The same result will be observed on throwing a ball directly upwards from a railway carriage when in rapid motion, as shown in the following Figure 24. While the carriage or tender passes from A to B, the ball thrown from A to C will reach the position D, but while the ball then comes down by the force of gravity, _operating alone_, to the point H, the carriage will have advanced to W, so that the ball will always drop more or less behind the carriage, according to the force first given to it in the direction A C and the time occupied in ascending to D, and thence descending to H. It is therefore demanded that if the Earth had a motion upon axes from west to east, and a ball, instead of being dropped down a mine or allowed to fall from the mast head of a ship, be _shot upwards_ into the air; from the moment of its beginning to descend the surface of the Earth would turn from under its direction, and it would fall behind or to the west of its line of descent. On making the experiment _no such effect is observed_, and therefore the conclusion is unavoidable, that the Earth DOES NOT MOVE UPON AXES! [Illustration: FIG. 24.] [Illustration: FIG. 25.] The following experiment has been tried, with the object of obtaining definite results. If the Earth is a globe, having a circumference of 25,000 miles at the equator, the circumference at the latitude of London (51°) will be about 16,000 statute miles; so that the motion of the Earth’s surface, if 25,000 miles in 24 hours at the equator, in England would be more than 700 feet per second. An air-gun was firmly fixed to a strong post, as shown at A in Figure 25, and carefully adjusted by a plumb-line, so that it was perfectly vertical. On discharging the gun, the ball ascended in the direction A C, and invariably (during several trials) descended within a few inches of the gun at A; twice it fell back upon the very mouth of the barrel. The average time that the ball was in the atmosphere was 16 seconds; and, as half the time would be required for the ascent and half for the descent, it is evident that if the Earth had a motion once round its axis in 24 hours, the ball would have passed in 8 seconds to the point D, while the air-gun would have reached the position B H. The ball then commencing its descent, requiring also 8 seconds, would in that time have fallen to the point H, while the Earth and the gun would have advanced as far as W. The time occupied being 8 seconds, and the Earth’s velocity being 700 feet per second, the progress of the Earth and the air-gun to W, in advance of the ball at H, would be 5,600 feet! In other words, in these experiments, the ball, which always fell back to the place of its detachment, should have fallen 5,600 feet, or considerably more than one statute mile to the west of the air-gun! Proving beyond all doubt that the supposed axial motion of the Earth DOES NOT EXIST!