1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. If you've 4 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: listened to last week's episode on tear Gas, you heard 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:23,279 Speaker 1: my story that I was trying to find something fun 6 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:26,400 Speaker 1: to talk about and my search for something fun instead 7 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:29,680 Speaker 1: took me to tear gas, which was not fun. It 8 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:34,559 Speaker 1: was infuriating. Uh. My shure list at the moment just 9 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 1: doesn't really have like, it's got a lot of stuff 10 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: on it, but none of it is really the tone 11 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,160 Speaker 1: that I was hoping for. And I did not want 12 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: to repeat that experience of going to look for something 13 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: fun and instead finding something not fun. So this time 14 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: I just said to myself, Okay, stop what you're doing. 15 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 1: What's the most absurd historical thing you can think of? 16 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: And I had this vague memory of somebody suggesting something 17 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:01,840 Speaker 1: about some one who was trying to prove that the 18 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: earth was hollow, and I went back in our listeners 19 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,760 Speaker 1: suggestion list. That person's name was Angela, and at some 20 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: point in the past, Angela responded to a call for 21 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: suggestions with quote that Sims Fellow from Ohio, who tried 22 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 1: to prove the hollow earth theory in the eighteen hundreds. 23 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: I have no recollection of exactly when Angela made that suggestion. 24 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,880 Speaker 1: It may have been years ago, but I apparently found 25 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: that wording of the suggestions so charming that I copied 26 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:35,039 Speaker 1: and pasted the whole thing into the spreadsheet word for word. 27 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that sims fellows ideas about 28 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: the hollow earth to day, and they were pretty wacky, 29 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: but first we need to look at some of the 30 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: work that he was building on. That work was not 31 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: quite so wacky, but it was also not correct. So 32 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: the idea that there is some kind of other world 33 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: or realm beneath us or contained within the Earth is 34 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: of course part of religion, mythology, and folklore all over 35 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: the world. In terms of what we were talking about today, 36 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:12,040 Speaker 1: In the seventeenth century, scientists and philosophers in Europe started 37 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:16,000 Speaker 1: theorizing that the planet was, at least to some extent, hollow, 38 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: and at first they didn't really have any data to 39 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:21,680 Speaker 1: back this up though. They were just kind of drawing 40 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:25,640 Speaker 1: conclusions from the existence of things like caverns and canyons 41 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:29,639 Speaker 1: and sinkholes and volcanoes and geyser's. All of those seemed 42 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: to suggest that the planet wasn't solid all the way through. 43 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,920 Speaker 1: There's some sound reasoning there, even if it's incorrect. I 44 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: mean sure. The first European scientists to really build a 45 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: hypothesis on this subject, and one that was based on 46 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: data more than on kind of a what if that 47 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:51,359 Speaker 1: was astronomer and mathematician Edmund Halley. You may also hear 48 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,040 Speaker 1: his name, said Haley Hall. He lived from sixteen fifty 49 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,280 Speaker 1: six to seventeen forty two, and today he is most 50 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:02,400 Speaker 1: famous for calculating orbit of the comet that is named 51 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,960 Speaker 1: after him. He did this after realizing that comets that 52 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: had been reported in fifty one, sixteen o seven, and 53 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:13,959 Speaker 1: six two all had remarkably similar orbits, and he suggests 54 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: that maybe instead of three different comets, they were the 55 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: same commet that it would be back in seventeen fifty eight. 56 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: He was right about that, although he did not live 57 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,080 Speaker 1: to see it. Yeah, he has come up on the 58 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,040 Speaker 1: show before, he has, and he did a lot more 59 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: than just figure out that one comment. During his lifetime, 60 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,519 Speaker 1: he actually calculated the orbits of more than twenty other comments. 61 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: He developed the first life table that was based on 62 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: accurate data, which started the development of the field of 63 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: actuarial science. And he made a map of the world 64 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: that included the ocean's prevailing winds, which was the first 65 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: meteorological chart published in Europe. He went on a two 66 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: year voyage of the South Atlantic to chart stars that 67 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: could not be seen from the northern hemisphere. And he 68 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:00,920 Speaker 1: studied the Earth's magnetic field extensively in Looting, taking other 69 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: voyages to measure magnetic declination, or the difference between the 70 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: magnetic and geographic north Poles. In addition to all of 71 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: that and other stuff that we did not even mention 72 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: Edmund Halley was a huge part of getting Isaac Newton's 73 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:21,360 Speaker 1: groundbreaking work Princecipia Mathematica written and printed. We talked about 74 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: that in our previous episode on Newton, as well as 75 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:27,839 Speaker 1: in our previous episode on Samuel Peep's Who Was That 76 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: Works in Perimeter. Hallie encouraged Newton to write it and 77 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: then halle edited it, corrected the proofs, wrote a preface, 78 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: and paid for the printing. He also mediated various conflicts 79 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:44,279 Speaker 1: and rivalries within the Royal Society, many of whose members 80 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: had also been working on, trying to answer some of 81 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,279 Speaker 1: the same questions on planetary motion that Newton addressed. In 82 00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: this work, Hallie's hypothesis about the Earth being hollow pulled 83 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:58,120 Speaker 1: together multiple parts of his work. One piece was his 84 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: study of the Earth's magnetic field. Old it had become clear, 85 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: for reasons that nobody really understood that the Earth's magnetic 86 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: poles moved around, and that the planet's magnetic field shifted 87 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:13,039 Speaker 1: in a way that seemed erratic. Having studied all this data, 88 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:16,359 Speaker 1: Hallie concluded quote that the globe of the Earth