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 Cornell University Library 
 QB 502.S76 
 
 3 1924 012 314 252 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012314252 
 
THE GREAT COPERNICAN MYTH, 
 
 J» BY J* 
 
 W. W. SPOONER, 
 
 Century Press Bureau. 
 
 A Review of an Astronomical Pamphlet, "Algol the 'Ghoul' or 'Demon' Star", 
 
 a Supplement to another Pamphlet, "The Earth Stands Fast" by Brev. 
 
 Maj. Gen. J. Watts de Peyster, A.M., Litt. D., Ph.D., L. L. D., 
 
 F. R. H. S., of G. B., F. S. S. L, & A., of London. Maatsohappij 
 
 Nederlansche Letterkunde, Leyden, Holland, &c., &c., &c., 
 
 and Mr. Frank Allaben, Litterateur and Scientist. 
 
 PSALTER, PSALM XIX. 
 § 4~S. 
 
 5. ' 'In them hath He set a tabernacle for the Sun; 
 which Cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, 
 and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course: 
 
 6. It goeth forth from the uttermost part of the 
 heaven, and runneth about [his circuif] unto the end oj 
 it again; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof:' 
 
 ■ PSALM XCVI. 
 10. ''Tell it out among the heathens that the Lord is 
 King, and that it is He who hath made the Sound 
 World so fast that it cannot be moved." 
 
 PSALM CIV. 
 B. "He laid the foundations of the Marth, that it 
 never should move at any time." ("That it should not 
 be moved forever."" Revised Version.) 
 
 TIVOLJ, N. Y. 
 
 FRANK p. GREEN, ' \' 
 jl'lGOl. ., 
 
 ! Y 
 
A DEDICATION TO GEN. JOHN WATTS de PBYSTER. 
 Published in a pamphlet entitled "The Co^pernioan System: the Greatest Ab- 
 surdity of Human Thought" By Professor J. R. L. Lange, Pacific Grove, 
 
 California. t , t. j. 
 
 "I dedicate these pages to Gen. John Watts de Peyster, of New York, Brevet 
 Major-General, "for meritorious services rendered to the National Guard and to 
 the United States prior to and during the Rebellion;" and for his learning, literary 
 and scientific attainments, honored with the degrees ofM. A., Litt.D., Ph.D., 
 LL.D. by various institutions of learning. 
 
 Bravery on tne battle-field is, indeed, commendable and worthy of the highest 
 consideration, but it takes courage of a higher order to attack a deeply-rooted 
 popular delusion, especially if such delusion is treasured as a palladium by the ig- 
 norant masses. While there are thousands of educated and well-informed per- 
 sons wherever Anglo-Saxon and Tuetotiic civilization holds sway, who reject the 
 Copernican theory as an absurdity yet the great masses have been taught 
 to accept the same as an established fact; to them the Copernican 
 fal'lacy is the greatest scientific achievement of our civilization; in fact, the prin- 
 oi))al feature which distinguishes it from Chinese or some other civilization. 
 Not to believe in this absurdity means to be thousands of years behind the times. 
 It takes courage even to have an adverse opinion on the matter. I am here re- 
 minded of a case in the capital of the German Empire, where the ignorant rabble 
 used to follow with their jeers and hooting a most distinguished, influential, and 
 learned gentleman, just because he happened to believe that the Earth stood Fast 
 and the Sun moved. 
 
 It takes courage of the highest order to come out against this mysterious 
 deception, as General de Peyster did in his "The Earth Stands Fast". The silly 
 and idiotic remarks of an ignorant editorial writer reviewing this book called 
 my attention to the same. 
 
 "The Earth Stands Fast" is a most valuable contribution to the attempts 
 against the Newtonian-Copernican fallacy. It advocates the system of the 
 famous Tycho de Brahe, the greatest name in the history of Astronomy, the 
 father of our modern practical astronomy, the "Prince of Astronomers" as he 
 is called by ?the celebrated Bessel. Tliis book will help many a man to free 
 himself from the bondage of intellectual slavery, and encourage others to 
 raise their voices against the Newtonian-Copernican system, this mythical 
 conception of the universe, which has been such a barrier to the sound 
 development of modern philosophical thought. 
 Among those wlio are under obligation to General de Peyster is 
 
 The Author" 
 
 PtoBLISHEp IN 
 
 OCTOBER is; lEOl. 
 
 P.E 
 
The Great Copernican Myth. 
 
