214 



KNOWLEDGE 



[April 6, 1883. 



ensues. In the iiuthor'H solution, if B to K4, 2. Q takes B, then 

 B to Q7, unci tlioro is likewiso no matn. 



II. A. D.—ln Problem HO, if 1. Q to Kt4. cli, K to K6. 2. R to 

 1! 8(), Q to Ku, tliero is no muto on the move. 



Alf. Darby, Ci. VV. Thompson. — Problem 81, if 1. B takes Kt, 

 B takes B with a check, spoiling the combination. 



Correct solutions received. — Problem No. 79, IJolta, Henry Plank. 

 No. 81, J. A. Mayne, Clarence, W., 1!. J. P., East Marden, Schmucko, 

 U. A. D., John, BoiTOw, R. W. W., Th. Adamson. 



Algernon Bray (Now Vork). — Thanks for letter. The method of 

 pairing players is, as you say, very simple ; but it is very useful, 

 and diHicnlt to (ind out if you do not know it. 



A. J. JIaa.s (Switzerland). — Problems received with thanks. 



Clarence. — Best tlianks for problem. 



G. L. — Letter received with thanks. 



A Gentleman desires to play by correspondence. 



The recent annual general meeting of the Royal National Life- 

 boat Institution exhibits progress as usual, but progress that is far 

 from adequate to meet the increasing perils of our coasts. During 

 the past year nine new lifeboats were placed on various points of 

 our shores, and it is speaking within bounds to aflSrm that ninety 

 would not be too many even for present but pressing exigencies. 

 It may not be generally known, perhaps, that the year after nest 

 will be the first centenary of the lifeboat. The earliest patent 

 known for a lifeboat was granted in 1785 to Mr. Lukin, but nothing 

 came of this to much purpose until three years after, when Mr. 

 Henry Greathead, of South Shields, won a reward offered by a 

 committee of that town for a practical lifeboat. This fairly opened 

 the way, and by 1804. thirty-one lifeboats had been built and about 

 300 lives saved by then- agency. The next special stimulus given to 

 this form of benevolent invention was imparted by the Dnke of 

 Northumberland, who offered a hundred guineas for a still more 

 improved lifeboat, a prize won in 1851 by Mr. James Beeching, of 

 Yarmouth. The following year Mr. H. Richardson invented his 

 tubular lifeboat, and cruised in it from London to Liverpool. This 

 feat was, however, entirely eclipsed by three daring Americans, 

 Messrs. Mikes, Miller, and "MuUane, who in a life-raft, composed of 

 cylinders securely fastened together, started from New York on 

 June 4, 1867, and reached Southampton on July 25 following. 



(Bur ^aralrov Cormr. 



THE FLAT EARTH THEORY. 



MK. HAMPDEN being dissatisfied with our omission of those portions of his 

 articles " which seemed to us wanting ia explanatoiy or descriptive value, 

 and to bo merely vague denunciation of the accepted views, wrote to us the foUowins 

 cheerful letter:— ^ 



" Dbab Sib,— I Rave you most distinctlv to understand that any exhibition of bad 

 faith in the treatment of mv articles would compel me to denounce and expose as 



severely as I have the conduct of that degraded swindler, :•• [the 



name la given of an eminent man of science who, somehow, continues to be held in 

 great respect and esteem, despite Mr. Hampden's denunciation and exposure! " I 

 did not ask for the insertion of my notes ; and yon have no on" to blame but vour- 

 self, when vou find that your contemptible cowardice has entailed upon you a'mer- 

 ciless retnbution. Tour daring to expunge four-flfths of mv articles, under the 

 lying pretence that they were denunciatory, ia quite on a par with what my friends 

 told me I should be sure to meet with at your hands. You have, I am sorrv to say 

 a moit unenviable rejlulation. Such I would not have for a thousand a ve'ar By 

 pving those lectures in the St. James's Hall, you know that every shilUng you take 

 is obtained by false pretences. Every statement you make you know to be a lie • 

 and, before you have finished them, I will compel you to confess it. No one but a 

