View source for Samuel Rowbotham

{{Short description|English charlatan (1816–1884)}}
{{for|the footballer|Sam Rowbotham}}
{{confuse|Samuel Rosbotham}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Samuel Birley Rowbotham''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|oʊ|b|ɒ|t|ə|m}};<ref>{{cite EPD|18}}</ref> 1816 – 23 December 1884, in London) was an English inventor, writer, [[utopian socialist]]<ref>{{Citation|title=The plane truth: a history of the flat-earth movement|url=https://www.cantab.net/users/michael.behrend/ebooks/PlaneTruth/pages/Chapter_01.html|language=en}}</ref> and [[flat Earther]] who wrote ''Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe'' under the [[pseudonym]] '''Parallax'''. His work was originally published as a 16-page pamphlet (1849), and later expanded into a book (1865).

Rowbotham's method, which he called [[zetetic astronomy]], models the Earth as a [[flat Earth|flat disc]] centered at the [[North Pole]] and bounded along its perimeter by a wall of ice, with the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars moving only several thousand miles above its surface.

Rowbotham's work is generally credited with the [[Modern flat Earth beliefs|modern revival]] of belief in a flat Earth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Being Flat Wrong · Outrageous Hypotheses · Digital Exhibits |url=http://digitalexhibits.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/2013commread/evovling/flatwrong |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=digitalexhibits.wsulibs.wsu.edu}}</ref>

==Life and career==
Rowbotham started out as an organiser of an [[Owenism|Owenite]] community at [[Manea, Cambridgeshire|Manea]] in [[the Fens]], where he formulated his ideas about the Earth. After measuring a lack of curvature on the long straight drainage ditches of the [[Old Bedford River|Bedford Levels]] in his first [[Bedford Level experiment]], he was convinced of the flatness of the Earth and began to lecture on the topic. He took a little time to learn his trade, running away from a lecture in [[Blackburn]] when he couldn't explain why the hulls of ships disappeared before their masts when sailing out to sea.<ref name=demorgan >{{cite book|title=[[Augustus De Morgan#Selected writings|A Budget of Paradoxes]]|volume=II|last=De Morgan|first=Augustus|authorlink=Augustus De Morgan|year=1872|chapter=Zetetic Astronomy|chapter-url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26408/26408-h/26408-h.htm}}</ref> However, as he persisted in filling halls by charging sixpence a lecture, his quick-wittedness and debating skills were honed so much that he could "counter every argument with ingenuity, wit and consummate skill".<ref name=garwood>{{harvnb|Garwood|2007|p=54}}</ref>

When finally pinned down to a challenge in [[Plymouth]] in 1864 by allegations that he wouldn't agree to a test, Rowbotham appeared on [[Plymouth Hoe]] at the appointed time, witnessed by [[Richard A. Proctor]], a writer on astronomy, and proceeded to the beach where a telescope had been set up. His opponents had claimed that only the lantern of the [[Eddystone Lighthouse]], some 14 miles out to sea, would be visible. In fact, only half the lantern was visible, yet Rowbotham claimed his opponents were wrong and that it proved the Earth was indeed flat so that many Plymouth folk left the Hoe agreeing that "some of the most important conclusions of modern astronomy had been seriously invalidated".<ref>{{harvnb|Garwood|2007|pp=56–61}}</ref>

In 1856, Rowbotham married for a second time and had two children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1861 when he was 46, Rowbotham married a 15-year-old girl (with whom he was living at the time of the marriage) and settled in London, producing 15 known children, of whom only four survived. He was named in numerous cases of wrongful deaths, including a "death by misadventure" for accidentally poisoning one of his own children. He was named responsible for other deaths using his quack cures of [[phosphorus]]. He was also alleged to be using the name "Dr. Samuel Birley", living in a beautiful 12-roomed house, selling the secrets for prolonging human life and curing every disease imaginable.<ref>{{harvnb|Garwood|2007|pp=132, 149}}</ref> [[Augustus De Morgan]] refers to him as S. Goulden.<ref name=demorgan /> He patented a number of inventions, including a "life-preserving cylindrical railway carriage". He is not known to have held any medical degrees and his professions are named at different times "chemist, physician, journalist, soap boiler".

