THE DELUGED CIVILIZATION OF
THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS by
REGINALD AUBREY FESSENDEN FORMERLY HEAD CHEMIST TO THOMAS A. EDISON;
PROFESSOR OF POST-GRADUATE
MATHEMATICS AND ELECTRICAL
ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH;
ENGINEERING
COMMISSIONER ONTARIO POWER COMMISSION
BOSTON
T.
J. RUSSELL PRINT 32
HAWLEY STREET 1923
COPYRIGHT
1923, BY REGINALD
A. FESSENDEN ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED
TO
HELEN
MY
WIFE AND PARTNER WITHOUT
WHOM I SHOULD HAVE ACCOMPLISHED VERY LITTLE
CONTENTS |
I |
THE
GEOGRAPHY OF GREEK AND SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY |
1. |
| Tabulation
and Comparison of Myths | 2. |
| The
Misplaced Myth Area | 3. |
| Proof
that
the Proposed Location of the Myth
Area Is Correct | |
| The
Lost
Pillars of Hercules | 4. |
| Cause
of the
Misplacement | 5. | |
Why the
Misplacement Was Not Discovered - Hesperus
the Morning Star |
| |
II |
SEQUENCES |
1. | |
Cause of
Closure of Black Sea to Navigation | 2. |
| Traditions
of Deluge | 3. | |
Physical
Circumstances | 4. | |
Cause of
Deluge | 5. | |
Origin of
Mankind - Consciousness - Responsibility |
6. |
| Birth
Place
of Mankind | 7. | |
Identity of
Greek and Semitic Myths | 8. |
| Myths
as
History | 9. | |
Distribution
of Mankind at Time of Deluge | 10. |
| Dispersion
of Mankind Before Deluge | 11. |
| Survivors
of, and Dispersion After, Deluge | 12. |
| Aburi |
13. | |
Hittites
(Sutu, Seuthes) | 14. |
| Mongols |
15. | |
Negro |
16. |
| Caucasus
Races | 17. | |
Semites |
18. |
| Ur-Al |
19. | |
Conclusion |
| |
III |
THE
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAUCASUS |
ISTHMUS |
and their |
INFLUENCE
ON PRIMITIVE THEOLOGY AND | SCIENCE |
1. |
| The
Barrier | 2. | |
Northern
Enclosure | 3. | |
Pass of
Erebus (Arabus, Erib) | 4. |
| The
Door
(Kuanthuretra) | 5. | |
Southern
Enclosure | 6. | |
Eden (Aedon) |
7. | |
The Garden
of Eden | 8. | |
The Rivers
of Eden | 9. | |
Ethiopia
(Aeti-ope) | 10. | |
Hyperborea
(Hypiberea) | 11. | |
Elysion
(Alysion) | 12. | |
The Cabeiri
and Pythagoras | 13. | |
The Kiribi |
14. |
| The
Tree of
Life | 15. | |
The Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil | 16. |
| The
Mandrake | 17. | |
Images and
Traditions | 18. | |
Revelation
to Greeks as Well as to Semites | 19. |
| Prometheus,
the Naphtha Bringer | 20. |
| The
Shades | 21. | |
Rivers of
Hades (Aides) | 22. | |
The Route of
the Mysteries; to Hades and Elysium |
23. |
| Solon's
Partially Completed Epic, "Atlantis" |
24. |
| Plato's
Interrupted Revelation of Solon's Data |
25. |
| The
Route to
Atlantis-Why It Was Impassable
After the Deluge | 26. |
| Description
of Atlantis | 27. | |
Heptacyclic
Flow of the Styx | 28. |
| The
Names of
the Ten Pre-Deluge Kings of Atlantis,
when Translated, the Same as Those of the Ten Pre-Deluge Kings of the
Babylonian
and Semitic Traditions | 29. |
| The
Cities
Where the Ten Pre Deluge Kings of
the Babylonian Tradition Lived in the Kingdom of Atlantis, in the
Caucasus
Isthmus | 30. | |
Solon's List
of Kings Made More Than Three Centuries
Before Berossus Made His Babylonian List; and More Than Twenty-five
Centuries
Before the Semitic List Was Discovered |
31. |
| Other
Babylonian Traditions Relating to Atlantis;
Shamash and Marash | 32. |
| The
Ceremonial Kingly Conferences at Ur-Al-u;
the Graal; the Round Table of Urt-ur; the Water of Lethe |
33. |
| Explanation
of the Reputed Longevity of the
Kings-The Kingdoms | 34. |
| Why
Mankind
Had Its Origin in the Caucasus Isthmus |
35. |
| Mineral
Wealth and Water Power of the Caucasus
Isthmus | 36. | |
Evidence
that Speech Had Its Origin in the Caucasus
Isthmus | 37. | |
Primitive
Theology and Science | 38. |
| Developments
in Science; the Ziggurats; the
Cabeiri; the Longitude of Babylon | 39. |
| Developments
in Theology | 40. | |
The "Wailing
for Thammuz"; the Amazons | 41. |
| Conclusion |
|
|
IV |
BY-PRODUCTS
OF HISTORY | 1. | |
"Natural
Resources" a False Concept; the Cause
of War and of High Prices | 2. |
| Ambassador
Colonies; Minimum Hysteresis Tariff |
3. |
| Labor
and
Capital | 4. | |
Sales Tax;
Personal Use Tax | 5. |
| Amount
of
Dividend Capital Should Earn | 6. |
| The
Cause of
Unemployment and the Necessities
of a Satisfactory Social Organization |
7. |
| Development
the Work of a Few Individuals-List
of Edison's Inventions | 8. |
| Proof
that
Invention is Not a Product of the
Times but of the Individual | 9. |
| Proof
that
Invention Is Not the Result of Knowledge
or of Facilities | 10. |
| Development
Not Obtainable by Organization-The
Dark Ages the Result of Over-Organization |
11. |
| The
Laws
Connecting Development and Organization |
12. |
| Total
Failure of Councils and Boards to Accomplish
Development. Under the Most Stimulating Circumstances Demonstrated in
the
World War | 13. | |
How Edward
VII Gave Instructions Which Resulted
in the Invention of a Device for Advance Warning of Zeppelin Raids |
14. | |
The Naval
Advisory Board and Submarine Board
Directly Responsible for Substantially the Entire Loss of Shining
During
the World War | 15. | |
Edison as a
Mathematician-The Edison System
of Routing Convoys During the World War |
16. |
| Falsification
of Reports by Boards, to Cover
Up Failure to Make Developments-The Liberty Motor-Signaling Devices |
17. | |
The Failure
Due to the Organization | 18. |
| Other
Falsifications; The Echo Sounding Apparatus-The
Hot Cathode Rectifyer and Amplifyer |
19. |
| The
Invention of the Wireless Telephone-The
First Trans-Atlantic Transmission of Speech |
20. |
| Still
Other
Falsifications-The Wireless Direction
Finder-The Extraction of Helium-Fume Precipitation-Ultra-Audible Sound
Waves-Turbo-Electric Drive | 21. |
| Falsification
of History by Boards-The Attempt
to Discredit the Wright Brothers as the Inventors of the Aeroplane-Lord
Northcliffe's Comment | 22. |
| Langley
Maxim; Manly-The Wright Brothers-Orville
Wright's Accident | 23. |
| Falsification
by Boards a Danger to Civilization
Because It Gives Wrong Concept of Method by which Development Is
Accomplished
and so Prevents Development | 24. |
| Positive
Opposition of Boards to Development-
The Wireless Telescope, Continuous Sounder, and Short Wave Pelorus |
25. | |
Comments on
Boards Impartial - No Financial
Interests Involved | 26. |
| Scientific
Progress the Result of Invention-
The Electrostatic Doublet Theory of Matter, Crystalline Form, Nature of
Cohesion, the Static Pole Atom, Gyroscopic Quanta, Transformation of
Energy
into Matter | |
|
V |
SOLUTION
OF PROBLEMS | 1. | |
Crop
Stabilization | 2. | |
Power Storage |
3. | |
Communication
- Telegraphy; Wireless Telephone;
Radio Telescope (Pheroscope); Sound Writing Language;
Micro-Photographic
Book (Pholog) | 4. | |
Elimination
of Anti-Civilization Effects of
Over-Organization | 5. |
| Personal
Use
Tax; Graduated; Collected without
Bookkeeping or Tax Department; Taxes on Consumption; No Taxes on
Production | |
|
VI |
THE
RECORDS OF THE UR-AL AND OF THE CABEIRI |
|
INTRODUCTION.
The material for all of the chapters
has been
gathered and some of
them are completed. The influx of settlers into the Caucasus isthmus
and
the commencement of construction work on the Manytsch canal have made
it
advisable to publish this portion of the work, to prevent if possible
the
loss of invaluable archeological material. Well
known and accessible authorities only have
been referred to,
in order that the reader may have the opportunity of verifying the
facts
himself. In translating, no changes have been made from the accepted
meaning
except where absolutely necessary. . E. g. in Homer's description o f
the
route to Erebus, "lacheia" is given by Liddell and Scott as "fertile"
sand
by other authorities as "rugged." But this misses the whole meaning of
Homer, for "lacheia" means the kind o f a shore which, when you come to
it, you know that something is going to happen to you. 1 have
translated
it as "ominous," and in the same passage 1 have rejected the generally
accepted meaning of "euroenta" as "mouldy" because it really means
something
of great size and frightening, i.e. "monstrous." It
is hoped that this investigation will establish
Greek mythology
in the position it should have. It is not a collection of fables; it
relates
to the same place and to the same facts as do the Semitic mythologies.
