Rankings Primer Arbiter Physicist Mathematician Contrarian QE Sites log Claims Sources Research notes

Internet Archive (incl. JSTOR Early Journal Content mirrors), 2026-10-08

Investigator (STEP I), project Larken (Edgar Lucien Larkin, Radiant Energy and Its Analysis, 1903). Accessed by scripted fetch (archive.org advancedsearch API and download URLs); no CAPTCHA.

Searches

advancedsearch creator:(Larkin, Edgar) OR creator:(Edgar Lucien Larkin) OR creator:(Larkin, Edgar Lucien) (100 rows) -> list saved in research/pages/ia-larkin.json.
advancedsearch title:(electrical engineer) AND year:1892, title:(electrical engineer) AND volume:14, date range 1892 -> no copy of The Electrical Engineer vol. 14 (1892) found on archive.org.
advancedsearch collection:jstor_publastrsocipaci AND volume:14 AND title:(general notes) -> PASP vol. 14 (1902) General Notes items.

Larkin's own works found (priority 1)

Books [web: archive.org]: - Radiant energy and its analysis (1903): three scans, radiantenergyits00larkrich (the project's file), radiantenergyan00larkgoog, radiantenergyan01larkgoog. - Within the Mind Maze, or Mentonomy, the Law of the Mind (1911): https://archive.org/details/withinmindmazeor00lark (text saved to research/pages/mindmaze.txt). - The Matchless Altar of the Soul (1916): https://archive.org/details/matchlessaltarof00larkrich (text saved to research/pages/matchless.txt).

Science and PASP articles by Larkin (JSTOR Early Journal Content, free; PDFs copied to research/files/): | Date | Journal | Title | IA id | File | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1881-03-26 | Science os-2 no.39 pp.142-143 | Discrepancy in Recent Science | jstor-2900364 | files/larkin-jstor-2900364.pdf | | 1881-05-21 | Science | Primeval Rotation and Cosmical Rings. II | jstor-2901105 | files/larkin-jstor-2901105.pdf | | 1881-07-09 | Science os-2 no.54 pp.318-320 | Primordial Cosmic Rings. III | jstor-2900594 | files/larkin-jstor-2900594.pdf | | 1881-07-23 | Science os-2 no.56 pp.350-351 | Ancient Planetary Rings, Volume, Mass and Density. IV | jstor-2900935 | files/larkin-jstor-2900935.pdf | | 1881-08-13 | Science | Disruption of Planetary Masses from the Primeval Nebula. V | jstor-2900542 | files/larkin-jstor-2900542.pdf | | 1892-07-29 | Science vol. XX no.495 pp.65-66 | Magnetic Storm, Aurora, and Sun-Spots (letter, Knox College Observatory, July 19) | jstor-1766041 | files/larkin-jstor-1766041.pdf | | 1892-12-16 | Science | Meteoric Shower (Andromedes/Bielids, 23 Nov 1892) | jstor-1767543 | files/larkin-jstor-1767543.pdf | | 1901-10 | PASP vol. 13 | General Notes (contains Larkin's Encke's comet note, Mount Lowe, 14 Aug 1901) | jstor-40671408 | files/pasp-1901-general-notes-jstor-40671408.pdf | | 1901-12 | PASP vol. 13 | The Leonids: grand display of meteors at Lowe Observatory | jstor-40668192 | files/larkin-jstor-40668192.pdf | Also listed but not fetched: jstor-2900598 "The Comet" (Science 1881), jstor-2900457 "Letters to the Editor" (1881), jstor-1765554 "Opposition of Mars" (1892), jstor-40668155 "Comet Holk" (1901).

