etc. The work was printed in London at the author’s expense, but it contains no hint of who the writer was, where he lived, or any other biographical information except that he had previously published a work pointing out “the dangerous consequences of speculative astronomy.”
According to The Anti-Newtonian, the earth is a vast circular plain enclosed by a wall of ice. A map in the pamphlet shows the north pole at the center, the south pole at 12 o’clock, east and west respectively at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, and an “unknown pole” at 6 o’clock. The sun’s path is a circle whose center moves back and forth along a line connecting the south pole and the unknown pole to cause the seasons. The half of the earth beyond the east–west line toward the unknown pole is unknown and uninhabitable.
Rowbotham never mentions The Anti-Newtonian in any of his writings, but he almost certainly based his own system on it. He discarded the circumferential poles and the unknown, uninhabitable parts of the earth as unworkable. He left the north pole at the center, but he declared that there is no south pole; the impassable wall of ice encircling the known, inhabitable world forms the “southern limit.” East and west are merely those directions at right angles to the compass needle. The equator is a circle centered on the north pole and lying halfway between it and the southern limit. The sun circles above the earth in the region of the equator, moving north or south of the equator to suit the season. Rowbotham called his system zetetic astronomy.
This was interesting. I took it upon myself to look for this book and found a copy of it online on Google Books.
The Anti-Newtonian (1819)It is unknown who wrote this book. The author only refers to himself as "The Author". Samuel Birlery Rowbotham was born in 1816, and was only three years old at the time, so he was likely not the author.
Upon reading this book, the proofs and arguments made are very unique, in that The Author bases most of his Flat Earth model on the behaviors of the sun. There are numerous details on why the Flat Earth model in The Anti-Newtonian must exist as consequence of the sun's actions.
The Author seems to assert that there is a North Pole and a South Pole, and that the sun circles around each one depending on the time of the year. The Author does make some mentions of an Unknown Pole, but it is hard to decipher its role with the layout of the continents or the movement of the sun.
It is unclear if the Sun "switches gears" to rotate along a different circular track, or if the center of the sun's rotations gently drifts between the North and South Poles. At first glance it appears that The Author is describing a switching of gears to mark a shifting of the two main seasons. Presumably the circle of the sun also expands and contracts like in the monopole model while on these circular tracks for the mid-seasons?
In the Preface The Author hints that he had previously written about the subject of speculative astronomy. I performed a Google Books Search on that term and came up with the following work called:
Reflections on the Inconsistency of Speculative Astronomy, Volume 4 (1819)I couldn't find Volumes 1 through 3. The text of this work seems to follow the same style of The Anti-Newtonian, with an unknown author, and ends with "THE END." like The Anti-Newtonian does. This appears to be a Flat Earth book, as it is suggested in several places that the earth is likely a plane. The Author again speaks at length about his investigation into the sun, with perhaps greater detail and focus than is seen in other 19th, 20th, and 21st century Flat Earth writings.
There is a great amount of information here to digest. As this is the original Flat Earth study, these works are especially important, since all the rest are derivatives and interpretations. This investigative work into an alternative shape of the earth may provide insights that Rowbotham and others have not expressed.
I believe that by reading and interpreting these works, and seeking to understand this mysterious author, we will be able to answer more questions on why the globe theory was found to be insufficient, and how modern Flat Earth Theory was created.