 About a year ago there was printed 
 in the columns of the Sunday Sun a 
 notice of a curious pamphlet issued by 
 General J. Watts de Peyster of Tivoli, 
 P. O., N. Y., entitled "The Earth Stands 
 Fast:'' "Proofs that the Earth Revolves 
 Neither Upon Its own Axis nor yet 
 About the Sun" As indicated by its 
 title, the object of this pamphlet was 
 to controvert the belief regarding the 
 mechanics and essential relations of the 
 heavenly bodies that have obtained ever 
 since the days of Copernicus, of which 
 the chief are. First, that the Sun is the 
 true center of the planetary system 
 which it illuminates; Second, that the 
 Earth is but an ordinary unit of this 
 planetary system, and in common with 
 every other unit is but a liumble satel- 
 lite of the Sun, revolving about it in 
 a fixed path; and Third, that what 
 are called the fixed stars of the firm- 
 ament are totally Independent of our 
 solar system, and of course, therefore, 
 independent of the Earth, their apparent 
 motion around the Earth being caused 
 by the latter's rotation on its axis. In 
 the place of the Copernican theory, 
 General de Peyster undertook to sub- 
 stitute the plan of the Solar and Stellar 
 system conceived by Tyoho Brahe, 
 Copernicus's predecessor*, who main- 
 tained thai the Earth stands still in 
 space as the absolute center of the 
 universe, with the Sun (and also the 
 so-called fixed stars) oscillating about 
 it while conceding that the other 
 
 * Bear in mind tliat it id a notable fact 
 that Tycho Bralie is teruieil predecessor, 
 whereas Allahen claims that he was the 
 sucessor iiecause lie not only lived after 
 Copernicus, but had the Copernican" system 
 ia theory — not demonstration — bef ("n'e him , 
 and deliberately rejected it on scientific 
 grounds. 
 
 members of our solar system revolve 
 about the Sun. 
 
 General de Peyster, in bringing these 
 aggressive views before the public, 
 did not, however, promulgate any 
 formal scientific arguments of his own, 
 but acted rather in the capacity of 
 American Editor and publisher lor a 
 German advocate of the "Tychonian" 
 theory — the late Professor C. Schoepf- 
 fer of Berlin. The essential part of 
 the General's pamphlet was a transla- 
 tion of a lecture delivered by Professor 
 Schoepffer, in which Tycho's idea that 
 the Earth is a stationary body and»that 
 the Sun and stars whirl about it once 
 in twenty-four hours was earnestly 
 championed Regarding Professor Sch- 
 oepffer's lecture as the most acceptable 
 available treatise with which to intro- 
 duce the elements of the reconstructed 
 astronomy to popular consideration, 
 his principal purpose, for the time 
 being, was accordingly to place it in 
 the hands of American readers. 
 
 In addition to the Schoepffer lecture, 
 and as an appendage to it. General de 
 Peyster's pamphlet embodied an ex- 
 tended essay from the pen of one of his 
 personal friends, Mr. Frank Allaben. 
 The contribution of Mr. Allaben to the 
 subject was, if possible, a still more 
 vigorous attack than Professor Schoepf- 
 fer's upon the Copernican hypothesis. 
 It was grounded largelj' upon its 
 writer's devout belief in the literal ac- 
 curacy of the biblical account of the 
 Creation, with which the Tychonian 
 theory fully agrees, but the Copernican 
 theory is totally at variance. In an 
 annotation upon Mr. AUaben's essay 
 General de Peyster, however, explained 
 that while he cheerfully gave publicity 
 to his friend's arguments in their en- 
 
tirety, the essential considerations 
 which governed him in issuing his 
 pamphlet were scientific and not re- 
 ligious ones that he personally bad 
 
 no controversy of religious dogma to 
 wage in attacking the Copernican 
 scheme of the universe, but simply 
 solicited dispassionate attention to the 
 scientific reasons against it. 
 
 Of "The Earth Stands Fast" General 
 de Peyster published, at his own ex- 
 pense, a large edition, which he dis- 
 tributed gratuitously tlirougliout the 
 United States and abroad. The pam- 
 phlets attracted considerable newspaper 
 notice, and also brought to General 
 de Peyster a large volume of corre- 
 spondence from interested readers. 
 
 General de Peyster is now in his 
 eighty-first year, an advanced time of 
 life at which to undertake the spread- 
 ing of opinions so contrary to the cur- 
 i-ent teachings of science. But having 
 made the beginning he was not consent 
 to let the subject rest without some 
 additional elaboration, and he has 
 accordingly brought out a second 
 pamphlet in furtlier advocacy of the 
 Tychonian theory, The new pamphlet 
 bears the following title: "Algol: The 
 'Ghoul' or 'Demon' Star. — a Supple- 
 ment to 'Th6 Earth Stands Fast.' by 
 J. Watts de Peyster and Frank AUa- 
 ben.'' Like its predecessor this pamphlet 
 is published exclusively for gratutious 
 circulation at the private cost of Gen- 
 eral de Peyster. 
 
