“The idea that the Earth, if it were a globe, could possibly move in an orbit of hundreds of millions of miles with such exactitude that the cross-hairs in a telescope fixed on its surface would appear to glide gently over a star ‘millions of millions’ of miles away is simply monstrous; whereas, with a FIXED telescope, it matters not the distance of the stars, though we suppose them to be as far off as the astronomer supposes them to be; for, as Mr. Richard Proctor himself says, ‘the further away they are, the less they will seem to shift.’ Why, in the name of common sense, should observers have to fix their telescopes on solid stone bases so that they should not move a hair’s-breadth, - if the Earth on which they fix them moves at the rate of nineteen miles in a second? Indeed, to believe that Mr. Proctor’s mass of ‘six thousand million million million tons’ is ‘rolling, surging, flying, darting on through space for ever’ with a velocity compared with which a shot from a cannon is a ‘very slow coach,’ with such unerring accuracy that a telescope fixed on granite pillars in an observatory will not enable a lynx-eyed astronomer to detect a variation in its onward motion of the thousandth part of a hair’s-breadth is to conceive a miracle compared with which all the miracles on record put together would sink into utter insignificance. Captain R. J. Morrison, the late compiler of ‘Zadkeil’s Almanac’ says: ‘We declare that this motion is all mere bosh; and that the arguments which uphold it are, when examined with an eye that seeks for truth, mere nonsense, and childish absurdity.” -William Carpenter, “100 Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe” (98)
Another experiment repeatedly performed to disprove Earth’s supposed rotation under our feet is firing cannons vertically and horizontally in all cardinal directions. If the Earth were truly spinning Eastwards underneath us as the heliocentric model suggests then vertically-fired cannonballs should fall significantly due West. In actual fact, though, whenever this has been tested, vertically-fired cannonballs, perfectly aimed with a plumb line, lit with a slow match, shoot upwards an average of 14 seconds ascending, 14 seconds descending, and fall back to the ground no more than 2 feet away from the cannon, sometimes directly back into the muzzle! If the Earth were actually spinning at the supposed rate of 600-700 mph at the mid-latitudes of England and America where the tests have been performed, the cannonballs should fall a full 8,400 feet, or over a mile and a half behind the cannon!
“The following experiment has been tried many times, and the reasonable deductions from it are entirely against any theory of earth’s motion: A loaded cannon was set vertical by plumb-line and spirit-level and fired. The average time the ball was in the air was 28 seconds. On several occasions the ball returned to the mouth of the cannon, and never fell more than 2 feet from its base. Now, let us see what the result would be if the earth were a rapidly rotating sphere. The ball would partake of two motions, the one from the cannon vertical, and the other from the earth, from west to east. While it had been ascending, the earth, with the cannon, would have moved significantly. In descending it would have no impulse from the earth’s motion or from the cannon, and would fall in a straight line, but during the time it were falling, the earth, with the cannon, would have travelled on, and the ball would fall (allowing the world’s rotation to be 600 miles per hour in England) more than a mile and a half behind the cannon.” -A.E. Skellam
Again, at this point, instead of conceding, desperate heliocentrists triple-down claiming the reason cannonballs fall straight back is because the magical properties of gravity allow Earth to somehow drag the entire lower-atmosphere in perfect synchronization with its axial spin rendering even such break-neck speeds completely unnoticeable to the observer and unmeasurable by experimentation! This highly implausible, though clever and convenient explanation only holds for vertically-fired cannons, however. If cannons are instead fired and measured in all cardinal directions, even the heliocentrists’ atmospheric-velcro trump-card becomes unplayable. North/South-firing cannonballs establish a control, then the East-firing cannonballs should fall significantly farther than all others and West-firing cannonballs should fall significantly closer due to the supposed 19 mile per second Eastward rotation of the Earth. In actual fact, however, regardless of which direction cannons are fired, North, South, East, or West, the distance covered is always the same.
“When sitting in a rapidly-moving railway carriage, let a spring-gun be fired forward, or in the direction in which the train is moving. Again, let the same gun be fired, but in the opposite direction; and it will be found that the ball or other projectile will always go farther in the first case than in the latter. If a person leaps backwards from a horse in full gallop, he cannot jump so great a distance as he can by jumping forward. Leaping from a moving sledge, coach, or other object, backwards or forwards, the same results are experienced. Many other practical cases could be cited to show that any body projected from another body in motion, does not exhibit the same behaviour as it does when projected from a body at rest. Nor are the results the same when projected in the same direction as that in which the body moves, as when projected in the opposite direction; because, in the former case, the projected body receives its momentum from the projectile force, plus that given to it by the moving body; and in the latter case, this momentum, minus that of the moving body. Hence it would be found that if the earth is moving rapidly from west to east, a cannon fired in a due easterly direction would send a ball to a greater distance than it would if fired in a due westerly direction. But the most experienced artillerymen - many of whom have had great practice, both at home and abroad, in almost every latitude - have declared that no difference whatever is observable. That in charging and pointing their guns, no difference in the working is ever required. Gunners in war ships have noticed a considerable difference in the results of their firing from guns at the bow, when sailing rapidly towards the object fired at, and when firing from guns placed at the stern while sailing away from the object: and in both cases the results are different to those observed when firing from a ship at perfect rest. These details of practical experience are utterly incompatible with the supposition of a revolving earth." -Dr. Samuel Rowbotham, "Zetetic Astronomy, Earth Not a Globe!” (73)
“It is in evidence that, if a projectile be fired from a rapidly moving body in an opposite direction to that in which the body is going, it will fall short of the distance at which it would reach the ground if fired in the direction of motion. Now, since the Earth is said to move at the rate of nineteen miles in a second of time, ‘from west to east,’ it would make all the difference imaginable if the gun were fired in an opposite direction. But, as, in practice, there is not the slightest difference, whichever way the thing may be done, we have a forcible overthrow of all fancies relative to the motion of the Earth.” -William Carpenter, “100 Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe” (44)
During the Crimean War, the subject of artillery-fire in connection with the Earth’s rotation became a hotly discussed topic among military men, scientists, philosophers and statesmen. Around this time, on December 20th, 1857, British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston wrote to the Secretary of War Lord Panmure, stating, “There is an investigation which it would be important and at the same time easy to make, and that is, whether the rotation of the earth on its axis has any effect on the curve of a cannon-ball in its flight. One should suppose that it has, and that while the cannon-ball is flying in the air, impelled by the gunpowder in a straight line from the cannon’s mouth, the ball would not follow the rotation of the earth in the same manner which it would do if lying at rest on the earth’s surface. If this be so, a ball fired in the meridional direction--that is to say, due south or due north--ought to deviate to the west of the object at which it was aimed, because during the time of flight, that object will have gone to the east somewhat faster than the cannon-ball will have done… The trial might be easily made in any place in which a free circle of a mile or more radius could be obtained; and a cannon placed in the centre of that circle, and fired alternately north, south, east, and west, with equal charges, would afford the means of ascertaining whether each shot flew the same distance or not.”