 mean, contemptible coward would dare to tic his opponent's hands, and forbid him 

 to aay a single word in reference to his adversary's statements. How can you 

 wonder at the growing contempt your infidel science is universally provoking? It 

 13 you, and such liars and swindlers as" [the above-mentioned eminent man of 

 pciencel , •■ that have brought the very name of science into ridicule and derision 

 t.o and ask that degraded thief " [our carth-flattcnor ia outspoken] " what hi- vil- 

 lainy has done for him; and before vou are manv months older you shall b 



ashamed to show your facer- ■■- = ^ ' ' ' •- ■ ■■ 



tell you what you" are, I am 

 so I shall speak of vou.— Yc 



is. Remember my'words. If others are afraid to 

 _ I have proved you to be a liar and a coward, and 

 S^c., John Hajipdeh." 



Here is the omitted passage from the second article. What appears at p. 185 

 followed immediately aVter this passage, and completed the article ■— 



I w-ill now proceed with my objections to the gIol)nIar theory, and unless I am 

 allowed to do this, It will compel me to adopt a method in the conduct of the 

 debate winch nosound controversialist would venture to employ. And my point is 

 gained if I can prove the fallacy of the Newtonian system. The mathematical cos- 

 mogony ot the modern professor has stood its ground as a part of our educational 

 systems lor the last century and a half, .simply because its supporters have per- 

 sistently refused to be called to any account, or to give any explanation of the 

 grounds on winch their chimerical hypothesis was originaUy framed. Many are so 

 apt to think It a display of learning to 'know' what they 'do not understaiid and 

 to accept the most flimay plausibiUties for genuine facts, that to ask theraa reason 

 fortheirsclcnuncbclief in generally regarded as an offence, and as a slur upon 

 their unden.landing8. It is this ground upon which I must take my stand • and 

 until I can bnng my opponents to their sounder senses, and induce them to confess 

 that much of what they ■know ' is nothing but hearsay, and that the authorityof 

 othera i» their only creed, I should be but putting colours before a blind man' or 



arguments before i 



npty chmr. If i 



I tell4 



las ben to the lop of a 



,, , , . ... rightto a.khimhowherc.icli«lit. 



It I go to a jiatent agent and require some security for turning mud into marble. I 

 am eiiieilod to show or explain how the metamorjihosis is produced. So when I 

 am told that some one has discovered this earth to be a ' globe or oblate spheroid ' 

 I am perfectly justified in aaking where that globe is to be seen, and *<,ir the 

 inventor came to make the discovery. Surely the man who aaserta positively it i» a 

 globe, ought to bo able to tell me koir he obtained the information, thai I may 

 know U too. ' 



" Now, I say that the moat learned professor in Europe cannot tell me hoa be 

 mows it. And I am called a simpleton because I do not choose to place implicit 

 rS%uicB upon what Jones or Smith choose to believe. I have searchad all the l«oV» 

 on astronomy that were ever written for some authority which would eiplnin the 

 ground of Newton's conjectures, but in vain. But I have met with scores of authont 

 who have denounced his whimsical theories in much stronger language than ever I 

 have ventured to employ. If this ingenious theory has existed in the schoolrooms 

 of England for 15n years, some of the teachers ought to be able to tell their pupiU 

 how its truth has been proved, Newton should have referred his disciples to facta, 

 and not alone to figures. A boy can show me plenty of figures on his copy book or 

 slate; but I want to see the ca.sh Ithose figures represent. Am I to be called a 

 dunce because I do not choose to accept his pencillings for pounds ? Then I am 

 told to look up to the moon to see the shape of the world at the moment of an 

 eclipse; but I may learn just as much by looking at the head of a red cabbage. 



"I confess I feel ashamed to have to s'tand up and declare that all the learned men 

 of the day are. on this particular subject, all wrong; but their confusion ought not 

 to dismay me, nor am I responsible for the loss of prestige they have brought upon 

 themselves. Their name is legion, and I am a solitary ..ne. Surely, if numbcra 

 can give courage, they ought to be able to crush me hy the very rumour of their 

 approach! Gohath cursed David for his presumption" in standing on the same 

 battle-field. But the stripUng triumphed after all : and, not for the first time, did 

 might succumb to right. 