The northern races had their revelation, and believed in one god, Ur or
Al, just as the Semites believed in El or Jah, and both degenerated for
a time into polytheism and both emerged from it. The northern has a
much
higher spiritual significance (compare the lives of Solon, Socrates
anal
Leonidas with those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), but no theology is
complete
which does not include both revelations; which became united at the
commencement
o f the Christian era.
| REGINALD
A. FESSENDEN, |
|
45 Waban Hill Road, | Sept.
22d, 1923. |
Chestnut Hill, Mass. |
CHAPTER 1.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF
GREEK AND SEMETIC MYTHOLOGY In
1882, in the course of some work for honors in
Classics, the writer
was forced to give rather close attention to the problem of obtaining a
more consistent concept of the geography of Greek mythology.
This had been a subject of investigation by the
Greeks themselves. They
considered it very important, and there are few Greek writers of
reputation
who have not discussed it. Comparing the conclusions of Herodotus, B.C.
484, with those of Eratosthenes, B.C. 276, and "of Strabo, B.C. 54, we
find considerable progress in some directions but the larger fields
inviate. Anything the Greeks thought to be
important we may
be sure we shall
find to be important, so soon as we really understand it. This may take
time; Zeno's paradoxes were considered trivial up to the middle of the
nineteenth century because we did not realize how slovenly and
incomplete
were our concepts of number and continuity, of the infinite and of
infinitesimals;
but a large part of our recent advance in mathematics is based on an
apprehension
of Zeno's real thought. The Greeks had sound
reasons for believing the
geography of their myths
to be important, and as we shall see, they were right. Primitive man
was
very literal minded. Nothing, it will be shown, was further from his
thought
than the idea of making up stories about the sun and the moon and other
natural phenomena; any one doing this would have been considered feeble
minded. The myth, in the modern sense of the word, is not found until a
comparatively recent date. To the Greeks of time prior to this a myth
was
an accurate and literal statement of certain important facts;
important 1
because, as will appear, the knowledge of them
might be a matter of
life and death, not only to individuals but to whole communities.
There was one very practical reason. The Greeks
were great traders,
and colonizers for purposes of trade. It many times happened that for
very
long periods trade with important customer nations or colonies had to
be
discontinued. Other nations might rise to dominance in sea power and
block
the ' route. The particular commodities traded in might be better
obtained
from other places. The customer nation itself or the colony might be
substantially
wiped out by war or pestilence or inundations, and under such
circumstances
that there was no prospect of re-establishment. The only record that
such
trade or such place or such colony had existed would be the myth
preserved
in the home temples. And when, perhaps many centuries later, new places
to trade or to found colonies were being sought, the myths would be
consulted.
One instance of this is the remarkable and unsuccessful search of the
Phoenician
traders for the lost Pillars of Hercules. (Strabo, II. 5.) Remarkable
because,
as will be shown, it was the ocean (the "Asiatic Mediterranean" of
geologists,
see Encycl. Brit. art. Caspian; the Ocean of Atlantis of the ancients),
which had disappeared and not the pillars marking its entrance. And
unsuccessful
because, owing to the changed meaning of a word, the search was made
west
instead of east. An interesting example in Greek history is the
founding
of Cyrene by the Theraeans. (Herod, IV. 155.) Every
precaution was therefore taken that the
myths should be transmitted
accurately. The term "muthologeuo" used by Homer means "to tell word
for
word." That the Greeks were convinced that the means taken had been
adequate
to ensure accuracy is shown by such incidents as the handing over of
Salamis
to the Athenians by the Spartans on the evidence of a single line of a
myth. They had much positive evidence of
accuracy,
evidence of extreme accuracy.
Instances of this will be found in the
2
chapter on myths and omens. Where there was error
it was substantially
invariably due to a change in the meaning of a word, or the word had
come
to be pronounced in a different way, as our "wind" and "gold" have
become
"wind" and "gold." The oracle at Dodona was founded by three elders
"palaiai,"
but when, in time, this came to be pronounced "palaai" the reciter of
the
myth, who could not change the quantity of the syllable, since it was
in
verse, was understood as saying that the oracle was founded by three
"peleiai,"
i.e. pigeons. I have not been able to discover any instance of a myth
having
been incorrectly transmitted verbally, though in later times there were
several instances of forgery. It was therefore
very disturbing to the Greeks
that in some of the older
myths the routes stated to have been taken on certain expeditions could
not be reconciled in any reasonable way with the known geographical
facts.
Why did Hercules, returning to Tiryns with the oxen of Geryon, from
Gades
and the Pillars of Hercules, pass through the country on the north
shore
of the Black Sea. Why did not Mt. Atlas, in Libya, correspond with its
description in the myths. How was it that the Argonauts, after entering
the mouth of the Danube, passed through Egypt on their way to the
Adriatic.
Where were Hyperborea, the red island, Erythia, the islands of Ogygia
and
of the Hesperides. There were many writers on the subject but Herodotus
and Strabo are perhaps the best to consult for examples of the
difficulties
met with and illustration of their apparently insuperable nature.
Lord Rayleigh had not then given his word of
encouragement to those
considering prospection of well worked fields; that the great
discoveries
of the future would be the result of investigation of apparently
unimportant
discrepancies, of "examination of the third decimal point," as he put
it.
It was not with any hope, acknowledged even to myself, of finding
anything
which would explain this question of a thousand years but to see the
difficulties
as a whole that as a preliminary substantially all the known myths
which
had geographi- 3
cal relations were written out
in standard form,
with their local and
temporal variants, and tabulated and compared.
TABULATION AND COMPARISON OF MYTHS
From this tabulation it was apparent that: a.
The mythic expeditions were quite
consistent and understandable
as regards the first and last portions of the routes. b. The
inconsistencies with known geographical
facts were consistent
with each other. c. The expeditions whose
objective was in the
far west, in the Atlantic
Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, e.g. the expeditions for the
apples
of the Hesperides and for the oxen of Geryon, always first went east,
into
and along the shores of the Black Sea, to the Caucasus; then, with some
incoherency as to route, appeared in the Atlantic Ocean, accomplished
their
quest, and after a second vagueness as to itinerary, returned by way of
the shore of the Black Sea to Greece. d. In a
number of instances members of the same
family lived, some in
the far east, some in the far west; no reference to or explanation of
the
separation is given, and the members apparently remained in
communication.
E.g. Prometheus was in the Caucasus, and Echidna and Typhon in its
neighborhood;
but Atlas and the Hesperides (the brother and nieces of Prometheus) and
Geryon (the brother of Echidna) and Orthus (son of Echidna and Typhon)
were beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the exit to the Atlantic Ocean.
e. In some instances there was contradiction as
to locality. E.g. Mt.
Atlas was usually placed on the shore of the Atlantic, but sometimes in
the Caucasus; the country of the Hyperboreans was placed sometimes far
west, sometimes not far from the Black Sea. f.
There is a gap in the geography of mythology.
There are many myths
connected with places lying east 4
of Sicily and west of the Caucasus, and many
with places in the Atlantic
Ocean, but none with the region between Sicily and the Atlantic Coast.
The results of this tabulation were collated with the following well
known
facts: a. The early myth tellers, including
Homer and Hesiod, had
no knowledge of Spain or of the Atlantic Ocean. This did not come till
several centuries after the time of Homer. b. Not one of the
places stated in the myths to
have been in or on the
Atlantic Ocean has ever been satisfactorily identified. E.g. the island
supposed to be Erythia is not red; the supposed Gades is not well
watered,
on the contrary was notorious for its bad water; the mountain
identified
as Atlas is relatively low and is not near the shore; the Atlantic
Ocean
itself does not correspond with the description of the Ocean of
Atlantis
for it is not shoal and un-navigable opposite the Pillars of Hercules
and
is not entirely surrounded by land. No submerged area has been found in
the Atlantic Ocean corresponding to a submerged Atlantis. It has been
suggested
that it might exist but have been missed between the successive
soundings
taken by wire, since the intervals are large. But in 1913 the writer
invented
the method of taking soundings and of locating icebergs by trains of
sound
waves (single impulses are diffracted), which gives continuous
soundings
by echo, and this has been used all over the North Atlantic; by the
iceberg
patrol in 1914 (see U. S. Hydrographic Office Bulletin, May 13th,
1914),
by the United Fruit Co. in 1919 and 1920, and by the U. S. Navy, in
1922
and 1923 ; but no such submerged area has been discovered. Other
discrepancies
are pointed out by the authorities referred to. c.
The Caucasus is, in all the older myths,
invariably placed "at the
extremity of the earth, on the border of Oceanus."
