Koreshan Geodetic Survey (1897): State Archives of Florida (Florida Memory) and IAPSOP (The Flaming Sword)

Visit: 2026-10-10 (STEP I run 1). Query (Google, Chrome): Koreshan Geodetic Survey 1897 rectilineator Naples archive "Koreshan Unity" papers collection

Florida Memory (State Library and Archives of Florida)

Access: curl was blocked by a Cloudflare challenge; Chrome worked. - Item KOR2283, "Koreshans setting up 'The Air Line' rectilineator on the beach in Naples, Florida": https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/258146 [web] - Collection: Koreshan Unity collection, N2009-3, Papers, ca 1887-1990; Box 6, folder 5. - Named persons: U. G. Morrow (1864-1950), L. S. Boomer (1851-1897), Harry Boomer, Abe Gush(?), Geo. Stunt(?). - Archive note: "The rectilineator instrument was used to create a straight measuring line and 'prove' the earth is concave." (The scare quotes are the archive's own.) - Related items from the search results (not opened): KOR2282 "Geodetic Survey staff" (https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/258144), a Koreshan Unity business card ca. 1897 showing the rectilineator, and a postcard of the survey near Naples (Box 16) [web: Google snippets]. - Bearing: claim 1 (the concave variant). This shows that the survey's original papers survive in a public archive: N2009-3, Koreshan Unity Papers ca. 1887-1990, at the State Archives of Florida. That is the place to look for the field notebooks behind the Cellular Cosmogony tables (priority 4 lead).

IAPSOP: The Flaming Sword (Koreshan journal) 1896-1899

Index: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/flaming_sword/ (curl worked). It holds monthly issues for 1896-97 and weekly issues from November 1897. Downloaded (research/files/): iapsop-flaming_sword_v11_n01_jan_1897.pdf through n07_jul_1897.pdf (seven issues, 24 pp. each for Jan-May, about 12-23 MB each; text layer present). Counts of lines with geodetic/rectilineator/Naples/Morrow/survey: Jan 42, Feb 18, Mar 48, Apr 34, May 29, Jun 40, Jul 1.

Passages [web: PDF text layer]: - March 1897, "Explanation of Apparent Depression of the Horizon". This is the Koreshan principle in its own words: "the earth curves eight inches to the mile, concavely, not convexly", and the line of sight "is not a straight one, but one curvilineating slightly upwards". The bending is attributed to "the deviation of the visual substance (energy), deflected through the resistance of the gravic energy". It also proposes an "Experiment Demonstrating Visual Curvilineation" with a telescope on a rail curved 8 in to the mile. - June 1897, "The Geodetic Survey. Conclusive Answers to Irrational Objections and Arguments Against the Results Obtained by the Rectilineator". It reports a line surveyed on the Florida Gulf coast in which the rectiline "extended from an altitude of 10 feet above the water level" met the water "at a distance of about 4 miles from the beginning of the survey". - Bearing: claim 1 variant. These are the colony's own contemporary reports, earlier than The Cellular Cosmogony (1898), and they state the optical principle (light curving upward) that the colony used to explain away the apparent convexity. This matters for the reviewers: the Koreshan reading and the flat reading both need a rule for how light bends. Interested party: the colony reporting its own survey. - HathiTrust also holds The Flaming Sword v.7-13 (1894-99) in full view.

Not reached

Florida Memory KOR2282 and the postcard and business-card records; the State Archives online catalogue entry for N2009-3 (finding aid). Flaming Sword issues after July 1897 and the 1896 issues (survey planning).