must 89 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:19,919 Speaker 1: be supposed to be one great magnet, having four magnetic 90 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:23,760 Speaker 1: poles or points of attraction near each pole of the equator, 91 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 1: to that in those parts of the world which lie 92 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:30,160 Speaker 1: near adjacent to any one of those magnetic poles, the 93 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:34,679 Speaker 1: needles is chiefly governed, thereby the nearest pole always being 94 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:38,800 Speaker 1: always more prominent over the more remote. So the problem 95 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: with this conclusion, which Hallie knew, was that quote no 96 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: magnet I have ever seen or heard of had more 97 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:50,239 Speaker 1: than two opposite poles, whereas the Earth had visibly four 98 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: and perhaps more. Also, Hallie had never seen or heard 99 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:57,480 Speaker 1: of a magnet whose poles shifted around and yet the 100 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:01,080 Speaker 1: Earth's four poles and perhaps even more of them, did 101 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 1: seem to wander. How he found his solution to these 102 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:08,840 Speaker 1: problems through his work with Newton and the Principia Mathematica. 103 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: In it, Newton describes the Moon as being far more 104 00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:14,280 Speaker 1: dense than the Earth, and he had come to this 105 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: conclusion by comparing the Sun's and the Moon's effects on 106 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 1: tides and factoring in the idea that the Sun was 107 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:24,359 Speaker 1: about a quarter as dense as the Earth. In Hallie's words, 108 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:27,800 Speaker 1: quote Sir Isaac Newton has demonstrated the Moon to be 109 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 1: more solid than our earth as nine to five, which 110 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:34,719 Speaker 1: may we not then suppose for ninths of our globe 111 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: to be cavity. So Newton's calculations here we're just not correct. 112 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:43,680 Speaker 1: This specific error has been described as possibly the most 113 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: glaring one in the entire prince Shipia Mathematica. But Hallie 114 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:51,719 Speaker 1: was working with what he had, and he came to 115 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:55,880 Speaker 1: the conclusion that the Earth was made up of four concentric, 116 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,080 Speaker 1: nested layers with space in between them. He described them 117 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: as quote subterraneous orbs capable of being inhabited, although he 118 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:08,120 Speaker 1: didn't really know exactly what type of life they might support. 119 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:13,200 Speaker 1: These inner worlds, he thought, were about the sizes of Venus, Mars, 120 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: and Mercury. They were each held in place by gravity, 121 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: they all rotated on their own axes, and at least 122 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:23,320 Speaker 1: some of them had their own magnetic polls. So all 123 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 1: of those variations that Hallie and others had seen in 124 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: the wandering around of the magnetic north pole and the 125 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,680 Speaker 1: shifts and irregularities of the Earth's magnetic field were because 126 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: of the movement of the polls of those inner layers. 127 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: Hallie presented these ideas to the Royal Society in sixteen one, 128 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:44,640 Speaker 1: and in sixteen nine two he published an account of 129 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 1: the cause of the change of the variation of the 130 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: magnetical needle with an hypothesis of the structure of the 131 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:53,280 Speaker 1: internal parts of the Earth, and he published that in 132 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:58,720 Speaker 1: Philosophical Transactions. Hallie thought this nesting doll version of the 133 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:02,960 Speaker 1: Earth could explain some other phenomena as well. For example, 134 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:06,160 Speaker 1: for these inner worlds to be habitable, as he thought 135 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: they were, they would need to have light. That was 136 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: something he thought might come from some kind of luminous 137 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:16,200 Speaker 1: material within. If some of that luminous material escaped through 138 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,440 Speaker 1: cracks in the Earth's outer shell that could explain the 139 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 1: Aurora borealis. He also noted the rings of Saturn, which 140 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,080 Speaker 1: were at the time believed to be solid and separated 141 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:29,920 Speaker 1: by gaps. He noted that as an example of a 142 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,319 Speaker 1: similar concentric system that people already knew about. And halle 143 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:37,080 Speaker 1: seems to have understood that this whole idea was a 144 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,160 Speaker 1: little bit fanciful, and in one writing he noted that 145 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 1: readers should quote lay no more stress upon this conceit 146 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:46,880 Speaker 1: than it will bear. But he also seemed to be 147 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:51,559 Speaker 1: really rather fond of this hypothesis. In his last official portrait, 148 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: painted by Michael Doll in seventy six, Hallie is holding 149 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: a reproduction of the nested Earth diagram that had been 150 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:05,199 Speaker 1: printed in philosophical transactions. In so, while Hallie's ideas about 151 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: the structure of the Earth's weren't correct, they were based 152 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,600 Speaker 1: on data. John Cleave Sims, on the other hand, had 153 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: his own ideas, and they came from nobody is quite 154 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 1: sure where. We'll have more on that after a sponsor break. 155 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:30,560 Speaker 1: Edmund Hallie's hollow Earth hypothesis reminds me a little bit 156 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: of our previous episode on Alfred began Er and his 157 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:39,120 Speaker 1: ideas on continental drift Beganer's conclusion was pretty close to right, 158 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:42,679 Speaker 1: but he did not really have a solid explanation for 159 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:46,000 Speaker 1: why it was to back that up. Hallie, on the 160 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:49,160 Speaker 1: other hand, did some solid work on the analysis and 161 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: the explanation, although it did rest on Newton's incorrect calculation 162 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:56,960 Speaker 1: of the Earth's density. Hall He's conclusions, on the other hand, 163 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 1: were wrong. Hallie's work on this, though, did find some support. 