5
2. THE
MISPLACED MYTH AREA These data gave, so to
speak, a sufficient number
of equations for attack.
The singular gap in the myth field, between Sicily and the Atlantic
coast
of Spain (Iberia), suggested that the problem was of the nature of a
block
puzzle, i.e. that a block of the myth map had been displaced.
Which was the misplaced block, and where did it
belong. Several plausible
solutions suggested themselves but on investigation had to be rejected.
It was finally noted that there was a curious one-to-one correspondence
between points on the eastern shore of the Black Sea and on the west
shore
of the Mediterranean, i.e.: a. In the
east we have a country, Iberia,
stretching from the
Black Sea to the Caspian. In the west we have a country, Iberia,
stretching
from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. b. The northern
boundary of both Iberias is a
chain of high mountains;
running from sea to sea, east and west, in both of which Mt. Atlas had
been placed. c. In the east we have the Hypanis;
in the west,
Hispalis and Hispania,
and other pairs of similar or identical names, e.g. Aragon and Aragus.
d. In the east we have the country of the Libui,
about the mouth of
the Danube and inland; in the west we have Libya.
Placing the Black Sea block to the west of the Atlantic block would
still
leave empty the space between Sicily and the Atlantic shore of Spain;
the
mythic expeditions would be still more difficult to explain; there was
a continuity between the Black Sea and Greek blocks which could not be
disturbed by removal of the Black Sea block. Obviously it was the
Atlantic
block which must be transferred to the eastern edge of the Black Sea
block. 6
3. PROOF
THAT THE PROPOSED LOCATION OF THE MYTH
AREA IS CORRECT - THE
LOST PILLARS OF HERCULES The next
step was to ascertain if the new
arrangement could pass the
severe tests requisite to establish its claim to be the correct
solution,
i.e. a. It must be shown that, at the
time at
which the events related
by the myths occurred, there was on the eastern edge of the Caucasus a
body of water of such magnitude that it could be rightly called an
ocean,
and entirely surrounded by land. b. It must be shown that at
that time ships
could sail from the Black
Sea into that ocean. c. It must be shown that the
Pillars of Hercules
were at the entrance
to that ocean. d. The place names of the former
Atlantic block
must be satisfactorily
identified with localities in the neighborhood of the Caucasus, of the
Black Sea and of that ocean (which we will call the Ocean of Atlantis,
to distinguish it from the Atlantic Ocean). e.
The routes taken by the mythic expeditions
must be consistent and
in accord with the geographic facts. f. There
should preferably, but not necessarily,
be some explanation
of the misplacement of the Ocean of Atlantis block to the far west.
Also
some explanation of the fact that the misplacement was not discovered.
It was found that the new arrangement met the requirements, i.e. a.
There was such an ocean. It is known
to geologists as the
Asiatic Mediterranean. It was the original Atlantic Ocean.
7
Geologists say it was in existence as late as
the time of which the
myths tell. It extended from the Caucasus to Mongolia, 1850 miles, i.e.
about the same distance as from England to Newfoundland. Its eastern
portion
was probably at one time connected with the Arctic Ocean. The Caspian,
Aral and Balkasch Seas are what is left of it; i.e. the part which has
not yet dried up. (See Encyc. Brit. art. Caspian.) The Caspian and the
Aral were still connected as late as B.C. 200, and merchandise from
India
was still brought by boat from Faisabad to Sura, in the Caucasus
Valley,
but a few years later caravan routes were established. This date is
confirmed
by the Chinese histories. Excavations should be made at Faisabad.
For mission of the Three Wise Men of the East, their presents,
attendants,
see Strabo XV; 1; 73. b. Strabo states that in his
day, B.C.
50, there was a tradition
that the Caspian had been connected with the Black Sea by way of the
Sea
of Azov. (Strabo, Book 11:7; 43.) This tradition is fully confirmed by
geologists, i.e. not only that the Black and Caspian were at one time
connected,
but also that the connection was by way of the Sea of Azov. (Encyc.
Brit.
art. Caspian.) I have found that the connection was by way of the
Manytsch
Lakes. At the present time part of the water of these lakes flows into
the Sea of Azov, and part into the Caspian. (Note. Since the above was
written the Soviet government has announced its intention of
re-establishing
this waterway. On account of the fall in level of the Caspian, locks
will
be necessary. A practically unlimited amount of water power should be
obtainable,
by the method I have suggested in connection with the Dead Sea.
Scientific
Amer. April 30, 1921.)
A map showing this route, from the Black Sea to the Ocean of Atlantis
via
the Sea of Azov rind the Manytsch Lakes, is given in the chapter on
ATLANTIS. c. The Pillars of Hercules were found;
and at the entrance
to the Ocean of Atlantis. For evidence of the fact that it
was known to
the ancients that the
Pillars of Hercules were lost; for an account of the various
expeditions
sent out by the Naval College of the Phoenicians at Sidon to discover
them;
for the reasons why the Phoenicians decided that the capes of the
straits 8
of Gibraltar were not the true Pillars of
Hercules; for an explanation
of their nature and use; for evidence that the true Pillars were known
to two Asiatic kings in the seventh century B.C. and later mistaken for
another monument by Ptolemy; see the chapter on PILLARS of HERCULES.
d. The identification :was complete. In addition
it explained some difficult
statements in the myths, e.g. the heptacyclic flow of the Styx; the
origin
of the name Phlegethon, of the names Hades and Tartarus; Solon's
account
of Atlantis and Aelian's of Meropia. See the chapter on
THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS. e.
The mythic itineraries now presented no
difficulties. As regards
Hercules, he drove the, oxen of Geryon back al.,.:g the north shore of
the Black Sea because it was shorter, had good pasturage and water and
was level. To have gone back by the south shore he would have had to
take
his cattle through the Dariel Pass of the Caucasus, which was
impassable
for cattle, and along the mountainous south shore. His expedition for
the
apples of the Hesperides presents no difficulty, for Atlas (Mt. Elbruz)
is within sight of the mountain to which Prometheus was chained (Mt.
Kasbek),
and the Garden of the Hesperides was at the foot of Mt. Kasbek. See the
chapter on EDEN, THE HYPIBEREANS AND THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES.
As regards the Argonauts, they sailed back by
the north shore of the
Black Sea to the mouth of the Danube; up the Danube, through the
confusing
channels of the Balta (Lake Tritonis of this myth; there was another
Lake
Tritonis in Africa), up the Save and Kulpa to above Karlstadt. Thence
they
portaged a short distance through the country of the Libui (Illiberi)
and
came out, at the point where Fiume now stands, into the Adriatic;
thence
south along the eastern shore of the Adriatic to Greece. This
route was a well used path of commerce
between the Black Sea and
northern Italy. It was in the possession of the Iberi and of their
colonists
the Illiberi and 9
Thrasi or Rasi (Etruscans). It avoided the long
journey through the
Dardanelles and around Greece with its heavy tolls and danger from
pirates. It was longer and harder for the
Argonauts. They
took it because they
had carried off the daughter and murdered the son of Aeetes, king of
Colchis.
The Colchians were the original black Phoenicians, the Aethiopians of
Ephorus
(Aithiopis, Aieti-opis), had colonized Egypt and islands in the Aegean.
They had many ships in the Black and Aegean Seas. The Iberians were
their
trade rivals. The Argonauts could not escape by the Dardanelles route
so
they took the Iberian trade route, up the Danube. See the chapter on
THE
DISPERSION. For the object of the Argonaut's
expedition see
the chapter on THE OCEAN
OF ATLANTIS AS A TRADE ROUTE; the section on Silk.
4. CAUSE OF THE MISPLACEMENT f.
The explanation of the misplacement
was found to be connected
with the reversal in meaning of the word Hesperus. This is derived from
a root having the implication "coming up out of." The sun and stars
were
supposed to come up out of the ocean and to go down into it at night.
Hesperus
is Venus, which is both morning and evening star. To a
primitive people it was as a morning star
that it was important.
Travelers on the steppes have described the jubilation and songs with
which
the Kirgis children, who had to watch the cattle all night, welcomed
it,
for it meant that day was near. Even in such comparatively late authors
as Homer and Hesiod it is called "heosphoros," the bringer of morning.
Hesiod calls Hesperus the son of dawn. All the
associations of Hesperus were therefore
originally with the
east, and the Gardens of the Hesperides were so called because they
were
in the far east, on the edge of the ocean, in the eastern part of the
Caucasus
valley. 10
THE
GEOGRAPHY OF GREEK AND SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY In
Pindar the Black Sea is called the
Axenus, or unfriendly
sea. This was because long before the time of Homer, for a period of
more
than a thousand years, the Black Sea had, to quote the words of Strabo,
"been closed to navigation," by something that had happened there,
which
appears (there is some evidence for this) to have struck an instinctive
terror into the souls of even the descendants of those living in the
neighborhood
of the sea at the time and to have resulted in the absolute abandonment
of that region by humanity until, long after, men began to filter back.
