FULFILLING A VOW

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 136, 24 May 1933, Page 4

FULFILLING A VOW

SHAPE OF THE EARTH. TRYING TO PROVE FLATNESS. In fulfilment of a vow made to his father on his deathbed 50 years ago, Mr William Edgell, of liadstock, Somersetset, is spending his life in trying to prove that the earth is flat and that the sun moves round the earth—not the earth round the sun. Mr Edgell has erected a tube in his garden which he believes proves his theories, and he has written a book in which he endeavours to show that the astronomers are wrong he bases his theories on several Bible passages, such as this: “The world also is established, that it cannot be moved.’’ ' (Ps. xciii, !•) ‘ ‘ When I was a child my father reed the Bible to me, making particular note of the fact that it stated that the earth was flat and that the sun moved round the earth,” Mr Edgell said recently. “When I was 20 years of age my fathe 1 died, and on his deathbed made inc promise to spend my life trying to prove that the Bible is correct. “By means of an ordinary compass I located the Pole star, and then erected a steel tube inclined at such an angle that I could see the star through it. That tube has been in my garden for 18 years and every evening that star has been visibly through it. The fact that I could see the Pole star through my tube without adjusting its position at any time of the night during any month of the year proved to mo that the earth does not rotate. “If the earth rotated an airman could keep on flying round and round above his aerodrome until the earth turned round and he could come down. I believe the Bible is right in saying the earth is flat, because water finds its own level, and therefore, a ship sailing from, say, London to New Zealand nust travel over a plane surface, as the water at New Zealand must be level with that at London. “As for falling off the edge, the Creator has macle provision, such as the impassable Poles, to prevent us from going over.”