164 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: For example, Puritan Minister Cotton, mother of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 165 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:10,480 Speaker 1: repeated Hallie's ideas in The Christian Philosopher in seventy nine. 166 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:15,720 Speaker 1: Eighteenth century Swiss mathematician leon Ard Euler proposed his own 167 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,760 Speaker 1: variation on it, suggesting that the Earth was hollow with 168 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 1: a son at the center and that the planet's interior 169 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:27,479 Speaker 1: might have its own civilization. Similarly, Scottish physicist and mathematicians 170 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,839 Speaker 1: Sir John Leslie suggested that the Earth was hollow with 171 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: two sons inside. I love this sort of fanciful one upmanship, right, like, yeah, 172 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:41,440 Speaker 1: you're onto something, but it's really two sons, two of them. 173 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: And then there was John Cleves Sims. Sometimes he has 174 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 1: called John Cleves Simms junior to distinguish him from his 175 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:53,720 Speaker 1: uncle and namesake, the Elder John both fought in and 176 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:57,320 Speaker 1: helped finance the Revolutionary War. He's also served as a 177 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:00,680 Speaker 1: delegate to the Continental Congress. He bought a large tract 178 00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: of land in the Northwest Territory from the government, and 179 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:07,560 Speaker 1: that was known as the Simms Purchase or the Miami Purchase. 180 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: One of the settlements there eventually became the city of Cincinnati. 181 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:14,839 Speaker 1: This purchase, though, also led the government to change how 182 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:18,040 Speaker 1: it dealt with this kind of land deal because the 183 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: elder John Simms sold land that he did not actually own, 184 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: and the buyers had to re buy it from the 185 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: government if they wanted to keep it. This was part 186 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: of what led to Alexander Hamilton's creation of the Office 187 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: of the Surveyor General in seventeen ninety. Like his brother, 188 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:39,479 Speaker 1: Timothy Simms had also fought in the Revolutionary War. Afterward, 189 00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:42,040 Speaker 1: he became judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 190 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: Sussex County, New Jersey, and he married a woman named 191 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:48,320 Speaker 1: Mercy Harker, and one of their children was the younger 192 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:52,240 Speaker 1: John Cleave Simms, who was born on November five, sight. 193 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:55,800 Speaker 1: Not a whole lot is known about the younger John's 194 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:58,679 Speaker 1: early life or his education, although in the words of 195 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:03,160 Speaker 1: his son Americus, he had quote a good Common English education, 196 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:07,079 Speaker 1: which in after life he greatly improved through his grate 197 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:11,520 Speaker 1: fondness for reading and an insatiable desire for knowledge. This 198 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 1: younger John Cleaves Sims entered the U. S. Army as 199 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,760 Speaker 1: an ensign on March eighteen o two, and he started 200 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,320 Speaker 1: working his way up through the ranks. In eighteen oh seven, 201 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:25,560 Speaker 1: he was injured in a duel with a fellow officer. 202 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,920 Speaker 1: This was over a kind of petty dispute that stretched 203 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:35,040 Speaker 1: back to an altercation with a different officer over compensation 204 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:39,199 Speaker 1: during that second officer's furlough. I'd read a whole account 205 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 1: of this that he wrote in a letter, and I 206 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,640 Speaker 1: was like, man, this is just annoying and hard to follow, 207 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: and y'all probably could have cleared it up about dueling. Uh. 208 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:51,880 Speaker 1: Sims was struck in the wrist in this duel. He 209 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,720 Speaker 1: never recovered his full range of motion. Afterward he did, apparently, 210 00:12:55,720 --> 00:13:00,360 Speaker 1: though later become friends with his opponent. Talking it out 211 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 1: would never work um. In eighteen o eight, Sims married 212 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:07,960 Speaker 1: Mrs Mary Anne Pellettier Lockwood, who was the widow of 213 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:13,040 Speaker 1: another fellow officer, Captain Benjamin Lockwood. Mary Anne already had 214 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:16,280 Speaker 1: six children, and she and John had four more together. 215 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: By eighteen twelve, Sims had been promoted to captain. He 216 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,080 Speaker 1: served in the War of eighteen twelve before being given 217 00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 1: an honorable discharge in eighteen fifteen. From there, he and 218 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: his family moved to St. Louis, where he worked as 219 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:33,080 Speaker 1: a trader, both with the military outposts along the Mississippi 220 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:36,040 Speaker 1: River and with the indigenous people of the area. We 221 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:38,600 Speaker 1: really don't have a lot of detail about exactly what 222 00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:41,640 Speaker 1: he traded or what his relationships were like with all 223 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:45,040 Speaker 1: the people involved. Like that entire topic can be very fraught, 224 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 1: and I just don't have any information. Then, in a 225 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,160 Speaker 1: letter to a stepson that was written in eighteen seventeen, 226 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: Simms mentioned that because of the curious formation of Saturn 227 00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:59,120 Speaker 1: and its rings, he thought that all planets and globes 228 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:03,360 Speaker 1: were hollow. He did not explain in this letter how 229 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: exactly he came to that conclusion based on that information, 230 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,040 Speaker 1: did not say what it was about the rings of 231 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:12,920 Speaker 1: Saturn that led to his conclusion that the Earth was hollow, 232 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:17,400 Speaker 1: to be specific, But in eighteen eighteen Sims published an 233 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:22,160 Speaker 1: announcement on this subject. It began quote light gives light 234 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:27,800 Speaker 1: to light discover ad infinitum St. Louis, Missouri, Territory, North America, 235 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:31,520 Speaker 1: April tenth a d eighteen and then, in all capital 236 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: letters to all the world exclamation point, I declare the 237 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 1: Earth is hollow and habitable within, containing a number of 238 00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:45,720 Speaker 1: solid concentric spheres, one within the other, and is open 239 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:49,600 Speaker 1: at the polls twelve or sixteen degrees. I pledged my 240 00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:52,840 Speaker 1: life in support of this truth, and am ready to 241 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:56,160 Speaker 1: explore the hollow if the world will support and aid 242 00:14:56,240 --> 00:15:00,640 Speaker 1: me in the undertaking. John Cleves Sims of Ohio, late 243 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:04,320 Speaker 1: Captain of Infantry. This makes me wonder what sort of 244 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 1: grand announcement I would put under all caps to all 245 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:13,160 Speaker 1: the world. Uh. And then came the notation nb or 246 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:16,280 Speaker 1: nota ben a, which means take note. Quote I have 247 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:19,200 Speaker 1: read for the press a treatise on the principles of 248 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:22,240 Speaker 1: the matter, wherein I show proofs of the above positions, 249 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:26,800 Speaker 1: account for the phenomena, and disclosed Dr Darwin's golden secret. 