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Orville Livingston Leach

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Orville Livingston Leach
Born Orville Livingston Leach
13 March 1859(1859-03-13) [1]
Raynham, Bristol, Massachusetts
Died 31 December 1921 (62)
Cranston, Providence, Rhode Island
Burial North Burial Ground, Providence, R.I.
Workplace(s) Emery Tire Company
Affiliations Order of Emorians; Rhode Island Scientific Research Association; The King's Order of Natural Science
Spouse(s) Theresa Walsh (m. 1886)

Orville Livingston Leach (March 13, 1859 - December 31, 1921) was an American inventor (with patents for vehicle tires, batteries, and a medicinal electrode) and property owner (including Emery Park in Cranston, Providence, Rhode Island), as well as being a sometime patent medicine hawker and public advocate for certain unusual theories, including his eponymous Lechonian physics and the hollow earth hypothesis.

Selected Bibliography

Reading

Press Coverage

  • "RESEARCHERS OF AN AUBURN SCIENTIST", News-Democrat (Providence, RI): 7, 10 Jun. 1907, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91070633/1907-06-10/ed-1/seq-7/ 

    Mr. Orville L. Leach of Auburn is one of the most interesting citizens of Rhode Island and his reputation as a scientific investigator has extended far beyond the confines of the commonwealth.

    The results of some of Mr. Leach's researches are already familiar to his fellow citizens but in a recent interview he made still further disclosures of what he claims to have accomplished that are calculated to challenge the attention of all who are of an inquiring or scientific bent of mind.

    Mr. Leach contends that underlying all the complicated exhibitions in nature, there are only a few simple fundamental laws, which are the key to the knowledge of the universe.

    His remarkable discovery, particularly that of the principle of radio-activity have created great interest in the scientific world.

    Mr. Leach says: “In science, like every thing else, success comes from a knowledge of fundamental principles, When these are known the processes of nature can be duplicated. It is from a study of natural phenomena that I have been able to accomplish what seems to the layman almost miraculous.

    “I have learned the secret of tapping the invisible spiritual storehouse of the universe; to construct the mechanisms which will absorb the invisible material of the universe and eject it as a visible force as has recently been explained in the newspapers throughout the country under the heading of ‘Radio-Activity Explained.’”

    The newspaper ratio-activity articles which have dealt with Mr. Leach's contention showed that his discovery is to the effect that by mixing the water of a certain spring on his land with soluble albumen as found in milk, shellfish or other nitrogenized substances, and then heating the mixture to 100 degrees, and suddenly cooling it to 50 degrees in a rarified atmosphere or where there is a reduced atmospheric pressure, the compound instantly becomes luminous, and if kept in a cool place to prevent evaporation, remains so for many hours, in one experiment as long as 72 hours.

    This solution must be used as a thin coating on a porous substance, such as decayed wood, in order to get a quick action of the cooling process, which Mr. Leach claims is an important factor. According to his explanation, the spring water used in the experiment contains an alkaline solution of iron. In the cooling process he states that molecules form with a centre of iron and a coating or shell of albumen. The heat expands these molecules and the sudden cooling hardens a shell and at the final cooling of the interior of the molecule a vacuum is formed, or what is popularly called a vacuum, but which the discoverer says is a reserve of spiritual or invisible substance similar to an x-ray.

    He claims that the natural lines of magnetism are sent to the centre of the invisible hollow molecules (which are similar to incandescent electric lamps or exhausted bulbs) and meeting at a centre or breech are turned out again as free end lines of force or light, that is, the inert circuits of magnetism are broken into free ends.

    THE NERVE CELLS.

    Mr. Leach further explains: “These newly-discovered principles of nature show that the nerve cells of our bodies are simply mechanisms for absorbing spirit, which is consciousness and power.

    “In our bodies the great heating and cooling process of nature is constantly forming vacuo cells in our nerves. The oxygen of our blood acts on the warm tissues and life comes; germination is the result of a warming and then a cooling. Day and night, hot and cold, are simply exhibitions of the poetry of nature by which the great miracles of the universe are performed.

    “Combustion is simply an exhibition of this poetry. The passage of amperes or heat or the rotation of the molecules or atoms of a copper wire and the alternate cooling of the opposite surface current is the secret of electricity — a means of absorbing the spirit of the environments is produced. Notwithstanding the fact that a galvanic battery produces vast amounts of electricity, it does not destroy an atom of its original matter.

    TANGIBLE MATTER.

    “All tangible matter is formed from electrons, which are moving in orbits, the motion being so quick that all objects are thrust aside. For instance, when a wheel is stationary, you can push your hand between the spokes, but when it is revolving swiftly you can not penetrate it. This gives the idea that it solid, but this is simply a delusion, and in this way all 'matter' is simply a delusion and can be made to vanish or materialize by a knowledge of natural laws — thus spirit is the real entity of the universe.

    “It is motion that makes up the different varieties of substances in the universe. Now here comes that part of natural philosophy which pertains to my discovery of the process of making coal from sand or quartz rocks, which is simply sand in large lumps.

    “In a white quartz rock there are several individualized aggregations, first atoms made up of electrons; second, molecules, made up of atoms. These molecules may whirl in orbits or they may rotate on an axis in quartz. The molecules move in orbits; of course, if we can suppress the orbital motion of these atoms we can make a different element from these same molecules. All electrons are alike and the pristine nature of all matter must be the same.

