Cosmography Offers New Theory of Universe, Claims Sun Stands Still in Space Below Earth

For the past four months, weekly advertisements have appeared in the CRIMSON describing Cosmography 1930, "a modern theory in the field of speculative philosophy." Paid for by a man named Thomas Maciver, the ads run concurrently in the Yale Daily News and the Daily Princetonian.

In an age of flying saucers, dianeties, and Velikovsky, a man who claims the earth is fixed in space above the sun demands to be heard.

Thomas Maciver, author of "Cosmography 1930," has sent this book to over 1900 libraries, including Widener. He is now paying to advertise his theories, but he warns his readers not to write to him.

According to Fred L. Whipple, professor of Astronomy, the author of Cosmography "simply ignores facts." Maciver's theories range from a revolutionary description of the solar system to a solution for the world's economic problems, and include a method for controlling whirlwinds, hurricanes, and typhoons.

Henry W. Riecken, Jr. '39, lecturer on Psychology, after examining Cosmography, said he found some of its passages interesting from a clinical standpoint. He made it clear, however, that he had no intention of attempting a mail-order psychoanalysis.

Maciver styles himself a sciolist (Webster: "One whose knowledge is superficial") and says he "has no craving for any other distinguishing appellation."

With neither colleagues nor collaborators, he wrote all his works and published them at this own expense.

Somewhere in the twenties, he says, he began to have doubts about the Copernican theory of the solar system. This got him started on Cosmography.

After experimenting with a globe and a spotlight he decided that the sun must be fixed in space below the earth. Neither astronomers nor his business acquaintances would listen to him, so he wrote all his theories down and waited.

In 1943 he tried to have his work published but was turned down by all the University presses he approached. Undaunted, he published "Cosmography 1930" that same year at his own expense and sent copies to college presidents for their libraries.

There is now a copy of "Cosmography 1930" in the New England Deposit Library which is located on Harvard land near the Business School. The book can be obtained through Widener.

No Conant Acknowledgement

Apparently it was relayed from President Conant's office, where the book was first received. Maciver complains that he got no acknowledgement from Conant.

As set down in his books, Maciver's theories dwell at random on physics, astronomy, chemistry, anthropology, economics, and religion. First and foremost he asserts "the energy ray of sun is supreme."

Astronomer Whipple has no objection to this assertion, but when it comes to defining the "energy ray" he and Maciver differ. Whipple says he receives on the average three cosmological theories from amateur scientists like Maciver every year.

"I used to throw them out," Whipple said; "but now I keep them under a special file labeled 'squirrel food'". "Acceptance by present day teaching professors is not important," says Maciver.

The energy ray of the sun, Maciver states, consists of molecules. It is also the spirit of God. The rays are drawn into the human body, mainly through the lungs, where they form the basis for all bodily activity.

"The energy ray of the sun mixed with stomach juices," says Cosmography, provides the "vitamin of health."

Maciver states unequivocally that the sun is fixed in space below the earth. The earth, he says, is supported by an ascending pillar of radiation coming from the sun which has never changed in position since the time of creation. The earth is cradled in this pillar and rotates daily.

The sun, he states, is shaped like an inverted funnel, and is absolutely cold. Heat and light occur only when the sun's rays strike the atmosphere. Maciver admits that he was hesitant about discarding long established scientific theories. He believes he knows, however, why so many scientists before him went astray.

"Reasoning from a known conclusion," he explains, "in the effort to establish a premise that would fit in with proved observations has been the cause of much confusion."

Clean and Unclean

Numerous passages referring to "atheistic Slavs" and "syphilitic reinfection" attracted Riecken's attention. He explained that there is a tendency in certain mental cases to divide the world into the clean and the unclean, the deceased and the pure.

In "Cosmography 1930" Maciver declares that the tropics are inferior to the temperate zones. In the tropics, he says, "degeneration of mind sets in quickly and those who loudly proclaim their equality are usually the victims of syphilitic blood, miscegenation, or other things that lower the standard of ethical conduct."

Climatic shifts offer hope for such people, Maciver explains. For instance, the inhabitants of the Laurentian hills are now "superstitious and disease ridden" because their climate is too cold.

As the hills move south to a temperate zone these primitive folk will give way to a people "who will crave the blessing of God untinctured with the curse of the village priest."

"The children of syphilitic parents or grandparents," he warns, "are never born equal to the child of clean blood." He inveighs against "the whining ingrate, the campus trollop of either sex, and the cinema degenerates, using pep hills to enliven their dreariness."

"There must have been a lot of syphilitic reinfection to produce Marx and his followers--and Freud with an atrophied brain lobe," concludes Maciver in his es- say on monetary matters. This essay is the last of the five "worksheets" which comprise "The Philosophers Worksheet," distributed in 1948 and 1949 as a supplement to his original book.

Maciver is convinced that "time and publicity" will determine the truth of his theories. Despite discouragement he continues to publicize his works because, he says, "I decided that I would like to justify my existence and do some honor to my father."

"Whether the theory is accepted now or later is not greatly important," Maciver wrote in 1944. "It does not lift the curse of war from humanity and that today is the only important matter.