250 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:31,160 Speaker 1: My terms are the patronage of this and new worlds. 251 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:34,800 Speaker 1: I dedicate to my wife and ten children. I select 252 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,800 Speaker 1: Dr s. L. Mitchell, Sir h. Davy, and Baron alex 253 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:44,160 Speaker 1: To Humboldt as my protectors. I ask one hundred brave companions, 254 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:47,560 Speaker 1: well equipped to start from Siberia in the fall season 255 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 1: with reindeer and slays on the ice of the frozen sea. 256 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:55,440 Speaker 1: I engage. We will find warm and rich land stocked 257 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:59,720 Speaker 1: with thrifty vegetables and animals, if not men, on reaching 258 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: one degree northward of latitude eight two, we will return 259 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:08,080 Speaker 1: in the succeeding spring. J. C. S. My favorite part 260 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 1: of the passage that Holly just read, which is not 261 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: evident to listening, is that slays with reindeer and slaves 262 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: is spelled s l A y s, which just makes 263 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:25,120 Speaker 1: me think of like bipedal reindeer armed with knives in 264 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,160 Speaker 1: their front hoofs. Is that not how reindeer normally stroll about? 265 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: Or no, I mean they should? Um So a note 266 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:39,440 Speaker 1: on these uh these names that he drops as his protectors. 267 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: These were Dr Samuel Latham Mitchell, Sir Humphrey Davy, and 268 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:47,960 Speaker 1: Alexander von Humboldt. All three of these were SIMS contemporaries, 269 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,480 Speaker 1: and for just a glimpse of each of their work, 270 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:55,200 Speaker 1: Mitchell was a doctor and a naturalist who conducted geological 271 00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: surveys and founded the New York Academy of Sciences. Davy 272 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,840 Speaker 1: was a kid miss who discovered several elements and invented 273 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:06,720 Speaker 1: a miner's safety lamp. There are actually some references to 274 00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:09,960 Speaker 1: that lamp and Sim's other work. Von Hombolt was a 275 00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:13,919 Speaker 1: naturalist and a polymath who undertook a scientific expedition to 276 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: South America and in the years after the events that 277 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:20,639 Speaker 1: we're talking about here, published Cosmos, a sketch of a 278 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,719 Speaker 1: physical description of the universe. We should also note that 279 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:27,320 Speaker 1: the idea that the Earth was open somehow at the 280 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:31,159 Speaker 1: polls was not new, just the opposite. In terms of 281 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,640 Speaker 1: European thought, it goes back at least to the sixteenth century. 282 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:38,600 Speaker 1: Gerardis Mercator, for example, promoted the idea that the Earth's 283 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,040 Speaker 1: waters entered the globe through the north pole and then 284 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:45,040 Speaker 1: passed through the center and were expelled from the South pole. 285 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:48,240 Speaker 1: He wrote about this in fifteen sixty nine, the same 286 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:51,320 Speaker 1: year that he made the map projection that really distorts 287 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:54,160 Speaker 1: the sizes of things the farther you get from the equator. 288 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:56,960 Speaker 1: But that also pretty much became the standard map for 289 00:17:57,040 --> 00:18:01,399 Speaker 1: both classrooms and navigation. It is not or if Mercator's writing, 290 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:04,600 Speaker 1: or this sixteenth century line of thought in general, may 291 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: have informed Sims's ideas, though okay, he just never really 292 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:12,640 Speaker 1: said where that idea came from. I also didn't realize 293 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,960 Speaker 1: that the Mercator projection of maps was quite that old. 294 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:21,119 Speaker 1: Sims printed five hundred copies of this announcement, and in 295 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,439 Speaker 1: some accounts, when he sent it out it was accompanied 296 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:28,879 Speaker 1: by a certificate that proclaimed him to be sane. I 297 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:32,600 Speaker 1: feel like, when you send out your announcement and you 298 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:36,639 Speaker 1: also have to get a sanity certificate, like maybe you 299 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,680 Speaker 1: should just just three check all your data. Yeah, yeah, 300 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: in the words of his son Americus. He sent it 301 00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:48,119 Speaker 1: quote to every learned institution and to every considerable town 302 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:52,479 Speaker 1: and village, as well as to numerous distinguished individuals throughout 303 00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:56,240 Speaker 1: the United States, and sent several to the learned societies 304 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:59,879 Speaker 1: of Europe. Sims also published a series of what he 305 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,480 Speaker 1: called memoirs in a Cincinnati newspaper that was called The 306 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,159 Speaker 1: Western Spy. These detailed all kinds of phenomena that he 307 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:12,000 Speaker 1: saw as proof of his ideas. These included visible circles 308 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:15,240 Speaker 1: around the polls of Mars, the rings of Saturn, the 309 00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:18,640 Speaker 1: phases of Venus, the belts of Jupiter, and the way 310 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:22,000 Speaker 1: iron filings makes circles under paper sometimes if you put 311 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,439 Speaker 1: a magnet under there. So again, in his son's words, 312 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:30,240 Speaker 1: Sims's message was quote overwhelmed with ridicule, as the production 313 00:19:30,359 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 1: of a distempered imagination. It was for many years a 314 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:38,720 Speaker 1: fruitful source of jest with the newspapers. Sources of ridicule 315 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:42,680 Speaker 1: included two of the three protectors that he named, Humboldt 316 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:47,600 Speaker 1: and Davy. Each dismissed sims This hypothesis entirely. But Mitchell, 317 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: who was described as being in general very generous with 318 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:55,080 Speaker 1: his time and energy with scientific and curious people, sent 319 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:58,680 Speaker 1: Sims a letter saying that he deserved quote great credit 320 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:03,160 Speaker 1: for ingenuity and originality, while also stressing in that letter 321 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:07,640 Speaker 1: that Sims's idea was a hypothesis and that hypotheses could 322 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:12,440 Speaker 1: be correct or incorrect. In his reply, Mitchell also included 323 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:15,680 Speaker 1: some other examples of hollow things from nature, and he 324 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 1: helped Sims out in the years that followed, making introductions 325 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,920 Speaker 1: and generally opening doors for him in his traveling and lecturing. 