Snake escape from the north pole series#

He added that he was “ready to explore the hollow, if the world will support and aid me.” Public Domain / WikipediaĮven in the 19th century, Symmes’ theories were greeted with derision from the public and scientific community, but he would not be silenced.

“I declare the earth is hollow and habitable within,” Symmes wrote in 1818. 1, that the inside of the Earth would be “stocked with thrifty vegetables and animals if not men.” Symmes believed that his theory was not science fiction, but science fact, and that it applied not only to the Earth, but to all planetary bodies. He too believed that the interior of the Earth not only could, but did support life, saying in Circular No. In his very first declaration, Symmes proposed to mount an expedition to the North Pole, where he was sure they could locate one of these apertures and gain access to the inner Earth. These holes, his unique addition to Hollow Earth theory, would even come to be known as “Symmes Holes.” His initial vision of the Earth’s interior was like a simplified version of Halley’s multi-layered model, with the exception that Symmes’ version included huge holes at the north and south poles which allowed access to the hidden world inside.

Symmes, a veteran of the War of 1812 and an unsuccessful trader, soon became maybe the most famous and successful proponent of the Hollow Earth theory. 1, declaring to the world that the Earth is hollow. Regardless of where it originated, the model of a Hollow Earth managed to grow and survive. According to a number of hollow Earth websites, this vision was developed among famous mathematicians and scientists such as Leonhard Euler in the 18th century and Sir John Leslie in the 19th century, although the sources for these accreditations seem to be somewhat nebulous. Generally, this new view of the hollow Earth is accompanied by the theory of a small sun that hangs in the very center, creating a lush, livable environment on the flip side of the Earth’s surface. Halley’s strange idea was expanded upon over the next few centuries, tossing out the messy view of multiple spheres for the vision of the entire interior of the Earth as just one, impossibly large cavern.

Snake escape from the north pole series#

An Illustration from an 1878 book on John Cleves Symmes, Jr.’s theories depicts the planet as a series of concentric spheres, “demonstrating that the Earth is hollow, habitable within, and widely open about the poles.” Public Domain / Wikipedia He also posited that the space between each shell may have had luminous atmospheres capable of supporting life. In his estimation, based on readings of the magnetic field and what he knew of the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon on the Earth, this model could account for any inaccuracies in his readings of the magnetic fields of the planet. Proposed in 1692 as a way of explaining anomalous compass readings, Halley’s theory was that the planet is a series of nested, spherical shells, spinning in different directions, all surrounding a central core. Possibly the first person to scientifically speculate about a hollow earth was none other than Edmund Halley, of Halley’s Comet fame. This idea has proved incredibly durable.Įven today, there is a small cadre of Hollow Earth believers who are fighting valiantly to validate their ideas through books, websites, meetings, and some extremely ambitious travel plans. But in the 17th century, some of the leading scientific minds of the time had a different theory-that the planet is actually hollow. Modern science holds that the Earth is an unbroken series of layers, crusts, and liquid magma surrounding a dense, hot core made primarily of iron and nickel. But most of those early beliefs were metaphorical or mythological in origin. To a number of cultures-the ancient Greeks for one-it is a dark place filled with the souls of the dead. From time immemorial, people have believed that there is another world lying just beneath the surface of our planet.