John Edward Quinlan

John Edward Quinlan was a British land surveyor and socialist of African descent, founder of the National Society for the Protection of the Dark Races (and editor of its main organ, The Telephone), and the author of The Earth a Plane, a treatise in support of the Flat Earth theory, in which he proposes that "evaporation" accounts for the disappearance of ships over the horizon, not the convexity of the earth.

Press Coverage

 * "THERE is another “Flat Earth Man!” He has issued a pamphlet entitled “The Earth a Plane,” and his name is John Edward Quinlan, “commissioned land surveyor of St. Lucia and St. Vincent, British West Indies.” Mr. Quinlan deals with the “Globites” very drastically. His explanation of the proof that the world is round, found in the fact that the hull of a ship disappears first from view owing to the convexity of the earth, while the masts as the higher part remain in view after the hull has disappeared, is: It is all due to “evaporation.” He says: &mdash; It is clearly owing on my truly level ocean to the evaporation of the water, as this causes the atmosphere that is nearest the water to be most clouded. There are many miles of level water between the ship and the observer when the hull has just disappeared from view on a clear day, and there are several miles of level water beyond the ship. The evaporation that goes on between the ship and the observer obscures from view that part of the ship that is nearest the water first."