What they say, and how it bears on the claims

Claim 2 (solar jets, EM waves, magnetic storms, earth currents): Larkin's own 1892 letter

[web: https://archive.org/details/jstor-1766041, Science 20 (1892) 65-66] Larkin, writing from the Knox College Observatory (Galesburg, Illinois) on 19 July 1892, reports that "A magnetic storm raged here from 10.30 a.m to 4.30 P.M., central time, on Saturday, July 16, 1892. An electro-magnetic wave reached the general telegraph office of the C. B. & Q. R. R. at 10.30 a.m., making it difficult to operate, especially with the quadruplex." He says the energy "always appeared as a wave, beat, or oscillation" and seemed "to set up a counter electro-motive force in opposition to the batteries"; links this to Hertz's experiments; proposes "Perhaps a law like this will be discovered: All modes of energy alternate"; and notes "In some instances, telegrams have been sent by means of nature's electricity, without batteries. This is merely a prophecy of that time coming when men will appropriate electricity when they want it, as they do light and heat." He describes the aurora that night (9.40 p.m., pearl columns over 100 degrees of azimuth, and a 14-minute white "sword" streamer from the north-west horizon across Corona Borealis and Hercules to near Mars), and a sunspot group seen from 9 July whose bridges and "tongues" curved into a "cyclonic form" by the 16th, one tongue brightest "from 9.30 to 10.30 A.M., at which time the electric wave disturbed the telegraphs". He ends: "Whether the solar turbulence causes terrestrial magnetic upheavals is a question that future physicists must decide." - Bearing: this is the earliest statement found of the book's storm mechanism (pp.122-150) in Larkin's own words, with his own timing claim (solar tongue brightest at the moment the telegraphs were disturbed, i.e. a same-hour coincidence, which is what a light-speed EM-wave mechanism would need). In 1892 he left the causation open; in 1903 he asserts it. - Bearing on the earth-current table (book p.134): the date of that storm is 16 July 1892, a Saturday. 16 July 1882 was a Sunday [computed with Python datetime]. See "Corrections" below and research/2026-10-08-google-books.md.

Claim 4 (cosmogony, origin of rotation): Larkin's 1881 Science series

[web: https://archive.org/details/jstor-2900594, Science os-2 (1881) 318-320] In "Primordial Cosmic Rings. III" Larkin writes: "The doctrine that a sphere of atoms, abandoned rings, or any other shaped masses can develop into planets is a physical error. It is impossible that the ball revolved." He argues that external force could not spin a gas "of excessive tenuity", and "there was no external force; energy is a property of matter, and the nearest matter was 20 trillions of miles away. If the sphere rotated the motion came from internal causes ...". The series (II-V) attacks the ring stage of the Laplace nebular hypothesis. - Bearing: in 1881 Larkin held that nothing known could start the rotation of a primeval nebula; the 1903 book (pp.286-290) supplies an answer, electrical induction between charged nebulae (croquet-ball demonstration). The series shows the question was his for over 20 years. Not read in full in this run (only grep of the text layers); a later step can read the five PDFs (about 2 pages each).

Claim 5 (stellar floor): ASP report, Feb 1902

[web: https://archive.org/details/jstor-40668215, PASP 14 (1902) 26, "General Notes"] Quotes Larkin: "The writer assumed directorship of this observatory on January 1, 1901." His list of 1901 observations includes "During the year . . . The stellar floor" and a sodium-line study with the Brashear spectroscope ("The dust question is looming up in spectroscopy; and the silicious sheets sent hither by the Mojave Desert make havoc with solar rays"). The editor adds: "Mr. Larkin's report of the work is unfortunately too long to reproduce here", and quotes one sentence: "The entire background of Orion, as seen here, is either a complete nebula or an incredible number of excessively minute stellar points. After a rain and on the clearest, darkest nights, Orion is always bound in white, while at the same time other portions of the celestial vault are jet black between the stars." - Bearing: an independent (editorial) contemporary record that the stellar-floor programme ran through 1901, before the Sept 1902 Overland Monthly article. It also shows Larkin submitted a longer written report to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific that was not printed: a record to look for (ASP archives). - Related, as a lead only [memory: high]: a large faint emission nebula really does surround Orion (Barnard's Loop, photographed by Barnard in the 1890s; part of the Orion-Eridanus bubble). Larkin's "Orion always bound in white" may be a naked-eye or low-power view of real extended nebulosity rather than a universal floor. For the reviewers to weigh.

