John Quinlan – The Earth A Plane

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John Edward Quinlan, a commissioned land surveyor in the British West Indies, provides us a glimpse into the flat earth-globular earth conversation that took place more than a century ago in his short pamphlet, “The Earth a Plane.”

Mr. Quinlan’s straightforward and no-nonsense writing style illustrates the practicality of the flat earth model discussing the east-west navigation by sailing ships using a compass, and how such voyages would be impossible on a globe. He even calls out for the defenders of a spherical earth to demonstrate how a compass could work on a globe model – and to this day it has not been proven to be a possibility.

It was obvious to those exhibiting common sense a century ago that course adjustments were necessary to maintain one’s heading, whether you believe we lived on a flat plane or globe, and that circumnavigation does not only work on a sphere. While in fact, ship’s captains were relying on navigation equipment that only could work on a flat plane to complete their voyages. Disappointing to see so many today not realize that claiming circumnavigation only works on a globe is pure foolishness.

Mr. Quinlan also drew into question the preposterous claim that the sun is 93 million miles away by describing an infallible method for finding the distance to the sun with a piece of paper and simple geometry. That right angles perfectly halved by folding the piece of paper diagonally and using it as your guide on the summer equinox would provide all evidence necessary to debunk such an outlandish assertion about the sun’s distance from the earth.

Other nuggets in Quinlan’s pamphlet are his use of the term “globite.” Was he the first to coin such a word to describe a defender of a globular earth, or was that the slang of the day?

And finally, Mr. Quinlan reveals that Mr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was not the first to suggest that the earth be pear-shaped. We learn that Professor W.J. Sollas suggested the earth be non-spherical as late as 1906. Has Mr. Tyson been reading old flat earth material?

Please enjoy and share John Edward Quinlan’s “The Earth a Plane” as we look to preserve such writings of flat earth knowledge.

-POTP

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