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2026-10-06 Wikipedia, Parallax

Pages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Rowbotham and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Level_experiment Status: secondary (an encyclopedia drawing on Garwood 2007 and Schadewald 2015). Used here only as a map of primary records to chase.

Samuel Rowbotham article [web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Rowbotham]

  • Born 1816 at Stockport (Schadewald says Didsbury, Manchester; see the cantab note). Died 23 Dec 1884 in London after a fall from a carriage.
  • He used the pseudonym "Tryon" for An Inquiry into the Cause of Natural Death (1842; Abel Heywood edition 1845).
  • He organised the Owenite community at Manea Fen, beside the Old Bedford River. The article dates his first Bedford Level experiment to 1838.
  • The article names an anonymous 1819 pamphlet, The Anti-Newtonian, as the likely source of the ice-wall disc model (attributed to Schadewald 2015 pp.12-13). This bears on claim 1: the model's origin before Rowbotham.
  • Works: the 1849 16-page pamphlet; The Inconsistency of Modern Astronomy and its Opposition to the Scriptures (no date given); the 1865 book.
  • Plymouth, 1864: the Eddystone test, witnessed by R. A. Proctor (see the cantab note for Proctor's own words).
  • He held patents, including a "life-preserving cylindrical railway carriage". Not yet searched (priority 1 and 4 lead: UK patent records, 1850s-1880s).
  • He sold "Dr. Birley's Syrup of Free Phosphorus". The article says he was named in inquests ("death by misadventure" for one of his own children). Primary inquest records not yet found (priority 4).
  • 1883: president of the Zetetic Society. 1893: Lady Blount's Universal Zetetic Society and the Earth Not a Globe Review.
  • An autobiographical account published in 1872 is cited via Garwood 2007 p.317. Possible match: archive.org item IAPSOP-zetetic_n1_jul_1872 ("The Zetetic", no.1, July 1872). Unverified.

Bedford Level experiment article [web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Level_experiment]

  • Rowbotham, summer 1838: eye 8 in above the water with a telescope, and a flag 3 ft above the water on a boat seen for 6 miles to Welney Bridge. The article says the masthead "should have been about 11 feet" below the line of sight. The 1865 book gives a different figure, 16 ft 8 in at 5 miles (facts.json, book pp.16-18). This is a figure for the reviewers to recompute [calc lead].
  • Wallace (1870): sight line 13 ft above the water, and a middle pole to show the bulge. The referee, J. H. Walsh (editor of The Field), awarded the bet to Wallace. Hampden's libel conviction (Times, 8 Mar 1875: 12 months) is cited. The court later held the wager void and ordered the stake returned to Hampden.
  • H. Yule Oldham, 1901: three poles at equal height, with the middle pole about 6 ft high in a theodolite. Sources: BA Annual Report 1901 pp.725-726 and the Times of 25 Sep 1901.
  • Lady Blount, 11 May 1904: Edgar Clifton of Dallmeyer's photographed a white sheet 6 miles away, with the camera 2 ft above the water at Welney, and "was surprised" to obtain the image. Source: The Earth vol.5 nos.49-50, pp.1-3 (archived PDF). Supporting evidence by others for claim 2. Primary not yet read.
  • English Mechanic 1904-05: Blount's photograph, plus Clement Stretton's Ashby Canal test of 20 Jan 1905 (about 8 in of dip at 1 mile).
  • Refraction: the article states that a temperature inversion of about 0.11 C per metre would make the canal look flat. This is the article's (mainstream) characterization, stated here for the reviewers.
  • U. G. Morrow, 1896, Illinois Drainage Canal: a Koreshan Unity test that claimed a concave Earth. Related work (priority 3).

Bearing on the claims

Claim 2 (level water): there is a documented series of repeat tests by others, with opposite results: Wallace 1870 (curved), Blount and Clifton 1904 (target visible), Oldham 1901 (curved), Stretton 1905 (curved), Morrow 1896 (concave). The primary reports are listed in sites.md "Leads".