When they did return the Pillars of Hercules had been lost. They were
never
found but for lack of a better identification the na me was attached to
the straits of Gibraltar and the myths relating to places beyond the
Pillars
of Hercules, Le. to the Caucasus region, were attached to the Atlantic
and its seaboard. 5. WHY THE MISPLACEMENT WAS
NOT DISCOVERED -
HESPERUS THE MORNING STAR This
misplacement was clenched by a change in the
meaning of the word
Hesperus. It had come to mean the evening or western star. So no one
thought
of looking to the east for the Garden of the Hesperides. Atlas gave a
good
deal of trouble; there was no distinguished mountain near the straits
which
could by any image be considered as upholding the sky, but after a time
Mt. Dyrin was accepted as being perhaps the best that could be done.
Gades
and Erythia also were never considered very satisfactory; in time the
disagreements
came to be overlooked, and there is evidence that the Homeric
commentators
piously, under the impression that they were correcting obvious
mistakes
in the text, reversed every, to their knowledge, phrase which indicated
an eastern position. 11
It is significant that a
similar confusion of
meaning is found to have
existed in other languages besides Greek; in all which I have examined.
E.g. Genesis, 11; 2; authorized version, reads: "And it came to pass,
as
they journeyed from the east," but the margin says "or eastward." Clay
(Amurru, p. 108) shows that the word in Isaiah 24; 15; which has always
been translated "east" should probably be translated `west," and he
refers
to the Talmudic Ur and the difficulty the Jews in Babylonia experienced
in trying to understand how Ur, which ordinarily means light or the
east,
"in this connection (urya) meant darkness or the west." It existed in
many
other languages, and our own " east" or ' l est" appears to have been
at
one time "west." The problem had then been
solved. And with the
more pleasure because
there had been no anticipation. 12
II SEQUENCES It
was then apparent that there were other
results, and of great importance.
Heretofore old Greek mythology had been an incoherent collection of
stories.
This was incomprehensible, for nothing was farther from the Greek mind
than incoherence. They could not be what is called "nature myths," for
my .experience with primitive man is that he does not think that way; I
feel that an attempt to introduce a. nature myth into primitive Greece
would have been a source of quiet tribal amusement for several
generations. Likening them then to a jumble of
blocks, so soon
as the geographical
problem was solved the myths all fell into place; it became clear that
they were a rational and consistent account of the lives of certain
individuals
of prominence, the so-called heroes or gods, to whom the Greeks had
erected
monuments analogous to the Lincoln Memorial; or had even come to
worship,
as the Tibetans and some tribes of India worship Queen Victoria; and of
certain pioneering commercial expeditions. This
was the first major sequence, that the old
Greek myths are history,
of the utmost importance to archeologists, and will well repay
intensive
investigation. (Note. This has for some time been
recognized to
be true for the later
myths relating to Troy and Crete.) 1. CAUSE OF CLOSURE OF BLACK SEA
TO NAVIGATION A
second came from investigation of the exact
nature of the catastrophe
(the greatest of which we have historical knowledge), which had closed
the Black Sea to navigation for so many centuries and had caused it to
be called the "Unfriendly Sea." 13
It was known to be an
inundation, accompanied by
storm and in some localities
by slight earthquake shocks. The traditions were
collected, tabulated and
compared. This developed
the fact that there were only five traditions of an inundation of more
than local character. 1. The Greek
tradition; of Deucalion; the
Aegean, 100 to 250
miles southwest of the Black Sea. 2. The Egyptian-Phoenician;
of Atlantis and the
Greeks; the western
and northeastern shores of the Black Sea. 3. The
Cimmerian; of the Crimea; the north shore
of the Black Sea. 4. The Hebrew-Babylonian; of
Noah and
Atra-Hasis; the southeast shore
of the Black Sea. 5. The Phrygian; of Noe; the
south shore of the
Black Sea.
Literal translations of these traditions will be found in the chapter
on
THE DELUGE; also evidence indicating that the Greek tradition was
possibly
transplanted from the eastern shore of the Black Sea; also discussion
of
the possibility that the Phrygian tradition was derived from a Semitic
source. 2.
TRADITIONS OF DELUGE Dismissing
for the present dubious and minor
matters, the tabulation
disclosed that: a. Every known tradition
of a deluge
relates to some region
in the neighborhood of the Black Sea. b. The traditions,
taken together, form a unit;
relating to the west,
north, northeast, southeast and south coast of the Black Sea.
c. The only tradition which does not relate to a
region in the immediate
neighborhood of the Black Sea coast relates to the coast of R smaller
body
of water, connected at one end to the Black Sea and nearly closed
at 14
the other; which must have been
affected by any
considerable rise in
the level of the Black Sea. d. There was no
tradition that there had been
more than one deluge in
the region in the neighborhood of the Black Sea. e.
The traditions were apparently consistent as
to the time of the deluge. f. There was no
evidence of any deluge tradition
not derived from regions
bordering on the Black Sea. E.g. in India no deluge tradition is found
before approximately the beginning of the Christian era. g.
The traditions were not derived from a common
source. Three of them,
relating to : the southeast, south and southwest of the Black Sea, tell
of the survival of a few individuals in an ark, and as stated above,
these
may be branches of the same tradition. But the Cimmerians knew nothing
of an ark; to them the deluge was the terror inspiring catastrophe
which
had caused their few surviving ancestors to abandon the Crimea and
adopt
a nomadic life. And the Egyptian-Phoenician tradition is not of an ark,
but of a great and highly civilized nation, driven west as their
successors
were in later times, by long continued famine and drought, and while in
conflict with the natives of the invaded territory, wiped out to the
last
man, they and their foes, by the deluge. 3. PHYSICAL CIRCUMSTANCES
The consistency of these traditions suggested an examination of the
physical
possibility of a catastrophy of such magnitude. The circumstances were:
a. To the east of the Black Sea and
separated from it by an
isthmus, the great ocean of Atlantis extended for 1,800 miles. b.
The present width of the isthmus is
approximately 300 miles, the
eastern side being 80 ft. below the level of the Black Sea, i.e. sea
level.
When the ocean of Atlantis 15
was at its normal level, the
width must have
been approximately 200
miles. c. The ,greater part of the isthmus is
very low.
A rise of 25 feet in
the ocean of Atlantis would have covered an area of more than 100,000
square
miles of the isthmus, i.e. the entire isthmus except the Caucasus
mountains
and the central portion of the Caucasus valley; the ocean would have
broken
through into the Black Sea and inundated a much greater area there.
d. The Cimmerian tradition calls for an increase
in level of the Black
Sea of approximately 45 feet and a period of approximately twelve
hours. The Egyptian-Phoenician tradition requires
a
rise of 35 feet and a period
of twenty-four hours. The Hebrew-Babylonian
tradition must have a rise
of 40 feet on the southwest
coast of the ocean of Atlantis, and of sufficiently rapid increment to
carry a large vessel up the valley of the Arax into the great expanse
at
the foot of Mt. Ararat, and flood this expanse over an area of
approximately
50 miles square. The period would not exceed a few hours, but the time
taken to drain the expanse would be measured by weeks or even months.
The Phrygian tradition is not known with
sufficient definiteness to
calculate its requirements. It is probably a branch of the Semitic
tradition. The Greek tradition would necessitate
a rise of
125 feet, on the assumption
that there has been no change in the level of the region between the
Black
and Aegean seas; and also on the assumption that the tradition is not
derived
from the Caucasus region. e. The traditions,
taken as a whole, require a
tidal wave on the southwest
shore of the ocean of Atlantis, of a height of approximately 40 feet,
lasting
for approximately 12 hours, and sufficiently rapid in its onset to
produce
bores up the river valleys of that shore. The
evidence that the Deluge had a tidal wave
character appears to be
conclusive. The traditions are in agreement, and the Babylonian
tradition
specifically says "Like a war engine it (the Deluge) comes upon the
people." 16
f . The ocean of Atlantis was
shoal over a great
portion of its area,
approximately of the same depth as Lake Erie, i.e. 80 feet; but with
considerable
areas of much greater depth. g. The ocean of
Atlantis is known to have been
at one time connected
with the Arctic Ocean; in the opinion of geologists, quite recently. It
is shown so connected on Strabo's map of about the beginning of the
Christian
era, but this feature of the map was based on tradition from time long
prior to Strabo's day. The connection was wide, about 400 miles at the
narrowest part, but shoal, probably not more than 30 feet deep. It was
northeast of the ocean of Atlantis, where the Obi and its tributaries
now
are. Even at the present time the greater part of this area is below
the
level of the Sea of Aral. h. The ice of the
fourth and last glacial age
was just passing away.