" I am the very last to defend a wrong or to assail a righteous cause. But this 

 widespread and popular delusion has lasted as it has done for the lack of a little 

 moral courage to look it fairly in the face. It has existed on sufferance, and 

 served its turn as an ingenious 'display of mathematical skill, just as bank paper is 

 more convenient and portable than heavy coin. But if the coin was not forth- 

 coming when demanded, there would be a storm in the teacup, and many blank 

 faces seen upon 'Change. 



"As I said in the beginning of this article, it is not incumbent upon me to 

 prove my ease, or to spare my opponents the mortification of being shown that 

 they have not a leg t. stand on, or a single fact to which they dare appeal. I 

 have no wish or occasion to resort to ' denunciation.' " 



In the meantime we may remark that Mr. Hampden has subsided into silence as 

 regards his promised explanation of his own theory, and this ia something gained. 

 Witness the following, which may be regarded as his third and last article . — 



" Having been duly warned that I should meet with nothing but bad faith and 

 imfair treatment in the columns of Knowledge, I much regret that I was induced 

 to disregard the cautions of those who doubtless had good reasons for tendering me 

 their advice. When an editor is dishonourable enough to suppress four-fifths of 

 the articles he has volunteered to insert, in order to make room for a tissue of 

 senseless trash, which has nothing whatever to do with my subject,* and which is 

 introduced in direct violation of my original determination, as expressed in my 

 first article— that I positively refuse'd to be dictated to by those who for 300 years 

 had proved themselves the credulous dupes of the most 'baseless superstition ever 

 imposed upon the credulity of mankind— I now do what numerous friends, and also 

 strangers, advised me to do at the outset— namely, to * pi:t no faith in any pro- 

 mises made by Mr. Proctor.' His promises on the subject of my articles have 

 been most dishonourably and unjustifiably departed from. The charge of * denun- 

 ciation ' I most indignantly deny, and no one but a contemptible coward would 

 venture to tie the hands of an opponent, or be mean enough to attempt to draw 

 him into a discussion which he knew well enough no one would pretend to under- 

 stand. If ihis statement is not inserted, word for word, I shall be compelled to ( 

 inform my correspondents how fully justified they were in the cautions they gavea 

 IQP. •* John Hampdbn." 



Contents op No. 74. 



FAGB 



Science and Art Gossip 187 



Natural Laws: A I'eace-Offering. 



By H. A. Proctor 139 



Pleasant Hours with the Micro- 

 scope. By H. J. Slack, F.G.S., 



F.K.M.S ' 190 



The Chemistry of Cookery. VI. 



By W. Mattieu Williams 191 



Energy. By E. C. Eimington 193 



How til Use our Eyes. IV. {/«««.) 

 By John Browniiig. P.R.A.S 193 



nam | 



The Gr?at Comet of 1882. (niut.) 



Bv Professor 0. A. Young 19S I 



The Crystal Palace Electric and Gfas I 



Exhibition. (Illua.) 19« | 



The Face of the Sky 197 | 



Important Electric'al Experiment.. 



Logical Puzzle 191 



Our Paradox Column : Flat Earth 



t>. Globe 



Correspondence , 



Our Chess Column 



A^OTJCES. 



The Back Numbers of Ekowledgb, with the exeeption of Nob. 1 to IS^ I 

 31, 32, and 53, are in print, and can be obtained from all booksellers Ana | 



direct from the Publishers. Should any diflBculty arise in obtainisiE I 

 the pappr, an apolir-ation to the PubJighers is respectfully requested. 

 Just Published, Part XVII. (March, 1883). Price Is.; postage 3d. extra. 



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• This is rather cool when we i-onsidi^r that the senseless trash consisted of a 

 questions directly suggested by Mr. Hampden's theory. 



