r/TrueEarth

In Appendix 1 of The Ether of Space (1909), Lodge made a specific quantitative claim:

Gravity is the result of mechanical tension in the ether set up by electrical charge. The tension is directly proportional to the square of the charge and inversely proportional to its linear dimensions.

He calculated specific tension values at different scales — from electrons to the visible universe — in real units.

This is not vague philosophy. It is a specific mathematical proposal that predates Einstein’s general relativity by six years.

It was not formally tested. It was not formally falsified. Physics moved on to general relativity and Lodge’s framework was set aside without rigorous evaluation.

The book is publicly available:
archive.org/details/etherofspace00lodguoft

Appendix 1 is on page 153. Three pages. Read it yourself.

No satellites. No computers. No government authority. Just observation, geometry, curiosity, and begging the question.

Around 240BC a Greek mathematician named Eratosthenes noticed something simple. At noon on the summer solstice, a vertical stick in Syene cast no shadow — the sun was directly overhead. The same moment in Alexandria, 500 miles north, an identical stick cast a shadow of 7.2 degrees.

On a flat earth both sticks cast identical shadows.

The mathematics from there is straightforward:

7.2 degrees is 1/50th of 360 degrees. The full circumference therefore equals 50 x 500 miles = 25,000 miles. The actual value is 24,901 miles. He was within 1% using nothing but sticks and geometry.

From circumference you derive radius. 25,000 / 6.28 = 3,979 miles. The actual value is 3,959 miles.
One common objection is that the proof assumes parallel sun rays — and that this assumption is circular. It’s worth addressing honestly. Across the 500 miles Eratosthenes was measuring, sun rays are effectively parallel. Even across earth’s full diameter of 7,900 miles the direction only varies by about 0.5 degrees. The parallel assumption is observationally sound across the distances involved.

There is however a genuine assumption worth noting.

HIS ANGLE MEASUREMENTS REQUIRE A FLAT BASELINE BETWEEN THE TWO LOCATIONS!

THE GEOMETRY ASSUMES THE GROUND ITSELF IS LEVEL ENOUGH THAT THE VERTICAL STICKS ARE TRULY PARALLEL TO EACH OTHER!

On a curved surface that’s approximately true across short distances — but it is an assumption built into the method.

The mathematics is elegant, transparent, and the LIE HAS PERSISTED FOR 2,300 years. Repeatable by anyone with two sticks and a sunny day.

That’s worth knowing!