John Cleves Symmes junior
John Cleves Symmes, Jr. (* 1779 in New Jersey - † May 1829 ) was a proponent of the theory of the hollow earth .
Symmes was born in 1779 to Timothy Symmes. To differentiate himself from his famous uncle John Cleves Symmes , he added the addition Junior to his name. His cousin Anna Harrison was briefly the first lady of the United States.
In 1802 he joined the United States Army and rose to captain during the 1812 war. He was stationed on the Canadian border in Ford Niagara and Fort Eire.
On April 10, 1818, he went public with a circular that the earth is hollow . In his opinion, there is a 12 to 16 degree wide opening at the poles, where a gentle, navigable sea pours into the interior of the earth. There would also be land there with wild animals and maybe even humans.
He started a series of lectures and soon found some followers, such as a. the astronomer Dr. Samuel Mitchell . Soon he was referred to as the "Newton of the West". A globe was even made according to his theory. And his theory served as the basis of a resolution of May 1828 in which it was decided to send an expedition. But it took another ten years to get that far.
He died in May 1829 and was buried in Symmes Park in Hamilton, Ohio. His son Americus Symmes erected a tombstone in the shape of the "hollow earth" there. He had ten children in total.
novel
- Benjamin Markovits : Symes Discovery . Novel. From the American by Christa Krüger. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005 (English edition 2004)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Symmes, John Cleves, Jr. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American proponent of the hollow earth theory |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1779 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New Jersey |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1829 |