| William Carpenter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 0 December 1830 Greenwich, England |
| Died | 1 September 1896 (aged 66) Baltimore, Maryland |
| Residence | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Nationality | English |
| Citizenship | USA |
| Occupation | printer |
| Known for | Flat Earth proponent and author |
| Spouse | Annie |
William Carpenter (1830-1896), an English printer and author was a proponent of the Flat Earth theory active in England and the United States in the Nineteenth Century.[1] Carpenter immigrated to the United States and continued his advocacy of the Flat Earth movement.
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Carpenter was born in the year 1830 in England, where he became a printer and stenographer by profession, working primarily in Greenwich, England. In 1879, he moved from England to Baltimore, Maryland, where he continued his work as a printer. The 1880 U.S. federal census shows him and his wife Annie with six children aged 11-25 years whose occupations included milliner, architect, professor of music, and florist.[2] He died on September 1, 1896 at Baltimore.[3][4]
Carpenter was a passionate advocate of the flat earth theory, which holds that the earth is not a globe, but a flat square which revolves on a central axis with the sun stationary over the center.[5]
Carpenter, a printer originally from Greenwich, England, published Theoretical Astronomy Examined and Exposed - 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.[6]
Carpenter argued that:
Carpenter was a proponent of English writer Samuel Rowbotham (1816–1885), who produced a pamphlet, with Carpenter's assistance, called Zetetic Astronomy in 1849 arguing for a flat Earth and published results of many experiments that tested the curvatures of water over a long drainage ditch, followed by another called The inconsistency of Modern Astronomy and its Opposition to the Scripture. Rowbotham also produced studies, mostly printed by Carpenter, that purported to show the effects of ships disappearing below the horizon could be explained by the laws of perspective in relation to the human eye.[7]
Some of Carpenter's works found commercial publishers, but many were printed, bound, and sold by himself, at times under the pen-name "Common Sense."[8][9][10] An incomplete list includes:
– Communion with 'Ministering Spirits', William Horsall, 1858.
– The Earth not a Globe, by Common Sense (a poem), London: Job Caudwell, 1864.
– Sir Isaac Newton's Theoretical Astronomy Examined and Refuted by Common Sense, n.p., n.d. (ca. 1867).
– Something About Spiritualism: a Reply to Professor Airy's Ipswich Lectures to Workingmen, London: Job Caudwell, 1865.
– Theoretical Astronomy Examined and Exposed, London: Job Caudwell, 1866.
– Bosh and Bunkum: Religious Arguments Why the Earth is Not Round, London: Heywood & Co.; William Carpenter, Printer, Greenwich, 1868.
– Theoretical Astronomy Examined and Exposed, The Author, 1869.
– The Flying Philosophers, London: British & Colonial Publishing Co., 1871.
– Water, not Convex: the Earth not a Globe! Demonstrated by Alfred Russel Wallace on the 5th March 1870, The Author, 1871.
– The Bedford Level Experiment, The Author, 1872.[11]
– Sense versus Science, The Author, 1873.
– Proctor's Planet Earth, The Author, 1875.
– Wallace's Wonderful Water, London: Abel Heywood, 1875.
– Mr. Lockyer's Logic: An Exposition of Mr. J. Norman Lockyer's Astronomy, London: The Author, 1876.
– The Delusion of the Day, or Dyer's Reply to Parallax, London: Abel Heywood, 1877.
– One Hundred Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe, Baltimore: The Author, 1885.[12]
He also published two magazines, Carpenter's Folly, of which only a few issues were printed in 1887, and Shorthand which was issued from 1893-1894.[13]