(5) That the region of greatest density, and the position of the interior surface of the shell, may be expressed with very approximate accuracy as follows:—The former must be at 0·7939 of the mean radius of the earth, and the latter at 0·5479 of the same; both counted from the centre.
(6) That if the earth is a hollow sphere, the same must be the case with all the major planets and their satellites, the sun, and all the suns, or stars, that are seen in the heavens; and that their interior proportions and form must be in much the same ratios to their radii as those we have found for the earth.
[CHAPTER XI.]
| Page | |
| [197] | The Earth. The idea entertained by some celebrated men, and others |
| [199] | Difficulties of forming a sphere out of a lens-shaped nebula |
| [200] | Various studies of the earth's interior made for specialy purposes. Difficulty some |
| people find in conceiving how the average density of little over 5·66 can be | |
| possible, the earth being a hollow sphere | |
| [201] | What is gained by its being a hollow shell |
| [202] | Geological theories of the interior discussed. |
| Volcanoes and earthquakes in relation to the interior | |
| [206] | Liquid matter on the interior surface of the shell, and gases in the hollow, |
| better means for eruptions than magma layers | |
| [207] | Focal depths of earthquakes within reach of water, but not of lavas |
| [209] | Minute vesicles in granite filled with gases, oxygen and hydrogen, but not water |
| [211] | The Moon. A small edition of the earth |
| [212] | Rotation stopped. Convulsions and cataclysms caused thereby. Air, water, |
| vapour driven off thereby to far-off hemisphere. Liquid matter in hollow | |
| interior would gravitate to the inside of the nearest hemisphere | |
| [213] | Form and dimensions during rotation. Altered form after it stopped |
| [214] | Agreeing very closely with Hansen's "curious theory" |
Consequences of the Earth and Moon being Hollow Bodies.
The Earth.—The idea that bodies such as those of the solar system, even of the whole universe, have their greatest density where the greatest mass is and are hollow spheres, is so natural and logical, more especially if it is supposed that they have all been formed out of some kind of nebulæ, that it seems strange it has never been brought forward prominently before. We say prominently because we know that the earth has been considered to be a hollow sphere by very eminent men, such as Kepler, Halley, Sir John Leslie, and by others of less name long after them. In support of this last remark, we shall make a few extracts—with comment on them—from an article on the "Interior of the Earth" in "Chambers's Journal" for February 1882, which have some interest in connection with our work.
1. "The great astronomer Kepler, for instance, in seeking to account for the ebb and flow of the ocean tides, depicted the earth as a living monster, the earth animal, whose whalelike mode of breathing occasioned the rise and fall of the ocean in recurring periods of sleeping and waking, dependent on solar time. He even, in his flights of fancy, attributed to the earth animal the possession of a soul having the faculties of memory and imagination."
If it could be believed that Kepler had any idea of the earth being formed out of a nebula, whether hollow, or solid to the centre, the idea of a breathing animal was almost a consequence, because the attraction—a thing he is supposed to have known nothing about—of the original nebula for the earth one, on matter so light as nebulous matter, would raise enormous tides and make the earth, in its then state, not far from like an enormous primitive bellows made out of goatskins. No one knows what dreams may have passed through his brain. The last part of his notion was altogether fanciful.