The date of the deluge, from the EgyptianPhoenician tradition, is about
9,500 B.C. De Geer and Liden's date (obtained from counting the
'varves''
or annual layers of the glacier deposits, and which gives very accurate
results) for the beginning of glacial recession from southern Sweden is
11,500 B.C. At 9,500 B.C. there must still have been considerable
glacier
ice north of the ocean at Atlantis. For references and details see
chapter
on A POSSIBLE GLACIAL AGE FACTOR.
i. The weight of the Glacial Age ice in what is
now the Obi region probably
depressed the earth surface below sea level. Estimates based on Joly's
investigations of mountain flotation show that the ice need not have
been
more than 100 feet thick. This ice would have acted as a dam to
restrain
the Arctic Ocean from flowing into the ocean of Atlantis if the surface
of the latter were below sea level. 17
j. From the Babylonian version
of the Semitic
tradition, the flood was
preceded by an intense drought lasting for six or seven years. No rain
fell during the entire period, and all rivers and wells were dried up.
k. According to the Semitic or Hebrew-Babylonian
tradition there was
warning of the advent of the Deluge, and so far in advance as to afford
time for the construction of a huge vessel. Giving due weight to the
fact
that the rule of the head of a family was autocratic and to the
announcement
of a revelation, it is difficult to conceive that such a gigantic task
could have been carried to completion without some outward and visible
sign. Noah was living to the east of Eden (Aetan), i.e. where the Arax
flowed into the ocean of Atlantis, not far from the present Shamash.
The
indication of the coming Deluge was probably a continued and fairly
rapid
creeping up of the ocean level. This is purely hypothethical; it is
inserted
to show that preparation for a Deluge so far in advance is not
inconsistent
with the known facts. Also because it is in accordance with the
hypothesis
that the ocean of Atlantis was not, immediately prior to the Deluge, in
connection with the Arctic Ocean, and that its surface was somewhat
below
sea level.
Calculation of possible rates of no inundation from the Mediterranean
side
could have produced flow and other even more conclusive considerations
demonstrate that a deluge of more than a fraction of the required
magnitude.
And aside from the matter of. magnitude an inundation from the west
would
be hopelessly in disagreement with the other features of the
traditions,
e.g. the destruction of the Athenian army without any inundation of
Italy
or of Egypt or of the coast of Asia Minor. 4. CAUSE OF DELUGE
The problem having been formulated, the following
solutions present
themselves: 18
1. Abnormal and long
continued rainfall. This
must be rejected as a prime cause, though it may have been accessory.
If all the air above the ocean of Atlantis were saturated and then
all the water fell as rain, it would only increase the level about 2
inches.
Even with winds bringing in moisture laden air at a velocity of 60
miles
per hour the total daily rise could not exceed 2 inches per day, or 7
feet
for 40 days. Small areas may have a rainfall of several feet per day,
but
no large area can have a fall of more than about two inches; and no
larger
fall has ever been known over any considerable area. This fact is well
known to meteorologists. In addition it would not
give the requisite
rapidity of rise.
2. Abnormal winds. High
winds will undoubtedly
pile up water on the lee shore of a sea. If the sea is deep, the amount
will vary with the latitude, since it is a function of the earth's
rotation,
and may amount to as much as 30 feet. But the piling up is at right
angles
to the direction of the wind and would not supply the water fast enough
for the flow into the Sea of Azov. If the sea is
shallow we may also get sufficient
increase in level on
the lee shore, but there is the same difficulty in regard to the supply
of water.
It would not give the requisite bores up the rivers. Though
insufficient in itself, it may have been an
important accessory.
3. Earthquake. Only one
tradition mentions
an earthquake, and this probably of minor intensity. An earthquake
which
raised the level of the Obi district or that of Ust-Urt would
undoubtedly
have produced a tidal wave of sufficient intensity.
4. Slippage of
sedimentary deposits. This is
one of the most common causes of tidal waves. The Caspian is even now
over
3,000 feet deep in places, and the rivers flowing into it are notorious
for carrying large amounts of sediment. 19
A seven years drought followed
by heavy rainfall
might well have produced
slip of sufficient amount.
5. Slipping of a dam of
Glacial ice holding
back the Arctic from the ocean of Atlantis. This is less probable than
some of the other possible causes, but certain facts entitle it to
consideration. A combination of 1 and 2 with 4;
or of 1 and 2
with 5; would have produced
the Deluge of the traditions. The relative probability of these
combinations
is discussed in the chapter on THE DELUGE, but is of slight interest
except
to geologists; the important thing is the fact that there were in
existence
at the time of the Deluge physical causes competent to have produced
the
Deluge; and the Deluge traditions are at every point in complete
agreement
with, and consistent with, the known physical circumstances.
The second major sequence then was that the Deluge
of the traditions
actually occurred and substantially exactly as they describe it.
ORIGIN OF MANKIND
- CONSCIOUSNESS
- RESPONSIBILITY The
traditions are agreed that mankind was
substantially entirely destroyed
by the Deluge. That an inundation of the west shore of the ocean of
Atlantis
and of the coast of the Black Sea should have substantially wiped out
mankind
implies that, at the time of the Deluge, mankind had not dispersed
beyond
this region, and that the place of the origin of mankind lay within it;
and was most probably the isthmus between the two inundating bodies of
water, i.e. the Caucasian isthmus. As a
preliminary it was necessary to define
precisely what was meant
by "origin of mankind." The existence of a
mankind is a very rare,
possibly a unique phenomenon.
When we knew but little of the stars we thought of countless worlds;
but
now we know that very few stars can have a planetary system; that the
planetary
condi- 20
tions for life are very
numerous, rigid and
interlocked; we may be a
solitary race. In a paper on "Molecular Physics"
read before the
Franklin Institute
in September, 1896, I demonstrated that ability to remember and to act
in accordance with that memory did not imply consciousness. Two
mannikins
were exhibited. One mannikin on being brought within a few inches of a
candle, and facing it, thrust its hand into the candle flame, and so
soon
as it began to burn, drew it back. But so soon as the hand had cooled
off
it was thrust in the flame again. The second
mannikin was given a memory by means of
the molecular hysteresis
of a wire forming part of its mechanism. On being brought up to the
candle
it thrust its hand in the flame and withdrew it, as had the first
mannikin.
But it would not thrust it in the flame a second time, and if brought
closer
would draw its hand back, and this memory governed reaction would
persist
until the hysteresis effect had, in the course of some months
(depending
on the temperature), died down. (Note. This
demonstration was given as
illustrating a theorem on responsibility,
i.e. that though circumstances are responsible for man's actions, man
is
responsible, because he is at all times the majority of his
circumstances.
At any given instant his individuality is the sum of the activities of
three sets of hysteresis effects, those of heredity, those of past
circumstances,
and those of immediate circumstances, and the measure of his
responsibility
is the ratio of the sum of the first two to the sum of all three.
Except
in the case of infants, defectives, or occurrences of very short period
this fraction will always approach unity. Other deductions are
contained
in a paper on "Hysteresis in Moral, Social and Economic Functions,"
presented
at the 1899 meeting of the Amer. Ass. Advancement of Science, Economic
Section.) Omitting for the present an exact
definition of
"consciousness" (ability
to inactivate hysteresis effects, i.e. to inhibit, might perhaps do),
we
cannot consider the second manni- 21
kin to have been conscious.
Until, then, it is
shown that ability of
the individuals of a species homo to react to circumstances as a man
does,
i.e. to chip flints, plant grain, etc., necessarily implies
consciousness,
we cannot say that the absence of anatomical differences between that
species
of homo and mankind proves that the species is mankind. This point does
not affect what we are now considering but this is the logical place to
call attention to it, as it will be f ound important; see the chapter
on "THE
TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL." It
is only quite recently that archeological
results have been collated
in a scientific way, and up to the time that this was done it seemed a
thing to be expected that mankind should have appeared on the world in
due time, and if not in one place then in another. Archeologists are
now
substantially agreed that the early chimpanzee type of man-like beings
which we call Homo Neanderthaliensis, and which existed for possibly
more
than 100,000 years and used rough chipped stone implements and fire,
passed
out of existence, possibly 25,000 years ago, as completely, as regards
the origin of man, as if it had never been. A
later type, the ape type, of man-like beings,
Homo Sapiens, having
deer-horn flakers and making better implements of stone and bone and
making
painted and carved representations of familiar objects, came into being
perhaps 40,000 years ago. This too passed, about 15,000 years ago;
though
some anthropologists believe local vestiges remain. For a clear and
concise
account of these two types see Wells, "Outline of History."
The authoritative doctrine at present is that
mankind of today was developed
from the latter of these types, gradually, and possibly in more than
one
place; but it will be shown that there was only one place of origin, a
valley of unique characteristics, and that if mankind developed from
this
second type the development was not a gradual but an abrupt change.
22
6. BIRTH PLACE OF MANKIND
In determining the birthplace of mankind we have
the following "equations." a. Wild
wheat. Wheat has been found
growing wild in 1. The east Caucasus valley. Strabo,
XI; 4; 3.
2. The south Caspian littoral. Strabo, II; 1; 14.
3. In the upper valley of the Euphrates. U. S. Bureau of Agriculture.
Localities 2 and 3 are separated by difficult mountain ranges, but 1 is
in connection with both. b. General archeological evidence.
America
appears to have been populated
quite recently; farther India and China, and probably Africa south of
the
equator, at a comparatively late date. The earlier populated region
appears
to lie between Spain on the west, Burmah on the east, Finland on the
north
and the Indian ocean on the south. The Caucasus
isthmus is in the centre of this
region. c. Centre of gravity of nationalities.