326 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,920 Speaker 1: So I've read this letter and the tone of it 327 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:32,159 Speaker 1: came off to me as like the patient indulgence that 328 00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:39,440 Speaker 1: someone might respond to a letter from a child. Um. 329 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:42,960 Speaker 1: I can't really say whether he thought he was corresponding 330 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,200 Speaker 1: with a child. Uh. You know that that announcement did 331 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:50,560 Speaker 1: mention that Sims had been in the army, But uh, 332 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 1: I have this imagined scenario in my head where like 333 00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:55,359 Speaker 1: he thought he was writing to an eight year old 334 00:20:55,400 --> 00:21:01,080 Speaker 1: and then met a grown man. But that's probably just 335 00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:04,399 Speaker 1: me making things up. Um. We will talk about where 336 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:07,639 Speaker 1: things went after this whole announcement was distributed after a 337 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:18,400 Speaker 1: quick sponsor break, Apparently life as a trader in St. 338 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,359 Speaker 1: Louis didn't really work out for John Kleep Sims. He 339 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,600 Speaker 1: and his family moved to Newport, Kentucky in eighteen nineteen, 340 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,119 Speaker 1: and that same year the book Simsonia, A Voyage of 341 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:33,640 Speaker 1: Discovery was published under the pseudonym of Captain Adams Seaborn. 342 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: This is a fictional travelog that details of voyage in 343 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: which Seaborn meets a society of people living within a 344 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:46,640 Speaker 1: hollow earth. It is sometimes described as the first American 345 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: work of utopian fiction. Makes several direct references to Sims 346 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,960 Speaker 1: and his theories and There are two competing interpretations for 347 00:21:56,080 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 1: this book. Either it is an absolutely complete, the earnest 348 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:04,200 Speaker 1: book that was written by John Cleaves Sims to promote 349 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,480 Speaker 1: his ideas, or it is a satire that somebody did 350 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 1: to make fun of him. I have not read the 351 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,160 Speaker 1: whole book, but I did read part of it before 352 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,399 Speaker 1: recording this podcast, and I read papers arguing each of 353 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 1: these points of view, and honestly, I do not know. 354 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,159 Speaker 1: I am a cynical person, and there's part of me 355 00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:26,800 Speaker 1: when this gets introduced that thinks he's just an epic 356 00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:31,760 Speaker 1: flam flam man. But that's again probably just me making 357 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:35,879 Speaker 1: things up. In eighteen and eighteen twenty three, Sims petitioned 358 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 1: Congress for funding for a polar expedition that he hoped 359 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:42,560 Speaker 1: would prove him right. He also gave lectures to drum 360 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:46,119 Speaker 1: up support in Newark, Ohio. In eighteen twenty three, he 361 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:50,920 Speaker 1: encountered an expedition headed by Major Stephen Long. Expedition geographer 362 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: William Keating wrote down some very strong opinions about Sims, 363 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,720 Speaker 1: calling him quote a man whose eccentric views on the 364 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,640 Speaker 1: nature of the globe have acquired for him not only 365 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:05,439 Speaker 1: in America but also in England a temporary reputation. The 366 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,760 Speaker 1: partial insanity of this man is of a singular nature. 367 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,040 Speaker 1: It has caused him to pervert to the support of 368 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:16,040 Speaker 1: an evidently absurd doctrine. All the facts which by close 369 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,960 Speaker 1: study he has been enabled to collect from a vast 370 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:23,119 Speaker 1: number of authorities. He appears conversant with every work of 371 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:25,919 Speaker 1: travels from Herns to Humboldts, and there is not a 372 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:27,919 Speaker 1: fact to be found in these which he does not 373 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:31,719 Speaker 1: manage with considerable ingenuity to bring to the support of 374 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:35,640 Speaker 1: his favorite doctrine. On the other hand, Sims apparently got 375 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:40,000 Speaker 1: along quite well with Major Long. Two of them became friends, 376 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,840 Speaker 1: and that just seemed to be a pattern with him. 377 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: People either found sims ideas to be totally ridiculous and 378 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,400 Speaker 1: questioned whether he was in his right mind, or they 379 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,159 Speaker 1: found him just so affable and earnest that they became 380 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:56,960 Speaker 1: friends and even supporters of his ideas. In eight four, 381 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,200 Speaker 1: the Simms family moved again, this time to Hamilton o'hi io, 382 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,080 Speaker 1: to a farm that he had inherited from his uncle. 383 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,720 Speaker 1: That same year, Sims went on tour with his stepson 384 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:11,920 Speaker 1: Anthony Lockwood and supporter Jeremiah and Reynolds Simms and Reynolds 385 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 1: parted ways pretty quickly, though essentially Reynolds thought he might 386 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,960 Speaker 1: have better success getting an expedition together on his own, 387 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:21,439 Speaker 1: and he was more interested in going to the South 388 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,760 Speaker 1: Pole than the North Pole. Sim's got approval to join 389 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,359 Speaker 1: a Russian polar expedition in eighteen five. He could not 390 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:31,320 Speaker 1: afford to go. Yeah, he was making like a little 391 00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:33,879 Speaker 1: money through donations and things on these tours, and it 392 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,480 Speaker 1: was barely enough to cover expenses and not enough for 393 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:41,000 Speaker 1: anything else. A book detailing sims theories came out in 394 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:46,200 Speaker 1: eighteen twenty six. It is entitled Sims Theory of Concentric Spears, 395 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:50,320 Speaker 1: demonstrating that the Earth is hollow, habitable within, and widely 396 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:54,680 Speaker 1: open about the polls by a citizen of the United States. 397 00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:58,280 Speaker 1: This book was really written by another of Sim's supporters, 398 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,240 Speaker 1: James McBride, who hoped that the proceeds from the book 399 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:04,320 Speaker 1: might fund an expedition. If you go looking for this 400 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:06,680 Speaker 1: book and you search it by the title, you may 401 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:10,560 Speaker 1: find another book that has the exact same name, although 402 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:12,879 Speaker 1: it is not by a citizen of the United States. 