    CARBON FROM QUARTZ.

    “The process by which I make carbon from quartz is thus: I find a hard rounded rock of quartz. I heat it almost to liquification; then I immerse it in a solution of salt. This suddenly cools or concretes; a hard shell about half an inch thick on the surface. This subjects the inner expanded portions to great pressure, which changes the orbital motion of the molecules of the interior to an axer motion.

    “I blanket the rock with a non-conductor of heat, and the interior is allowed to slowly cool through a period of 12 hours. When the rock is broken open with a sledge hammer the interior is found to be black carbon, while there is a pure white shell of quartz. By a further compression under heated condition, graphite or carbon can be made into gold.

    “Gold is always produced by nature in mountains. Pressure or weight makes heat. Thus in mountains the conditions exist to heat and compress matter, which process manufactures gold.

    MANY INQUIRIES.

    “Since the extensive publication of my discoveries by the newspapers I have been the recipient of much inquiry in regard to the fundamental principles of the same, and there seems to be much interest exhibited by editors, lawyers, scientists and clergymen alike.

    “One great theologian has ratified this new science, as will be seen by a letter from Rev. A. P. Doyle, rector of the Apostolic Mission House of Washington, D. C.”

    The letter is in part as follows: “It is good always to keep the divine element of the church uppermost, her authority to teach and her ability when teaching authoritatively.

    “Apropos of your questions in your letter, of course as you well say, there can be no discrepancies between the true teachings of science and the teachings of the church.

    “God is the way and the truth, and truth is the same everywhere, in science as well as religion, in the natural order as well as the supernatural.

    “God is a spirit and He had a divine substance that is immaterial, not matter, and the universe was created by this spirit.

    “You say that the universe was made by spiritual electrons in motion about space, which is about the same thing only a more loose and poetic way of saying, as the Bible puts it: ‘God created the universe out of nothing.' Apparent difference of opinions are generally, misapprehensions of the meaning of terms. It is better to use Bible language.”

As seen in the Providence News-Democrat of 12 Aug. 1907.
  • "EARTH'S INTERIOR MAY BE HABITABLE", News-Democrat (Providence, RI): 3, 12 Aug. 1907, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91070633/1907-08-12/ed-1/seq-3/ 

    Orville L. Leach, the Auburn scientist whose researches along the line of radio-activity have been attended by Interesting results, comes forth with a claim that the interior of the earth, instead of being in a state of liquefaction is inhabitable. He finds that when a red hot iron wire in inserted into a jar of pure oxygen gas that the wire burns and shining black hollow globules of oxide of iron fall to the bottom of the jar.

    Mr. Leach says: “It will be seen that when a portion of the oxygen gas is taken into the iron that there is a partial vacuum inside the jar and consequently a reduced atmospheric pressure. This fact shows why the hollow globules form.

    “Our earth is of course rolling along in a vacuum — in the ether of the universe, and it is deduced that our earth must be a hollow sphere, as the same laws pertain to the microcosms, or minute parts of the universe, as to the microcosms of worlds.

    “The ideals of prophets, bi[o]logists and optimists has always been above the existing climatic conditions of the exterior of this mundane sphere, where day and night alternate, where gales and cyclones play hav[o]c, where changes of temperature constantly endanger the health and a thousand and one discordant states of existence surround us. It is claimed that all of these incongruities are eliminated from the new land lining the interior of the crust of our earth.”

    Gravity, he says, is the result of the radio activity of the crust of the earth, the radiating lines of force are refracted or curled and in passing through the matter of the earth draw the matter toward any surface from which the rays emanate, the same as a corkscrew will draw a cork toward the operator.

    Mr. Leach suggests that theologists compare the descriptions of “The Golden City” of the book of Revelations to the conditions, size, etc., possible in a land on the inner crust of the earth. That light from electrical conditions on the interior surface exists seems, he says, to be verified by the “Northern Lights,” which, it would seem, are a reflection from the interior of the earth.

    The earth, he says, will not finally lose all its heat and become a dead planet, as a vacuum cannot conduct heat and consequently the earth will always retain heat. He also says that heat can be made at any time from magnetism, and he propounds the query that if the sun supplies direct heat to the earth why it it that the nearer we get to it the colder it grows?

    “The historical data which is adduced to this new claim of an inhabitable land of joy on the interior of our earth's crust is this,” continued Mr. Leach. “Antar[c]tic explorers have found butterflies near the south pole, winds which blow from the south in the Antar[c]tic regions are always warm, it is claimed that magnetic currents flow in at the north pole and out at the south pole, the discovery of the open polar sea by Dr. Kane near the north pole is another fact which seems to prove that there is an opening at the north pole into a region of warmth. The only one who has ever claimed to doubt Dr. Kane's report was a man named Godfrey, who was a disgruntled sailor of the doctor's crew. It remains an undisputed fact that the doctor told the truth and that an open polar sea did exist at the time when he visited the Arctic regions.”

  • "EARTH HOLLOW. Professor Revives Old Theory of Entrance at Poles.", New Enterprise (Madison, FL): 6, 4 Jun. 1908, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn95047178/1908-06-04/ed-1/seq-6/  — copy of a 1907 article, first published in the New York World. The original article is the source of Leach's quote in Emerson's The Smoky God (1908).

References