HathiTrust: English Mechanic and World of Science vol. 80 (1904-05), the Blount/Clifton photograph correspondence

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Searches

• Full-text search, all items: "Lady Blount" Bedford Clifton returned 1,135 items, too broad.
• Full-text search, full-view only: "Bedford Canal" "Lady Blount" photograph. Top hits: English Mechanic and World of Science v.80 (three scans: uc1.c2631608, umn.31951000884549b, uc1.$c208737 for v.79-80, 1904-05); The Flaming Sword v.10-11 (1896-97), v.7-11, v.9-11 and v.13 (1898-99), the Koreshan journal; T. P.'s Weekly v.4 (1904); Indian Engineering v.36 (1904).
• In-volume search for "Blount" in umn.31951000884549b gave hits at pp. 40, 138, 160, 161, 169, 184, 205, 206, 208 and 209 (scan seq = page + 20).

Passages read (text-only view, OCR) [web]

Item: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951000884549b - p. 40 (seq 60): a correspondent quotes a flat-earth tract saying the "globular theory has received a severe blow" from "the experiment so successfully carried out by Lady Blount" with "one of Messrs. Dallmeyer's photo. telescopic cameras". It says the camera was "not quite 2ft. above the water level", that the whole screen showed although it "should have been over 20ft. below the line of vision", and that the Dallmeyer operator "admits in a letter to Lady Blount that his convictions in that direction have been rudely shaken". The letter writer then challenges the claim. - p. 161 (seq 181): letter [170] offers "abnormal refraction" as the reason the objects were visible: "strata of air of different densities" producing mirage. Another letter (Bernard H. Watson, Peterborough) compares Lady Blount's view with that of the Christian bishops of 315 A.D. - p. 160 (seq 180): a correspondent suggests that Lady Blount or "Mr. Clifton try their hands on the Irish Channel". The letter also argues from the gain of a seconds pendulum moved from London to Spitzbergen (a gravity-variation argument).

Bearing

• Claim 1: this is the contemporary public record of the 1904 test, the "regular feature" that the Wikipedia article on the Bedford Level experiment cites as English Mechanic 80:160 (1904). It contains the zetetic claim (camera height under 2 ft, screen fully visible, sceptical operator shaken) and the opposing explanation (abnormal refraction), side by side.
• Priority 4 lead: the volume is full-view. Reading pp. 138, 169, 184 and 205-209, and v.79-80 for Clifton's own letters, would complete the exchange. English Mechanic 80:256 cites Oldham's 1901 BAAS paper.

Not reached

Pages 138, 169, 184, 205-209 (only searched, not read). T. P.'s Weekly v.4 1904 hit (not opened).