[web: https://archive.org/details/jstor-40671408, PASP 13 (1901), General Notes] The same notes column that prints Larkin's Encke note reviews S. Arrhenius, "Ueber die Ursache der Nordlichter": aurora and comet tails explained by Maxwell's radiation pressure pushing fine matter away from the sun ("This pressure is always away from the Sun"). This is a contemporary rival to Larkin's "EM waves at light speed" account; both use Maxwell's EM theory, but Arrhenius moves charged particles, Larkin moves fields.

Leonids 1901 (book addendum pp.315-317)

[web: https://archive.org/details/jstor-40668192] Larkin's PASP report, observatory altitude 3,420 ft; a table of meteors per hour for 15 Nov 1901. This is the published original of the addendum's "November Meteors" (661 meteors per the 1902 report).

Earthquake critique, 1906 (historical record; critic's characterization)

[web: https://archive.org/details/jstor-1632621, Science 24 (1906) 178-180] A satirical note signed "D. S. J." on Larkin's article "The Great San Francisco Earthquake" in The Open Court, July 1906, calling him "professor of astronomy and geology in the University of the Sunday Supplement". It quotes Larkin's reports of animal behaviour before the shock, sulphur-smelling fish, the planetary alignment of 18 April, and "blue flames eighteen inches in height" over marsh land at Petaluma and lights in the air before the quake. Who "D. S. J." is: probably David Starr Jordan, Stanford president and a member of the earthquake investigation circle [memory: medium]. This is an institutional critic's characterization of Larkin's reliability as a reporter, not a test of the book's claims. Note for the reviewers: the "blue flames" are earthquake-light reports, a phenomenon now studied in the literature [memory: medium]; the critique ridicules them without testing them.

Later books (claim 1, corpuscles = electricity = everything)

Within the Mind Maze (1911) [web: archive.org/details/withinmindmazeor00lark, text layer line ~1015]: "This is a round-about way of saying frankly that nothing exists but electrons. ... The universal, cosmical ether, if it exists, is beyond doubt nothing but electrons." He quotes J. J. Thomson on corpuscles at length (text lines ~8006-8040) and adds "mentoids" (thought-forms) sent by a Primordial Mind that assemble electrons into atoms. Continuation and spiritual extension of claim 1 (corpuscles replace the ether).
The Matchless Altar of the Soul (1916) [web: archive.org/details/matchlessaltarof00larkrich, text line ~8211]: "I saw Nikola Tesla perform one of his first startling electrical experiments of causing a long thin wire to glow and emit pure white light in a darkened room." A first-hand witness statement linking Larkin to Tesla's lectures (date and place not given in the lines read).

Corrections to earlier documents

facts.json (main entry, key_claims and summary) and claims.md claim 2 date the earth-current table "16 July 1882". The storm is 16 July 1892: Larkin's own Science letter of 19 July 1892 describes it (Saturday 16 July 1892, Galesburg), and two 1892-1893 electrical journals describe the same New York-Boston and New York-Providence measurements for 16 July 1892 (see research/2026-10-08-google-books.md). 16 July 1882 was a Sunday. The book's heading "JULY l6, 1882" (p.134) is a misprint or Larkin's error; the deep read's "16 July 1882" should be read as 1892. The deep read's inference that the volts column is about I x 3,700 ohms is consistent with the published 1893 summary (133 mA, 492 V: 492/0.133 = 3,700 ohms), so the inconsistency with the stated 2,700 ohms comes from the printed source, not Larkin's arithmetic alone.
The deep read (pp.124-142, section 7) says the site of Larkin's 15-19 Nov 1882 sunspot drawings "is not named". Larkin's private observatory at New Windsor, Illinois, had a 6-inch Clark equatorial from 1 January 1880 (research/2026-10-08-aaaim.md); the drawings were made with a "six-inch Clark equatorial", so the site was very probably New Windsor (inference).
Date Larkin took charge of Lowe Observatory: his own report says 1 January 1901 (PASP 1902); Wikipedia and the Altadena Historical Society page say 1890, which conflicts with Swift's tenure to 31 Dec 1900 (book p.319-322). Use 1900 (appointed, 11 Aug 1900 per AAAIM) / 1901 (assumed office).