403 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:17,120 Speaker 1: This second book is by John's son Americus. It came 404 00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,320 Speaker 1: out in eighteen seventy eight. In addition to having an 405 00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:23,720 Speaker 1: identical title, some of the content of this later book 406 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:28,280 Speaker 1: is also identical. That's reportedly because by eighteen seventy eight, 407 00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:31,359 Speaker 1: McBride's book was no longer in print and there weren't 408 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:35,320 Speaker 1: many copies left, so Americas Sims just copied a lot 409 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,640 Speaker 1: of it himself into his own book. I like that 410 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,720 Speaker 1: the laws around such things were a lot looser. People 411 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:46,280 Speaker 1: were way more chill about about things being plagiarized them. 412 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 1: I didn't know, Like I didn't. It was in the 413 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,520 Speaker 1: order of things that I in the order that I 414 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:55,159 Speaker 1: read things. It was like another one of Sim's sons 415 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 1: who was like, yeah, my brother copied this book because 416 00:25:57,560 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 1: this other book was out of print and there weren't 417 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,919 Speaker 1: many more copies. And like, I came at that information 418 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,399 Speaker 1: very late in the game, after I had already read 419 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:11,680 Speaker 1: McBride's entire book, and I had started reading America Sims's book, 420 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: and I got to this part where I was like, 421 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:20,160 Speaker 1: I've read this before. Um, And my mind had already 422 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: been so bent by reading so much of the part 423 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:25,160 Speaker 1: that was not identical that I was like, have I 424 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:30,080 Speaker 1: read this before? In the words of McBride's book quote, 425 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,360 Speaker 1: According to Sims's theory, the Earth, as well as all 426 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:38,320 Speaker 1: the celestial orbicular bodies existing in the universe, visible and invisible, 427 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,840 Speaker 1: which partake in any degree of a planetary nature, from 428 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,760 Speaker 1: the greatest to the smallest, from the Sun down to 429 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 1: the most minute blazing meteor or falling star, are all 430 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:52,160 Speaker 1: constituted in a greater or less degree of a collection 431 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:56,080 Speaker 1: of spheres more or less solid, concentric with each other, 432 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,919 Speaker 1: and more or less open at their polls, each sphere 433 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,199 Speaker 1: being separated from its adjoining compeers by space replete with 434 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: aerial fluids. So yeah, not only was the Earth this 435 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,119 Speaker 1: kind of nesting doll with open polls, so was everything 436 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 1: else that was roughly shaped like a planet. This book 437 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:17,800 Speaker 1: went on to say, quote, the planet which has been 438 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:21,320 Speaker 1: designated the Earth, is composed of at least five hollow, 439 00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:26,320 Speaker 1: concentric spheres, with spaces between each, an atmosphere surrounding each 440 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:31,360 Speaker 1: in habitable as well on the concave as the convex surface. 441 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 1: Each of these spheres are widely open at their poles. 442 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,520 Speaker 1: The north polar opening of the sphere we inhabit is 443 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:42,600 Speaker 1: believed to be about four thousand miles in diameter and 444 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,639 Speaker 1: the southern above six thousand. In addition to the spaces 445 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:50,800 Speaker 1: between the nested spheres, Sims also thought that quote each 446 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:55,400 Speaker 1: sphere has an intermediate cavity or midplane space of considerable 447 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:59,880 Speaker 1: extent situated between the convex and concave surfaces of the sphere, 448 00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,359 Speaker 1: filled with a very light and elastic fluid rarefied in 449 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,720 Speaker 1: proportion to the gravity or condensing power of the exposed 450 00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:12,520 Speaker 1: surfaces of the respective spheres, And also various other less 451 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,800 Speaker 1: cavities or spaces between the larger or principal one and 452 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,479 Speaker 1: the outer and inner surfaces of the spheres, each filled 453 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,400 Speaker 1: with a similar fluid or gas, most probably partaking much 454 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:27,680 Speaker 1: of the nature of hydrogen, so unlike in Edmund Halley's model, 455 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,360 Speaker 1: which is mentioned repeatedly in McBride's book, so that's clearly 456 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:35,040 Speaker 1: something that SAMs did know about. Sam's thought that these 457 00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:39,240 Speaker 1: inner layers of the planet were illuminated not by luminous 458 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:43,320 Speaker 1: material but by the same sun as the exterior. He 459 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:47,479 Speaker 1: described the edges of these circular openings at the poles 460 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,800 Speaker 1: as verges, and he wrote that they were angled in 461 00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:53,680 Speaker 1: such a way that the Sun's reflections off of polar 462 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: ice could reach very deep down into the interior, and 463 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: he outlined where on the globe these verges were in 464 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,240 Speaker 1: places they overlapped parts of the world that had been 465 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:06,800 Speaker 1: mapped or were inhabited, apparently without anyone noticing that they 466 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:10,840 Speaker 1: were really inside and opening into the planet. Sims also 467 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:15,200 Speaker 1: suggested these interior nested worlds had their own weather systems 468 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,360 Speaker 1: brought on by water and wind being sucked in through 469 00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: one pole and expelled out the other. As we said earlier, 470 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:25,360 Speaker 1: it's really unclear exactly how Sims came up with any 471 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,760 Speaker 1: of this, like whether it was just his own imaginative 472 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: flight of fancy, or whether he had based it on 473 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: some kind of specific information. The surviving summaries of what 474 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:39,880 Speaker 1: he was talking about are not really based on data 475 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,600 Speaker 1: or measurements, but they do use Sim's ideas to try 476 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:47,920 Speaker 1: to explain a lot of other phenomena or to use 477 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,280 Speaker 1: other phenomena to back up his ideas. So, for example, 478 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:56,480 Speaker 1: the Magellanic clouds as described in Americas Sims's book, they 479 00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,840 Speaker 1: are due to the quote great refractive power of the 480 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:04,320 Speaker 1: atmosphere about the polar openings causing the opposite side of 481 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:08,920 Speaker 1: the verge to appear pictured in the sky. To be clear, 482 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,160 Speaker 1: the imagellantic clouds are really galaxies that are visible in 483 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:17,520 Speaker 1: the southern hemisphere. Uh. He also used meteors and meteorites 484 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:21,760 Speaker 1: in this way. McBride's book explains sims opinion on meteors 485 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:26,320 Speaker 1: as being sort of spontaneously accumulated in space as hollow spheres. 