2017 Reprint of 1899 Second Edition. Modern flat Earth hypotheses originated with the English writer Samuel Rowbotham (1816-1884). Based on conclusions derived from the Bedford Level experiment, Rowbotham published Zetetic Astronomy. He later expanded into a book Earth Not a Globe, proposing the Earth is a flat disc centered at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice, Antarctica, with the Sun and Moon 3,000 miles and the cosmos 3,100 miles above Earth. He also published a leaflet titled The Inconsistency of Modern Astronomy and its Opposition to the Scriptures , which argued that the Bible, alongside our senses, supported the idea that the earth was flat and immovable and this essential truth should not be set aside for a system based solely on human conjecture. Rowbotham and followers like T. Winship Rectangle] gained attention in debates with leading scientists such as Alfred Russel Wallace. Rowbotham created a Zetetic Society in England and New York, shipping over a thousand copies of Zetetic Astronomy.