 In the preface, which is jointly signed 
 by General de Peyster and Mr. Allaben, 
 it is stated that the principal object of 
 the writers is to deal with the difficulty 
 presented by the circumstance of the 
 tremendous velocity which must be 
 ascribed to the Sun if it is true that 
 that luminai-y swings around the Earth 
 once every twenty-four hours. "The 
 objection to the Tychonic system which 
 has the greatest real force," they say, 
 "is the supposed improbability that the 
 Sun, with its so much greater bulk but 
 
 lesser density than the earth, should 
 revolve around the latter with the 
 astonishing velocity necessitated by a 
 daily revolution, provided the Sun is 
 93,000,000 miles distant from the earth, 
 as astronomers now believe. The re- 
 markable phenomena presented by the 
 stars Algol and Mizar, and the" comets 
 of 1843 and 1811, as deduced under 
 the Copernican theory, we here present 
 as a striking check to any inclined to 
 despise Tychonic theory on such 
 grounds." 
 
 Algol is a star in the constellation of 
 Perseus which has for centuries pos- 
 sessed great interest for astronomers on 
 account of its remarkable variations in 
 lustre. It passes thi-ough a period of 
 nearly sixty-nine hours, during about 
 fifty-eight of which it shines as a star 
 of the second magnitude, while during 
 the rest of the period it gradually loses 
 three-flfths of its lustre, appearing 
 finally like a star of the fourth magni- 
 tude for about twenty minutes, after 
 which the lustre steadily increases 
 again to the normal. It has been de- 
 termined that the cause of this peri- 
 odical variation in bi'ightness is the 
 revolution of Algol around a dark fixed 
 orb in an orbit nearly coinciding in 
 plane with that of the earth's orbit, 
 thus causing a regular partial obscura- 
 tion of the circling luminous star. From 
 the result of recent observations with 
 the spectroscope by Prof. Vogel of 
 Potsdam, several very striking calcu- 
 lations have been made regarding Algol 
 and its dark companion, including the 
 following: 1, Tliat Algol is a vast Sun, 
 with a diameter exceeding one million 
 miles — about twice the size of our Sun, 
 though its mass is only one-half and its 
 density one-fourth as great. 3. That 
 the dark body around which it revolves 
 is much smaller than Algol, in fact is 
 of approximately the same size as our 
 Sun. 3. Tliat the distance between 
 Algol and its dark central orb is ex- 
 ceedingly minute in proportion to the 
 
sizes of tlie two bodies— less than 3,000, 
 000 miles. 
 
 Upon these calculations, which rest 
 on good scientific authority, General de 
 Peyster and Mr. AUaben liave the fol- 
 lowing plea for a candid consideration 
 of their arguments in favor of the 
 revolution of the Sun about the Earth. 
 
 Thus "The Copernican hypothesis 
 itself affords us a renaarkable analogy, 
 in many respects, to what most persons 
 will consider the most improbable feature 
 of the Tychonian system— the postulate 
 of a daily revolution of the Sun around 
 the Earth. True, the orbit of Algol 
 about its dark companion is much 
 less than that of the Sun around the 
 Earth (if we concede the current esti- 
 mate of the distance of the Sun from 
 the Earth), while the daily revolution 
 requires sixty-nine instead of twenty- 
 four hours, so that the velocity of 
 Algol is very much less than that re- 
 quired for the Sun, 93,000,000 miles 
 distant from tlie Earth, if it is really so 
 far distant, which has been again and 
 again denied, to encircle the latter in 
 twenty-four hours. But, on the other 
 liand, Algol presents features which are 
 apparently much more incredible than 
 any involved in the Tychonic hypothesis 
 respecting the Sun. 
 
 "According to Prof. Vogel, Algol is 
 twice the size of the Sun, but with only 
 one-half its mass, or weight, so that its 
 density is but one-fourth that of the 
 Sun. According to him Algol lias a 
 diameter of more than a million miles: 
 its dark companion has a diameter 
 which is very nearly that of our Sun , 
 or abciut 830.000 miles, while these two 
 immense bodies approach within nearly 
 three million miles of one another, 
 without coalescing. May we not justly 
 view with suspicion the dynamical 
 reasoning which sees nothing extraord- 
 inary in such propinquity of bodies so 
 enormous, induced by unifoi'mally 
 acting attraction which is proportional 
 to the great masses involved, and as 
 
 they approach one another increase's 
 inversely as the square of the distance 
 between them diminishes ? 
 