486 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:30,719 Speaker 1: It then talks about several specific recovered meteorites as proof, 487 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,560 Speaker 1: For example, one scene in Connecticut in eighteen o seven 488 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,240 Speaker 1: which broke apart in three stages. Some of the recovered 489 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:42,240 Speaker 1: pieces were concave and some were convex, and Sims concluded 490 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:45,320 Speaker 1: that the meteorite had originally been made up of three 491 00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: concentric spheres, like a miniature version of his model of 492 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,440 Speaker 1: the Earth. Sims also pulled in all kinds of other 493 00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:58,160 Speaker 1: phenomena that we're not planetary bodies or objects from space 494 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:02,360 Speaker 1: as evidence of what he was talking about, like sun spots, 495 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:05,800 Speaker 1: which that is in space. Maybe sun spots are the 496 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,840 Speaker 1: Sun's versions of the holes in the Earth's poles. Also, 497 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: have you noticed that stalks of wheat and bird feathers 498 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,360 Speaker 1: and the large bones of animals are hollow You thought 499 00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,680 Speaker 1: maybe that backed up his ideas also migratory fish and 500 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:23,560 Speaker 1: other animals that overwinter in the Arctic. Maybe they were 501 00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,600 Speaker 1: really over wintering in a temperate zone within the interior 502 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,280 Speaker 1: of the earth. So like, for example, musk oxen, weren't 503 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,640 Speaker 1: just migrating to where it was less snowy to survive 504 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:38,840 Speaker 1: the winter. They were really going somewhere warm and balmy 505 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:41,719 Speaker 1: and secretly hanging out there and then returning back to 506 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:45,320 Speaker 1: the colder parts of the Earth in the spring. Although 507 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: simms first announcement of his theory seems to have been 508 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:52,280 Speaker 1: almost universally laughed at, he did develop something of a 509 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:56,000 Speaker 1: following during his lecture tours. His last tour made its 510 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: way into Canada in seven, but the cold weather worsened 511 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,320 Speaker 1: his existing health issues, something that one of his sons 512 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,880 Speaker 1: described as an aggravated case of dyspepsia brought on by 513 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,080 Speaker 1: eating bad food while he was in the army. He 514 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,720 Speaker 1: went back to New York and then recovered with relatives 515 00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:14,960 Speaker 1: in New Jersey until he was well enough to travel 516 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,640 Speaker 1: back home to Ohio. He died there at home in 517 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:22,800 Speaker 1: Ohio on May nine, at the age of just forty eight. 518 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,600 Speaker 1: One of his sons erected a monument at his grave site, 519 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,960 Speaker 1: which is an inscribed obelisk with a hollow sphere on top. 520 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:33,479 Speaker 1: Simms was pretty deeply in debt when he died, although 521 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:38,160 Speaker 1: most of his creditors were family members. His eldest son, Americus, 522 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:40,720 Speaker 1: the same one who wrote that book, was only sixteen 523 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:43,480 Speaker 1: at that time. He took over the farm. He sold 524 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,520 Speaker 1: some of the Famili's land to get them on better 525 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,560 Speaker 1: financial footing. It does seem like they pulled themselves out 526 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:51,640 Speaker 1: of the financial situation they were in. In spite of 527 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 1: all of this, it seems as though at least some 528 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 1: or maybe even all of his family were really genuinely 529 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:02,160 Speaker 1: devoted to him. In addition into America Simms's book, another 530 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,920 Speaker 1: of John's children, Elmore Simms, also wrote an account of 531 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,480 Speaker 1: his life and work, which was published in three parts 532 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:13,040 Speaker 1: in the magazine Southern Bivouac in eighteen eighty seven. As 533 00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,560 Speaker 1: for Jeremiah Reynolds, he kept trying to get funding for 534 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,240 Speaker 1: a polar expedition, including meeting with President John Quincy Adams 535 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:23,920 Speaker 1: in eight This did not work out, and he turned 536 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,360 Speaker 1: to the private sector, and he wound up stuck in 537 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,440 Speaker 1: Chile after a mutiny in eighteen twenty nine. While he 538 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,240 Speaker 1: was there he heard a story about a white whale, 539 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:36,760 Speaker 1: which led him to write Mocha Dick, or the White 540 00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: Whale of the Pacific, one of the inspirations for Herman 541 00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 1: Melville's Moby Dick. Finally, Reynolds was part of the Great 542 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,520 Speaker 1: United States Exploring Expedition or the x X, which could 543 00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:50,240 Speaker 1: be its own episode. At some point they did not 544 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:53,800 Speaker 1: find evidence of Simms holes, but many of the specimens 545 00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,800 Speaker 1: they returned with helped build the collections at the newly 546 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:02,240 Speaker 1: established Smithsonian Institution. Yeah. That, Uh, that expedition as a 547 00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:09,160 Speaker 1: whole story separate from this. Obviously, reynolds expeditions and Sim's 548 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: theories also helped inspire Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel, 549 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:17,920 Speaker 1: which is narrative of Arthur Gordon pim of Nantucket and 550 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:20,919 Speaker 1: Sim's really heavy promotion of this idea of the Earth 551 00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,680 Speaker 1: being hollow and something that was inhabitable that you could 552 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:28,080 Speaker 1: travel into. That helped make strange worlds in the Earth's 553 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:31,239 Speaker 1: interior a common setting for works of science fiction and 554 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:35,200 Speaker 1: fantasy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Uh 555 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:39,719 Speaker 1: lovecraftoes him a debt of gratitude. Today our knowledge of 556 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: the interior structure of the Earth comes from the study 557 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:47,320 Speaker 1: of seismic waves. In six Danish seismologist INGA. Lehman published 558 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,080 Speaker 1: work describing an inner core and outer core and a 559 00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:54,000 Speaker 1: mantle beneath the Earth's crust. The prevailing theory for the 560 00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,719 Speaker 1: Earth's magnetic field and its variance is that it comes 561 00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,760 Speaker 1: from the dynamo effect, which is the result of fluid 562 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:04,080 Speaker 1: mo shan in the Earth's outer core. Ingaliman also seems 563 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:07,719 Speaker 1: to have a really interesting work. I was thinking about 564 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,000 Speaker 1: whether to try to do an episode on her as well, 565 00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:13,080 Speaker 1: but at a glance I was not able to find 566 00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: quite enough information. So She'll be on like my future 567 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:21,240 Speaker 1: list to try to gather more info on over time. 568 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,080 Speaker 1: That sounds good to me. Yeah, that is John Cleave 569 00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:30,359 Speaker 1: sims um Is ideas were just kind of wacky, I mean, 570 00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:36,640 Speaker 1: wonderfully imaginative. That's also true. I want to I want 571 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,320 Speaker 1: to celebrate the good at the moment. Uh, do you 572 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,480 Speaker 1: have good listener mail to celebrate? I do. This is 573 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,640 Speaker 1: from Lena, and I answered this email, but I also 574 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,840 Speaker 1: thought that other folks listening to the show might be 575 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:52,360 Speaker 1: interested as well. Lena wrote in to say hi, Holly 576 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 1: and Tracy, Thank you so much for your informative podcast. 