Giving a
weight 1 to each distinct
nationality, and locating the centre of gravity of the combined weight,
it is found to be in the Caucasus isthmus. The
dispersion in the Caucasus isthmus itself
was great. Some writers
say that 70 interpreters, others that 300, were needed at the western
terminus
of the Caucasus isthmus. See Strabo, XL; 2; 16, and Pliny, N. H. VI; 5;
15. In the eastern valley they spoke 26 different languages. Strabo,
XI;
5; 6. d. Origin of religions. It was found that
1. The religion of the Egyptians was derived
from the mother country
of the black Phoenicians, i.e. Colchis, the western Caucasus valley,
originally
Eadon. 2. The fundamental Greek religion was
derived
from Hypiberea, i.e. the
eastern Caucasus valley; with additions from Egypt. 3.
The Syrian and Babylonian religions
(worship 23
of Thammuz, Adonis, etc.), were
derived from the
northern slopes of
the Caucasus, i.e. from the neighborhood of Mt. Tamischeira, the river
and peninsula of Acheron or Apscheron and the river Udonis. Thammuzon
is
"land of Thammuz" and is the origin of the name Amazon. Adonis is "man
of the land of Ea." Acheron or Apseron is "land of the burning" or "
Land
whence fire arises," i.e. the present Baku oil district. 4.
The religion of the Aryans was derived from
the Apseron district. 5. The religion of the
pre-Mosaic Ibri
(Hebrews), was derived from the
mid Caucasus valley, i.e. Iberia or eastern Eadon. 6.
The religion of Crete was from the same
source as 1, with additions
from a district just north of source 3. These additions were perhaps of
a civil rather than a religious character. It was
further found that source 3 may have been
originally in the eastern
portion of the region given. 7. IDENTITY OF GREEK AND SEMITIC
MYTHS e. Origin of
myths. When the geographical
misplacement referred to above
was corrected, it was found that the Semitic and Greek myths of the
origin
of mankind referred to the same place and were in agreement at all
substantial
points. E.g. 1. Eadon of Greek mythology
and Eden of
Semitic are the same
region, i.e. the west and middle Caucasus valley. The word means "Land
of Ea," and the eastern part was later called the land of the Iberi or
Ibri (Hebrews). 2. The Garden of the Hesperides wad the
Garden
of Eden were in the same
place, i.e. the eastern part of Eadon or Eden. 3.
The dragon guarded tree of the Apples of
Hesperides and the kirubi
(flying serpent) guarded tree of 24
Life were in the same place,
i.e. a garden in
the eastern portion of
Eadon or Eden. 4. Both Greek and Hebrew
traditions place a
phenomena of fire to the
east of Eden (i.e. in the Baku oil district); the Greek tradition
flaming
fields; the Hebrew tradition a sword of fire which turned every way.
The sacred fire of the early Aryan religion
was there also. 5. Zeus, according to the Greek
mythology
(Smith, Classical Dict. art.
Prometheus), "created men out of earth and water and caused the winds
to
breath life into them." in Eadon. God, according
to the Semitic tradition
(Genesis, chap. 2, verse 7),
"formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul," in Eden.
6. Both the Greek and Hebrew traditions place
the institution of the
rite of the sacrifice of animals in Eden, and both lay stress on the
fat
of the offering. 7. The Greek tradition in regard
to Prometheus
and the Hebrew tradition
in regard to Cain are similar in many respects. E.g. Prometheus
incurs the displeasure of Zeus, and
Cain that of God, on
account of the nature of their sacrifices. Both
are exiled to the same place, to the east
of Eden (i.e. the Baku
oil district). Both are the originators of metal
working and
other useful arts for
which fire is necessary.
f. The place names of the
district are of such
character that I think anyone who has done much work in this line will
feel, as I feel, that in the Caucasus isthmus we are working in a
district
where Aryan and Semitic shade imperceptibly into one another.
g. An origin in the
Caucasus isthmus would
explain Mommsen's observation (History of Rome, chap. 3) that the two
branches
of the Indo-Germanic race have different
25
names for the sea. The wild
honey bee and the
birch beech are also found
in this district.
h. The known facts in
regard to the dispersion
of mankind are consistent with an origin in the Caucasus isthmus. See
chapter
on THE DISPERSION. It will be shown that the home of the negro race was
Colchis, the western portion of the Caucasus valley. In connection with
this rather unexpected discovery see Herodotus, II; 104. Also Pindar,
Pyth.
IV. Also Homer, Odyssey, I; 23. It will be noted that Homer antedates
the
expeditions of Sesostris. For other evidence see the chapter referred
to
above.
i. An origin in the
Caucasus isthmus is the
only one in agreement with and consistent with all of the traditions of
the Deluge and with all other old traditions having relation to the
place
of origin.
No way was apparent of avoiding the conclusion that the place of the
origin
of mankind was the Caucasus isthmus. This was the third major sequence.
8. MYTHS As
HISTORY A fourth
sequence was that the old Semitic
traditions must be regarded
with respect, not as myths but as accurate historical relations. The
Old
Testament in particular (additional evidence of this will be found in
the
following chapters) appears to compare favorably as regards accuracy in
all essential matters, with any history of which I have knowledge.
There are exceptions to many rules, but it is
thought that a good working
motto for the young archeologist will be, "Mythus solus, sunt mythi."
I.e.
"The only myth is, that there are such things as myths."
9. DISTRIBUTION OF MANKIND AT
TIME
OF DELUGE It was
found possible, from these and other
traditions, and from known
facts, to obtain what is believed to be a sub-
26
stantially accurate and
complete knowledge of the
distribution of mankind
before the Deluge. Briefly (the data and conclusions are .given in
detail
in the chapter on THE DISPERSION),
man occupied
the
Caucasus valley, what is now the south shore of the Caspian, the
Caucasus
isthmus between the Caucasus mountains and the line of the Manytsch
lakes,
and the shores of the Black Sea, with possibly a few settlements in the
Aegean. As was pointed out to Solon in Egypt, in
droughts
the shepherds and
herdsmen perish, in inundations the cities are destroyed. A seven
years'
drought during which all springs were dried up would have brought the
surviving
inland dwellers down to the river bottoms and the coast. The subsequent
tidal wave and river bores of the Deluge must have substantially wiped
out mankind; there can have been very few survivors. Though
simplified, the problem was by no means an
easy one, for: a. The main dispersions
took place from a
region which has
not been archeologically explored. b. In the earlier stages
of the dispersion the
differences between the
dispersing races are not so well marked as later. c.
There were in some cases difficulties due to
interpenetration. As
if, e.g. a number of Germans, living in the United States were to form
a settlement in the Philippines and the Philippines later became a part
of the Japanese empire. d. Races which had
reformed their theology
frequently relapsed to a
particular element of the primitive type.
On the other hand it was made more easy by the fact that the dispersion
proceeded less rapidly at first. And most of all by the fact that I had
at my disposal the results of the archeological investigations carried
out with modern scientific methods in Egypt and Babylonia by men having
a very special knowledge of their subject. I am especially
indebted 27
to Dr. Clay's work (Amurru, and
The Home of the
Amorites) which has
shown that the old Babylonian traditions came from a Semitic source;
progress
in this portion of the problem was halted for some time because this
was
required by my solution, but until the publication of Dr. Clay's papers
the weight of evidence was decidedly against it. The
principal methods used were: 1. Triple
place names. To illustrate: If
the name "Boston"
is found in the U. S. as the name of a city, it may be an Indian word,
and a pure coincidence that there is an English city of the same name,
and of older foundation. When we find that both cities have a "Lynn"
near
them on the coast, the probability that both are Indian names is not
great,
but there is a possibility. But when we also find that both cities have
a "Cambridge" inland the probability of a triple coincidence is so
small
that we may be fairly sure that the founders of Boston in the U. S.
were
of English descent. By this method identification is made a matter of
mathematical
probability and it is possible to express the certainty of the
identification
as a numeric by means of correlation formulae, but this is only useful
in double place names as the correlation factor is so high with triple
names that it approaches a certainty. Single names are useful
but require careful
investigation, for: a. There are the
changes in form in
transmission and with time.
The laws of these transformations are well known, the result of the
work
of philologists. E.g. Haburi may become Khaburi, Khuburi,
Huburu, Hyperi, Heb'ri, Hib'ri,
Iberi, Tiberi, Tiburi, Tib'li, Tif'li, Habiri, Haburi, Abari, Arberi,
Arbeni,
Armeni, Ormeni. b. Compliance with the rules is
not
sufficient, the history of the word
and the route by which it came must be investigated, e.g. one might
think
that the name of the river Araxes was derived from the Sanscrit "rasa"
28
unless one knew that Sanscrit
was a
comparatively modern language and
that the river flowed through a region settled at a very early date.
The
name is found in that form in early Greek literature, and one's
suspicions
would be aroused by finding that there was a river Araxes in Greece and
further search would show that the Caucasian River received its name
from
the leader of a Greek expedition on account of its resemblance to the
Greek
river Araxes. (Strabo, XI; 14; 13.) Application of the triple place
name
method shows that the original name of the river was "Aragh" or
"Araghw"
and was probably connected with a pre-Sanscrit root "Ur-ab," "Erib."