[[File:Rowbotham's flat Earth map.jpg|thumb|Rowbotham's flat Earth map]]

His book ''Zetetic Astronomy: The Earth not a Globe'' appeared in 1865. His lectures continued and concerned citizens addressed letters to the [[Astronomer Royal]] seeking rebuttals for his claims. A correspondent to the ''Leeds Times'' observed that "One thing he did demonstrate was that scientific dabblers unused to platform advocacy are unable to cope with a man, a charlatan if you will (but clever and thoroughly up in his theory), thoroughly alive to the weakness of his opponents".<ref>Leeds Times, 11 May 1867, p.8. quoted by {{harvnb|Garwood|2007|p=68}}</ref>

==Influence==
One of Rowbotham's followers, John Hampden, a Christian polemicist, gained notoriety by engaging in raucous public debates with leading scientists of the day. A bet involving the prominent naturalist [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] in the famous [[Bedford Level experiment]] led to several lawsuits for fraud and libel and Hampden's imprisonment.

In the United States, Rowbotham's ideas were taken up by the [[Christ Community Church|Christian Catholic Apostolic Church]] in 1914, and were promoted widely when the church added a radio station in 1923. His work in the United States was continued by [[William Carpenter (flat Earth theorist)|William Carpenter]]. Carpenter, a printer originally from [[Greenwich]], [[England]], a supporter of Rowbotham and published ''Theoretical Astronomy Examined and Exposed&nbsp;— Proving the Earth not a Globe'' in eight parts from 1864 under the name ''Common Sense''. He later emigrated to [[Baltimore]] where he published ''A hundred proofs the Earth is not a Globe'' in 1885.<ref>William Carpenter, ''One hundred proofs that the earth is not a globe'', (Baltimore: The author, 1885).{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/lclane2/hundreda.html |title=Yahoo &#124; Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos |access-date=2008-03-08 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308062134/http://www.geocities.com/lclane2/hundreda.html |archive-date=March 8, 2008 }}</ref>

==Legacy==
After Rowbotham's death, [[Lady Elizabeth Blount]] continued the Universal Zetetic Society which Rowbotham had founded.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Blount, Elizabeth Anne Mould de Sodington [née Elizabeth Anne Mould Williams; other married name Elizabeth Anne Mould Morgan], Lady de Sodington Blount (1850–1935), pamphlet writer and social activist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-65868|access-date=2020-08-18|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/65868}}</ref> The Society published a magazine entitled ''The Earth Not a Globe Review'' and remained active well into the early part of the 20th century. After World War I, the movement underwent a slow decline, but it was revived in 1956 as [[Modern flat Earth societies|The Flat Earth Society]].

==See also==
* [[Figure of the Earth]]
* [[Geodesy]]
* [[Hollow Earth]]
* [[Lady Elizabeth Blount]]
* [[Mark Sargent (flat Earth proponent)|Mark Sargent]]
* [[Modern flat Earth beliefs]]
* [[Samuel Shenton]]
* [[Empirical evidence for the spherical shape of Earth]]
* [[Wilbur Glenn Voliva]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{cite book|last=Garwood|first=Christine|title=Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea|publisher=Macmillan|year=2007|isbn=978-0-330-43289-4}}

== External links ==
* {{Find a Grave|7368594}}
* {{Gutenberg |no=69892 |title=Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe!}}
* {{Internet Archive |id=zeteticastronom00rowbgoog |name=Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe!}}
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/ Full text of ''Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe.''] at Internet Sacred Texts Archive

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowbotham, Samuel}}
[[Category:1816 births]]
[[Category:1884 deaths]]
[[Category:English writers]]
[[Category:Flat Earth proponents]]
[[Category:People from Stockport]]
[[Category:Owenites]]