Looming: The optical phenomenon behind the edge of the world
In 1798, Dr Nathaniel Vince and a small group of friends gathered on the shores of the English Channel and witnessed a strange thing. They were watching the barque Holstead, which had recently departed Ramsgate. The Holstead hovered above the horizon when, slowly, her masts inverted before disappearing in an instant as if she had toppled over the edge of the Earth. Vince and his friends were aghast and immediately reported what they’d witnessed to the harbour master. It was startling proof that the Earth is flat and surely the work of the devil himself.
Despite the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes’ proposal and measurement of a spherical Earth as early as 240 BCE, flat-Earth theories persisted in many cultures as a constant background belief. Strangely, it was the advent of Darwin’s theory of evolution and its challenge to religious dogma during the late 1800s that led to the flourishing of modern flat-Earth theory.
It was the life and work of Samuel Rowbotham that best illustrates the fervour of these times. Rowbotham was an English inventor, utopian socialist, quack and soap boiler who, in 1849, published a 16-page pamphlet titled “Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe” under the pseudonym Parallax. He concluded that the Earth was a flat disk after finding a lack of curvature in his measurements of the drainage ditches of the Bedford Levels in Cambridgeshire. This emboldened him to launch into a career lecturing on his flat-Earth theories. He charged sixpence a head to attend his lectures and, over time, honed his debating skills to a fine edge, convincing many people of his hypothesis.
For Brocklesby, looming and the other phenomena he described were all the wonders and works of God.
Thanks to his passionate disciples, the Universal Zetetic Society continued after Rowbotham died in 1884. Although it faltered slightly after World War, I it reappeared in 1956 as the Flat Earth Society. This small ember survived until the arrival of the internet and social media fanned the flames so that a 2018 YouGov poll found 84% of Americans surveyed believed the Earth was spherical, a further 14% were sceptical, and 2% firmly believed the Earth was flat.
Broad horizon
Although I am not a subscriber to the flat-Earth theory, I’ve always been a big fan of a sweeping horizon. From somewhere like Matuku Takotako/Sumner beach, it dominates the vista as it stretches across the seascape.
It is rare in a dense city to find a true horizon, one that allows your eyes to wander to the edge of the Earth where the sky and the sea meet. The horizon in such places is usually short, constrained by buildings, trees and fences. These clutter the scene and give the impression that the world is a much smaller place full of people and things.
Walking through thick bush is a similar sensation, shortening the world down to a few body lengths at most. It is in the deserts and on the ocean that the true horizon asserts itself.
On a winter’s morning, there are plenty of people promenading along the Sumner Esplanade. There are dogs being walked and conversations with friends being had on the hoof. Occasionally, one of these walkers will pause and look towards the sea and be greeted by a sweeping horizon and, on rare occasions with the right conditions, they may be tricked by looming.
Looming is an optical phenomenon peculiar to the sea, one of those obscure maritime topics that have been ignored by all but a few acutely observant sea gazers. The effect was first described by John Brocklesby in his 1848 book Elements of Meteorology, which included questions for examination designed for schools and academies. Until then, looming had been cast aside as the work of the devil, but Brocklesby, who was a professor at Trinity College, Connecticut, had written and published on a wide range of natural science subjects and was able to dispel all the witchcraft with a dose of hard physics.
Brocklesby was a man of formidable temper and God-fearing beliefs. Although his Elements of Meteorology was the work of a scientific mind, for Brocklesby, looming and the other phenomena he described were all the wonders and works of God. For him, science and religion walked side by side. Unlike Darwin, he never had to challenge the religious dogma that surrounded him, and unlike Rowbotham, he was never deceived by unsound methods or well-formed persuasion.