Note. Zenophon's mistake in calling the Habur
the Araxes was probably
due to the fact that the upper portion of the Araxes was known as the
Abar.
Times Atlas, 71; H; 6. Alterations of this character are frequent.
Bosporos
and Bursa are instances. Bosporos is the Thracian form of Phosphoros (
Wecklein) "Light bearing." The original Phosphoros Straits, at the
entrance
to the Sea of Azov, had Pillars of Hercules, i.e. Phoenician
lighthouses,
but showing red and yellow instead of red and green. See Herodotus,
2;44.
Bursa, as has been shown by Smith, did not derive its name from Dido's
trickery, but was the Phoenician word for "citadel." Strabo
says, Book XI; 11; 5; "Aristobulus
calls the river which runs
through Sogdonia, Polytimetus, a name imposed by the Macedonians, as
they
imposed many others, some of which were altogether new, others were
deflections
(paranomasan) from the native names." The Greeks were not the only
offenders,
the Semetic nations were frequently guilty of these geographic puns.
There is also one instance of a wholesale
transference of names to points
in the far east, made to flatter the vanity of Alexander the Great.
This
fortunately only affected regions east of the Persian gulf, and the
Greek
origin of the names is very obvious. 29
c. Much dependence cannot be
placed upon the
vowels, or whether they
are long or short. E.g. in the Septuagint, a translation made by Greek
scholars of repute and with accuracy as a prime objective, the name of
the well known city Samaria appears in four forms in different codices
and in different forms in the same codex; Sameron, Semeron, Somoron,
Saemeron;
in Hebrew it is Shomeron, and it was named after Shemer. The River
Habur
appears as Chaboras and Aborrhas; we have Ebura, Ebura and Ebora; and
Iberus
becomes Ebro. Nevertheless the vowels are important guides and
warnings. d. The laws of transformation are not
given
quite fully by the rules.
Herman transforms into German, and Hades into Gades, but aside from the
transformations being different in Aryan and Semitic, they also depend
upon the relation of other consonants and vowels. Since 1912 I have had
an opportunity of studying this subject in connection with work on
sound,
and with the assistance of Mr. Bennett and Dr. White, of the New
England
Conservatory of Music, the latter of whom taught Helen Keller to talk.
The transformations appear to depend fundamentally upon certain
peculiarities
of the vocal organs, and the principal results will be found in the
chapter
on PLACE NAMES.
2. Physical characteristics, customs, dress; especially fire customs. 3.
Religious rites; especially those of the
women. 4. The natural geographic route of
extension,
taking into account the
character and customs of the people. 5. The
traditions of the place of origin. 6. The
locality considered to have been the
place from which the religion
was derived. 7. The tradition of the relationship
between
races. 8. Causes of migration. 9.
Personal names. 30
10. Names of deities.
11. Names of plants, animals, etc. 12.
Results of archeological work. 13. Language.
14. Alliances in war. 15. Tools,
weapons, ships. 10.
DISPERSION OF MANKIND BEFORE
DELUGE
The results are: 1. The origin of mankind was just
north
of the Caucasus range,
in the upper Terek valley, near Grosnyi, the centre of the present Baku
oil district. See chapter on PHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON PRIMITIVE THEOLOGY AND
SCIENCE. 2. No evidence has been found that
mankind were
called by any specific
name before they began to extend. 3. The first
extension was south and east to the
uplands of the Caucasus
mountains. 4. The low country then was called
Ur-on and its
inhabitants Ur-ab or
Ab-ur. 5. The mountainous district was called
Al-on and
its inhabitants Al-ab
or Ab-al. 6. Ur means "fire" or "light." A1 means
"high"
or "height." On means
"place." Ab means "out of" or "from." a.
There are indications that all
initial vowels were originally
pronounced "explosively," i.e. as if preceded by a guttural sound like
h or kh. Later this was softened out in most languages but the
Etruscans
appear to have brought it back in an affectation without quite
understanding
how it should be used. b. These names survive in the Caucasus
isthmus, e.g. the river Urup
and peninsula Apscheron; the river Alontas and town Asslandus; the Iron
(Iran), Kabardian and Alan tribes; Georgia (Khuroche) and Albania; the
Abaran and Tiberda, Alisan and Alizon; Tereck and Tartar, etc.
31
And in such names as Uranus,
Elysium
(Alazium), Helios, Iberia, Hyperia,
Acheron, Europe, Atlantic, Tartarus, Aragon, Ashur, Turon, Alps,
Sideros,
Chalybs, Tiber, Iberus, Habur, Abarim, Hibri, Aryan.
7. The second extension was through the Arabus or Dariel pass into the
middle and eastern part of the Caucasus valley. The Aloni do not seem
to
have taken part in this, only the Aburi. 8. These colonizers
retained the parent name,
Aburi or Haburi. The Greeks
later called those of the middle valley the Iberi and those of the
eastern
valley the Hypiberi (Hyperborei), analogous to the term Hypachaeans.
(Herodotus,
7; 91. ) 9. The next, and to some extent
contemporary
extension was northwest
along the slopes of the Caucasus and down the rivers later known as the
Tiberda, Urup and Oceanus, Hypanis or Kuban, to the mouth of the Kuban
at the entrance to the Sea of Azov. This was by the Uron and Alon
people.
The Alon people moved into the triangle of which the Kuban and Alontas
or Terek formed the south side, the line of the Manysch lakes a second,
and the shore of the Azov the third. The territory was known as Alond
or
Alont. The final consonant was not, I believe, inflexional. It may mean
"set" or "belonging together with." 10. Those
remaining in the place of origin, i.e.
the land between and
almost encircled by the present Terek and Sunsha were now called Ur-Al
and later Ur-Ur, or Tur-Tur, a reduplication of the final consonant
which
became a feature of the Sumerian language. Other instances are found at
the close of this period. It may have originated as a distinction
between
different parts of the same race, i.e. between the Ur who had moved,
the
Aed-ur and those who remained, the Ur-ur. 11.
Those dwelling to the east of Tur-Tur or
Alont, i.e. in the present
peninsula of Apscheron, Ashuron, or Alazon, were called Aps-ur, Ash-ur
or Al-ups. The names survived in 32
Apscheron, Acheron, Ashirta,
Ashur, Assyria,
Apharsath, Hesperus, Star,
Alazon, Alypes, Chalybs, Elysium, Acheruntici libri, Acheruns, Asii,
Asia. 12. The word Ash originally meant "up out
of,"
and then "east," as that
was the place where the sun came up out of. Later it meant wood,
especially
a kind of white poplar which grew in the Acheron valley. Aps meant the
east. 13. The word Aed or Aet was applied to the
west
coast and those dwelling
there. We have Aedon, Aeturon, Aetalon, Haedon.
These survived in Eden, Aethurea, Atlas, Atlantic, Hades (Aidoneus),
Adonis, Aethiopia (Aeti-ope), ether. The fact that Aethurea and Aetalon
suggest Etruria and Italy has of course been noted, but mere
philological
identities do not count in work in this field; there must be positive
and
definite historical or other facts; the history of the words Etruria
and
Italy is not sufficiently known. 14. The word Aed
or Aet meant the sea, but not
in the same way as the
word ocean. Ocean was the "river place" (oche-on; I know philologists
have
.given a different derivation but I think this will stand), the home of
the tribe of rivers. But aed or aet meant what was there when you went
into a dark cave; it was the black void; it was the sea in that sense
and
it carried with it the idea of darkness or blackness. The Black sea may
possibly owe its name to a revival of the old name, but this is merely
a surmise, I have not investigated and possibly it is too late to
ascertain. 15. During the next expansion period
both Al and
Ur became sea faring
nations. The Ur had the west end of the Caucasus valley, which
Mithridates
later found to be such a splendid place for ship-building, and the A1
had
the east end, almost equally good. The Ur took
all of the Black sea coast except
the north, and the Aegean
as far as Rhodes. Incidentally the story of the Telchines (Chalybs),
that
they settled Rhodes because they were afraid their own country would be
deluged, confirms 33
the impression derived from the
Semitic
traditions that the Deluge did
not come without warning; and the specific statement of the
Egyptian-Phoenician
traditions that there had been several previous minor inundations.
The Al took the north shore of the Black Sea and
the sea of Azov and
the Crimea, placing the Pillars of Hercules at the straits. Also they
took
the southwest and south shores of what is now the Caspian Sea, but was
then very much larger, and the Ocean of Atlantis. It will be noted that
while there are numerous evidences on the Caspian Sea of this
extension,
e.g. the river Alontas, town Asslandus, etc., there are comparatively
few
on the Black Sea. During this period the Al were
called Alani or
Atlanti (Aloni; Aetaloni),
and the Ur were called Meropes or Europes (Ur-ope). Ope
was a variant of Oche, river. As was natural
with a people with
extensive irrigation works the word took on later a side meaning, "the
thing that makes things grow," hence "fertility." Oche originally meant
"spring" and ope "rain." 16. For the theology and
science of this period
see chapter 2. II. SURVIVORS OF,
AND DISPERSION AFTER, DELUGE 17.
