| PAGE | ||
| I. | Cranks | [ 1] |
| II. | Fire and Water | [ 5] |
| III. | Icebergs | [ 19] |
| IV. | Gulf Stream | [ 28] |
| V. | Daily Motion | [ 36] |
| VI. | Earthquakes | [ 38] |
| VII. | Volcanoes | [ 40] |
| VIII. | Rainfalls | [ 44] |
| IX. | Springs | [ 55] |
| X. | Glaciers | [ 61] |
| XI. | Caves | [ 67] |
| XII. | Artesian Wells | [ 68] |
| XIII. | Oases | [ 71] |
| XIV. | Things That Puzzle Us | [ 73] |
| XV. | Meteors | [ 80] |
| XVI. | Attraction of Gravitation | [ 81] |
| XVII. | Scientific Theories | [ 86] |
| XVIII. | Surface Influences of Water, and Change of Polarity | [ 88] |
| XIX. | Conclusion | [ 95] |
| Appendix | [ 103] | |
THE HOLLOW EARTH.
I.
CRANKS.
Cranks are appliances to turn things round.
A Crank that revolves only half way will not always accomplish much of a change, and in many cases would only aggravate the situation. Were it not for Cranks nearly all mechanical appliances would be motionless.
Men’s thoughts and opinions would all be the same, without some such device to get them out of the old notions, grooves and ruts in which they long have indulged and plodded. The world has known Cranks ever since our first parents adopted the wearing of fig leaves, and Noah took up ship building on the weather bureau suggesting cloudy weather and showers in Eastern Turkey. Moses was a Crank when he forbid the eating of pork, salt water eels, turkey buzzards, owls and all other unclean birds, fish or animals of any kind, but there is no doubt that these commands were none of his mistakes.
Sacred writ gives a plenty of such characters, but, by skipping to times more recent, we find such Cranks as Copernicus, Galileo, Columbus, Newton, Franklin, and, during the last century, the Crank family has greatly increased with Daguerre, Watt, Howe, Edison, Marconi and Tesla and scores of others, who, in some of the earlier times, would have been hung or burned as wizards and sorcerers.
Political, historical and religious Cranks have sprung up, turning over and upsetting many old-fogey and absurd notions and beliefs of the past.
In former times Cranks were the subject of ridicule and persecution for trying to inject some new ideas into the public mind. History is profuse with abuses of some of the best thoughts and discoveries that have come to the human race.