telescope, distinctly visible; but on other experiments being made,
when the water was less calm, no portion of it could be seen from the
same elevation, notwithstanding that the most powerful telescopes were
employed. At other times half the hull, and sometimes only the upper
part of the bulwarks, were visible. If the hull had been invisible
from the rotundity of the Earth, the following calculation will show
that it should at all times have been 24 feet below the horizon:--The
distance of the light-ship from the pier is 8 statute miles. The
elevation of the observer being 32 inches above the water, would
require 2 miles to be deducted as the distance of the supposed convex
horizon; for the square of 2 multiplied by 8 inches (the fall in the
first mile of the Earth’s curvation) equals 32 inches. This deducted
from the 8 miles, will leave 6 miles as the distance from the horizon
to the light ship. Hence 6² × 8 in. = 288 inches, or 24 feet. The top
of the bulwarks, it was said, rose about 10 ft. above the water line;
hence, deducting 10 from 24 feet, under all circumstances, even had the
water been perfectly smooth and stationary, the top of the hull should
have been 14 feet below the summit of the arc of water, or beneath
the line of sight! This one fact is entirely fatal to the doctrine of
the Earth’s rotundity. But such facts have been observed in various
other places--the north-west light-ship in Liverpool Bay, and the
light vessels of many other channels near the southern, eastern, and
western shores of Great Britain. From the beach of Southsea Common,
near Portsmouth, the observer lying down near the water, above the
surface of which the eye was 2¹⁄₂ feet, and with a telescope looking
across Spithead to the quarantine ship lying in the “Roads,” between
Ryde and Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, a distance of 7 miles, the copper
sheathing of that vessel was distinctly seen, the depth of which was
about 2 feet. Making the usual calculation in accordance with the
doctrine of the Earth’s convexity, it will be seen that an arc of water
ought to have existed between the two points, the summit of which arc
should have been 16 feet above the copper sheathing of the vessel!
From an elevation of 2¹⁄₂ feet above the water opposite the Royal Yacht
Club House, in West Cowes, Isle of Wight, the pile work and promenade
of the pier at Stake’s Bay, near Gosport, and nearly opposite Osborne
House, were easily distinguished through various telescopes: the
distance is 7 miles, the altitude of the promenade 10 feet, and the
usual calculation will show that this pier ought to have been many feet
below the horizon!
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