 "If all the planets and moons of our 
 entire solar system were combmed in 
 one globe, it would require one hundred 
 and sixty such globes merged into one 
 to form an orb with the mass attributed 
 to Algol's dark companion. Imagine 
 this enormous mass, one hundred and 
 sixty times that of all the planets and 
 satellites of our system, as the centre 
 about which revolves another mass, 
 twice as great, in an orbit only one 
 one hundred and seventy-fifth as large 
 as that of Mercury ai'ound the Sun at a 
 velocity less than that of Mercury! 
 In fact, the diameter of the orbit as- 
 signed to Algol by Dr. Vogel is but 
 2,000,000 miles, which is but a very little 
 more than the sum of the diameters of 
 the two orbs ! The imagination is great- 
 ly needed in propounding the mechanics 
 ' of such a system." 
 
 Upon the basis of the Algol analogy 
 Genei'al de Peyster and his collaborator 
 contend that there is nothing, a priori, 
 extraordinary or justifying ridicule, 
 in the presumption that our luminous 
 Sun similiarly circumscribes the dark 
 Earth. They point out that there is 
 simply a variation of the physical con- 
 ditions which requires no greater con- 
 cession to the imagination or accommo- 
 dation of the reasoning powers in the 
 latter instance than in the former. 
 
 They find another opposite illustra- 
 tion in the wonderful evolutions of the 
 double star Mizar, in the handle of the 
 Great Dipper, as established, also from 
 spectroscopic observations, by Professor 
 Pickering of Harvard University. In this 
 case, the two components are both 
 luminous, their distance from the earth 
 being so prodigious that their light is 
 blended together as though proceeding 
 from a single star, although they are 
 calculated to be some one hundred and 
 fifty million miles apart. Moreover, 
 it has been inferred that the mass of 
 
i; 
 
 the two component stars which form 
 Mizar is not less than forty times as 
 great as the mass of the Sun. "It is 
 plain." remark our authors, "that the 
 Tyohonian system cannot be con- 
 demned because it requires a grand 
 sweep of the imagination to conceive 
 of the velocities of Sun, planets and 
 star .spheres without reflecting upon 
 the credibility of the Copernican theory, 
 on account of the enormous dimensions 
 it assigns to many celestial spheres." 
 
 As a still further demonstration that 
 nothing violently shocking to the frame 
 of mind of the calm believer in the 
 Copernican theory is required for a 
 respectful examination of the claims for 
 the Tychonian tlieory, the fact of the 
 amazing velocities exhibited by Comets 
 is next cited. It was estimated that 
 the tail of the great comet of 1843 swept 
 through space at a speed of 65,400 miles 
 a second, or more than one-third the 
 velocity of light. "This velocity, "they 
 say, "which Copernican philosophers 
 are compelled by the exigencies of their 
 theory to postulate for tlie tail of the 
 comet of 1843 would be ten times as 
 incredible as the velocitj' of the Sun 
 assumed by the Tychonic theory, even 
 if the comet's tail had been of a density 
 equal to that of the Sun. But, on the 
 contrary, the tails of comets undoubt- 
 edly consist of gaseous matter of a 
 tenuity beyond anything we know on 
 the Earth; and by as many hundreds 
 or thousands of times as the matter in 
 this comet's tail was less dense than the 
 Sun's bulk: by that many hundreds or 
 thousands of times is the velocity post- 
 ulated by Copernican theory in this 
 case le.ss credible than that required 
 by Tychonian theoiy." According to 
 Giber's observations of the comet of 
 1811, material particles expelled from 
 that body's nucleus were hurled to tlie 
 extremity of its tail at a velocity ex- 
 ceeding 181,000 miles a second. Upon 
 this astounding Copernican fact the 
 Tychonian cluimpions make tlie follow- 
 
 ing comment: "It should not be for- 
 gotten that the velocity assigned to 
 these particles was in a direction away 
 from the Sun, so that the force of 
 repulsion which achieved such a result 
 had to overcome the attractive pull of 
 the Sun for the particles — provided 
 there is any truth in the accepted 
 hypothesis of gravitation. After this 
 instance of the tax upon credulity 
 which Copernican hypothesis is capable 
 of levying, let no one mention the 
 modest velocities required, as an ob- 
 jection to the Tychonic theory. 
 