577 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,200 Speaker 1: I've been listening for years, and this is my first 578 00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,040 Speaker 1: time writing in thank you for introducing tumon Bay a 579 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:03,440 Speaker 1: couple of months ago. I've enjoying it as well. Listening 580 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:05,560 Speaker 1: to tumon Bay and some of your shows that deal 581 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,160 Speaker 1: with the history of slavery got me thinking, how did 582 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:11,360 Speaker 1: the idea of slavery first come about? I understand that 583 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,520 Speaker 1: chattel slavery in the US and other settler colonies was 584 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 1: the most extreme and ugly manifestation of the practice, but 585 00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:20,120 Speaker 1: I also know that slavery is thousands of years old. 586 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,040 Speaker 1: Without it being an accepted practice in the first place, 587 00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:26,760 Speaker 1: the Atlantic slave trade couldn't have come about. I vaguely 588 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,520 Speaker 1: understand that slavery originated with the victors of war making 589 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:33,480 Speaker 1: prisoners of war work for them, but I wonder how 590 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:36,640 Speaker 1: it became a widespread, accepted practice. It still seems like 591 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,600 Speaker 1: a huge moral jump from forcing prisoners of war to 592 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:43,960 Speaker 1: work to families casually owning, buying, and selling their household 593 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:49,280 Speaker 1: staff as property, and farmers owning the workers in their fields. 594 00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:52,160 Speaker 1: Would you consider doing an episode about the history of 595 00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:55,360 Speaker 1: how the concept of slavery came about and became widely accepted. 596 00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,840 Speaker 1: How did humans decide it was okay to own other humans? 597 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:01,200 Speaker 1: Thank you again for all you you best wishes, Lena, 598 00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:03,960 Speaker 1: So thank you so much, Lena for this email. I 599 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:06,319 Speaker 1: did answer it, and the basic answer that I gave 600 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,000 Speaker 1: is like, I'm not sure if the question of where 601 00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:13,640 Speaker 1: slavery originally came from as really answerable since it's been 602 00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:17,000 Speaker 1: present in some form for so many societies around the world, 603 00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:20,400 Speaker 1: probably going back to before there was written record of 604 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:25,040 Speaker 1: anything to go back to. But there are two other 605 00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:29,600 Speaker 1: podcasts that have looked at this whole question. It's way 606 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:33,880 Speaker 1: more than one episode worth of stuff. Um So the 607 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:35,680 Speaker 1: one that I mentioned when I wrote back to Lena 608 00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:41,000 Speaker 1: was uh Slate's History of American Slavery podcast, which used 609 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,880 Speaker 1: to be available only for Slate Plus subscribers but now 610 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,040 Speaker 1: is available to anybody. It is hosted by Jamal Bowie 611 00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,920 Speaker 1: and Rebecca Onion, and it looks step by step at 612 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:54,279 Speaker 1: this evolution of slavery, specifically in the United States, and 613 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:58,080 Speaker 1: how it went from something that looked more like the 614 00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,359 Speaker 1: way slavery has been practiced in lots of other parts 615 00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:06,000 Speaker 1: of the world, um to something that became like the 616 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:12,520 Speaker 1: hereditary racial or race based uh slavery that we have 617 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:15,239 Speaker 1: talked to so much about on the show. UM. The 618 00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:20,480 Speaker 1: other one is a season of the podcast seen on radio, 619 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,360 Speaker 1: and that season is called Seeing White. I feel like 620 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:26,520 Speaker 1: it's the second season of that show, but I might 621 00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:30,759 Speaker 1: be wrong. That is hosted by John Bwen and Sinderi Kumunika, 622 00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:36,040 Speaker 1: and it looks at the idea of of like white 623 00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:40,440 Speaker 1: people and how that idea evolved, and especially the earlier 624 00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:44,560 Speaker 1: episodes talk about that a lot in the way that 625 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,839 Speaker 1: slavery transformed and like how in a lot of ways 626 00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:54,799 Speaker 1: these racist ideas were created to support the institution of slavery. UM. 627 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:59,920 Speaker 1: So both of those podcasts are excellent. I highly recommend 628 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:02,920 Speaker 1: them to everyone. They like. They to me work really 629 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:08,960 Speaker 1: well together along with also uh like the podcast also 630 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,440 Speaker 1: has some of the same information, UM, but all of 631 00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,800 Speaker 1: it is like different angles on the same h the 632 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,840 Speaker 1: same stuff, and so all of that I think is 633 00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,440 Speaker 1: is absolutely worth a listen. So thank you so much 634 00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:27,000 Speaker 1: for that question. UH. Those other podcasts again are all great. UM. 635 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:31,239 Speaker 1: They should all be available on any podcast platform that 636 00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:33,600 Speaker 1: you like. If you would like to write to us 637 00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:36,720 Speaker 1: about this or any other podcast, or at history podcast 638 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,560 Speaker 1: at i heart radio dot com. And then we're all 639 00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:41,879 Speaker 1: over social media at missed in History and that's where 640 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:45,320 Speaker 1: you'll find our Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest, Instagram, and 641 00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:47,759 Speaker 1: you can subscribe to our show on the I heart 642 00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:51,000 Speaker 1: radio app and Apple podcasts and anywhere else to get 643 00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:58,239 Speaker 1: your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a 644 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:01,440 Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I 645 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:04,920 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 646 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:07,840 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H