 "The modest velocities required" on 
 the presumption that the Sun and so- 
 called fixed stars make the circuit of 
 the Earth in twenty-four hours, are, of 
 course, calculable only for the case of 
 the Sun — the distances of all the fixed 
 stars being unknown. The Sun is esti- 
 mated to be 93,000,000 miles from the 
 Earth; hence its daily orbit around the 
 Earth would be a matter of 583,700,000 
 miles, to traverse which in twenty- 
 four hours it would have to move at 
 the rate of 6,744 miles a second. This 
 according to General de Peyster and 
 Mr. Allaben, would not be an extra- 
 ordinary performance, in view of the 
 many strange things which tlie sup- 
 porters of the great Copernican myth 
 are compelled to believe. 
 
 It is supposed, agreeably to the pre- 
 vailing astronomical ideas, that the 
 majority of the stars are distant from 
 the Earth billions upon billions of 
 miles, t AH of these, under the Ty- 
 chonian theory, must, like the Sun, be 
 making the circuit of the Earth in 
 twenty-four hours. Our authors do 
 not for the present trouble themselves 
 to reconcile the necessarily prodigious 
 velocities of these remoter satellites of 
 the Earth to the ways of thinking of 
 
 t Tills is a mistake, the ■ accepted esti- 
 mate oJ flistances of fixed stars is not 
 conoerted. See Allaben's contribution to 
 ■'The Earth Stands Fast," and Professor 
 Sehoepffer's lecture. 
 
the Copernican mind. Having made 
 out a plausible case for the Sun, they 
 apparently feel that they have gone as 
 far as can be expected of them for 
 the time being. 
 
 Nevertheless, they are careful to lay 
 down the broad foundations for a 
 defense of their system in this and 
 other particulars. 
 
 First, they intimate that the dis- 
 tances and magnitudes of bodies in our 
 solar system calculated by astronomers 
 are radicallv wrong — that there are no 
 suflSfiient grounds for believing that the 
 Sun is 93,000,000 miles away from us, or 
 anything approximating that distance, 
 or that its size is as great as is believed; 
 and, similarly that the stellar distances 
 and magnitudes also have been vastly 
 over-calculated. This point was brought 
 out previously by Professor Schoepffer 
 in "The Earth Stands Fast." He argued 
 that astronomers have proceeded upon 
 wrong principles in measuring both 
 distances and magnitudes. He main- 
 tained that a fundamental thing to be 
 considered in reckoning the distances 
 and sizes of the Sun and stars is that 
 the law according to which objects 
 appear smaller in proportion to their 
 distance cannot be applied to shining 
 bodies, and on this basis of reasoning 
 he announced the following startling 
 conclusion: "The shining of- the Sun 
 being very intense, the sun must be 
 visible in its actual size at an immense 
 distance, and it is very readily possible 
 that it is not much larger than it 
 appears to our eyes." Throughout 
 their new pamphlet, General de Peyster 
 and Mr. Allaben constantly suggest 
 that the astronomers of the future will 
 utterly reject the inconceivable dis- 
 tances and sizes which are now ac- 
 cepted, and that with this readjust- 
 
 ment of the science accomplished, 
 there will be then no difficulty in fully 
 establishing the Tychonian system. 
 
 But they are not content with their 
 demolition of the Copernican scheme. 
 Sir Isaac Newton's theory of universal 
 gravitation is also to be set aside as an 
 error of the past. "Since the postulate 
 of universal gravitation," they say, 
 "apparently cannot be demonstrated 
 by experimental tests, as the existence 
 of molecular attraction, chemical affin- 
 ity and electrical and magnetic attrac- 
 tion can be, while the phenomena at- 
 tributable to an occult energy of gravi- 
 tation can apparently be rationallv ac- 
 counted for by the operation of forms 
 of energy experimentally known to us, 
 such as electrical and magnetic attrac- 
 tion, we conceive it to be the more 
 rational step to reject the hypothesis 
 of universal gravitation, and to resort 
 to an electrical theory in accounting 
 for the attractions of our solar system 
 as well as for its repulsions." 
 
 The pamphlet concludes with some 
 personal observations signed by Gen- 
 eral de Peyster, citations from letters 
 received from correspondents, etc. The 
 General describes as follows his spirit 
 in engaging in the controversy: "Im- 
 bued with the spirit expressed in the 
 motto of my mother's family (Forti non 
 deficit telum), who never hesitated to 
 peril life and substance in the cause 
 they deemed right, there is no reluct- 
 ance in throwing down the gauntlet 
 to the champiop of a system which has 
 onl^r gained ground through the veiy 
 ignorance and blindness of its adver- 
 saries, and the latter's real contempt 
 for the authority to wliich they have 
 professed to cling in other matters — 
 The Bible".