Extension was then interrupted by the
Deluge. The following survived a. Abur.
(Haburi, Iberi, Hibri.) Noah
and his family, from
the east Caucasus valley; after the Deluge; from the Artaxatan or
Karajas
plain in the mountains of Ararat. (Ararat was a district, not a
mountain,
see Genesis 8. 4.) Semitic tradition. This was the Kir of Amos. Also
other
survivors in Armenia. b. Aetur. On south coast of Black Sea.
Possibly the Phrygian tradition. c. Aea and
Aetiope. In Colchis (Chalchis, west
Caucasus valley), and
possibly Rhodes. The Phoenician-Egyptian tradition, and the
Telchines-Meropes
tradition. 34
d. Aetal. (Cimmerii, Ambrones.)
The Crimea.
The Cimmerian tradition. e. Al, Alab, Alaps, Ur.
and Apsur. In the
peninsula of Apscheron and
the Caucasus range. f. Al, Alaps, Ur, Apsur. On
the south and
southwest shore of what is
now the Caspian. The tradition will, I believe, be found when the
region
south of the Caspian is investigated archeologically.
18. So far as can be ascertained no other surviving groups greatly
influenced
the subsequent stages of dispersion. These appear to have been, see MAP
A. a. Of the Aetal north and west to
the
shores of the Baltic
and Italy. b. Of the Al east along the south shore of the
ocean of Atlantis. c. Of the Alaps, Apsur and Ur
up the Araxes to
the Urmia valley; thence
of the Alaps and Apsur down the Little Zab to the Tigris and thence to
Babylon; the-region above the junction of Little Zab and Tigris was
settled
later from Ashuron. The Alaps and Apsur kept together, but the Alaps
were
the Chaldeans, the astronomers, metal workers, etc., while the Apsur
were
the farmers. The Ur and Abur spread from the Urmia valley to the
southeast. d. Of the Abur of Armenia west to the
Bosphorus, thence across Thrace
to northern Italy, southern France and Spain. The
descendants of Noah spread down the
Euphrates valley to the neighborhood
of Aleppo, and there divided. One branch went south to Damascus (there
is some evidence that a branch of the Euphrates once flowed past
Damascus
into the Jordan Valley, possibly past Palmyra) and thence to Arabia.
The
other branch went southeast to Babylon and there encountered those
descendants
of the survivors who had come from the Urmia valley. The Tower of Babel
was probably built for astronomical purposes, to settle disputes
connected
with the time for opening the irrigating
35
canals of the interconnecting
canal systems of
the Tigris and Euphrates.
Such towers had been in use in the Caucasus valley. e.
The Aea and Aetiope for a long time were
merely traders, though they
settled some islands. They traded in the Black and Aegean seas, along
the
east coast of the Mediterranean, with the natives of Syria, and sailed
into the Red Sea (the Nile had not then formed the Isthmus of Suez),
and
across thence, since Arabia was then completely or substantially an
island,
to the head of the Persian or Keph gulf and the island of Kephtor,
where
they traded with the settlers there, and founded cities in the Persian
gulf, called Tyre and Sidon. They also had a settlement in the gulf of
Akaba, and later went across from Leucos and settled Thebes.
When the water route across north Arabia began
to dry up and the Suez
straits began to silt up they moved their principal stations to the
eastern
Mediterranean, and founded the cities of Sidon and Tyre there.
12. ABURI
To those who may be interested in checking up the work I would say that
a little time may be saved by noting that though the word Abur
originally
meant that branch of the Ur who settled in the middle and east Caucasus
valley, it soon came to be used of all settlers there, including those
on the Alizon (Alaps, Chalybs) and on the south slopes of the Apscheron
(Apsur, Ashur, eres acher, Arzar, Azir) and the whole district was
called
Aburon (Iberia). So when Abur are met one must go further and
ascertain if they were
from the original Abur, or later settlers in the valley. A list of the
old place names of Spain reads like the index to a guide book of the
true
Abur Caucasus district and the Spanish Iberians observed the archetype
of the Mosaic Passover (Strabo, 3; 4;16; "They sacrifice to a nameless
god, every full moon, at night, before their doors.") and
36
though not Semites they were
true Abur. But though
the Albanians were
originally called Iberians (Shkyiperians or Arberians by the Albanians
of today), when we go further we find that they were Al from the
Iberian
valley of the Caucasus, from the mountain slopes. Again,
in Susiana we have the Khuber, but find
that they were neither
Abur nor Al, but Apsur from the east Caucasus valley of Abur or Iberia.
But once attention is called to this it ceases to
present any difficulty.
And on the other hand the problem is very much simplified by the fact
that
for at least three and probably six thousand years after the Deluge
there
was no migration north of the Caspian to or from the east, for the
reason
that the ,whole province of what is now Tobolsk was absolutely
impassable,
both winter and summer; a vast morass extending for approximately 1,000
miles. All migration east and west had therefore to pass by the south
end
of the Caucasus, and is easily followed and determined.
13. HITTITES (SUTU, SEUTHES)
A more detailed account of these movements
and of
some important subsequent
and of some interesting minor movements is given in the chapter On THE
DISPERSION. E.g. it appears that the Hittites were Abur and came from
Armenia,
down the Euphrates valley to the territory where the Euphrates turns
east,
thence they went south to Arabia. There they were known as the Sutu.
Later
they left Arabia and went north and west, possibly on account of the
drying
up of northern Arabia, and were known as the Hyksos and Hittites. They
were finally driven back to Armenian territory, and went from there
round
the east end of the Caucasus range to the north shore of the Black Sea,
where they were known as Scythians. 14. MONGOLS
The so-called Mongoloid characteristics are not, I
think, 37
indicative of any fundamental
race difference.
They are found occasionally
in Indo-Europeans as the result of deficiency of certain glands. I
think
the Mongols were Al of 18 b, and think that I have noted disappearance
of Mongoloid characteristics and reversion to Indo-European type.
15. NEGRO
No definite evidence has been found to fix
the
origin of the Negro.
They first appear in the west end of the Caucasus valley, the western
portion
of Aedon. This western portion of Aedon was the first place to be
called
Aethiopia. Later Phoenicia received the name and still later the
country
south of Egypt. The negroes of the west Caucasus
valley were not
wine colored or merely
dark. They were black, and had woolly hair. They were not imported by
Sesostris,
for aside from the fact that Sesostris was gathering together all the
laborers
he could get for his works in Egypt, they were there a thousand years
before
the time of Sesostris. They are found in connection with the
Phoenicians,
or Khain (Khaeon), and may have been brought by the Phoenicians from
the
Red Sea. There are some things yet to be discovered about the human
capillary
system which may explain the negro, as a "sport" which may have
originated
in the Caucasus, but the evidence at present is in favor of a separate
origin. This occurrence in the Caucasus and in
Egypt was
what Homer meant when
he spoke of "the Aethiopians, furthest sundered of mankind," a
statement
which has puzzled many Isomeric commentators.
16. CAUCASUS RACES
The dispersion of groups of mankind called by
different names has been
traced. This does not mean that there were so many distinct races. Two
distinct races have been definitely established, i.e. a white race,
with
light hair and eyes, or with dark hair and eyes, first found in the
northern
part of 38
the Caucasus isthmus, and which
may be called the
North Caucasus race;
and a black race, with woolly hair and dark eyes, in the southwest
portion
of the isthmus, which may be called the Southwest Caucasus race. In the
southeast portion of the isthmus are found the Semites, and there are
some
indications that they were derived from admixture of the north and
southwest
races. Provisionally they may be called the Southeast Caucasus race.
17. SEMITES
The Semites have been classed with the Nordic
race
(see Wells, Outline
of History, p. 82), but this is certainly a mistake. The Semites are
either
an absolutely distinct third race or they are an admixture of north and
southwest races. There are fundamental moral characteristics which are
just as racially distinctive as physical characteristics, and one of
these
is that impersonal sense of right and wrong which was once called
chivalry.
This is strongly marked in the Nordic races, I.e. in the ancient
Greeks,
the Norsemen, the English and the Japanese. Even without such evidence
as the identity of the Thracian story of the goddess Benthe and her
cave
with that of the Japanese goddess Bende we would recognize,
notwithstanding
their darker physical characteristics, a strong North Caucasus element
in the Japanese. No trace of this sense can be found in the history of
the Semites or in their traditions. The Semite is personal; when
Shechem
the Hivite said to Jacob and his sons, "Ask me never so much dowry and
gift and I will give according as ye shall say unto me; but give me the
damsel to wife," and his sons had persuaded the Hivites to become
circumcised,
and Simeon and Levi had butchered them all while helpless, Jacob
bitterly
reproached the murderers: "Ye have troubled me to make me stink among
the
inhabitants of the land, and I, being few in number, they will gather
themselves
against me and smite me, and I shall be destroyed." (Genesis 34.) But
there
is no sense of moral turpitude, and it should be made clear
to 39
children who may read that
historically valuable
book that in the Pentateuch
the word sin means an act which has caused or will cause a financial or
other loss to the person committing it. The strongest proof of the
deity
of Christ is the unsemitic character of his teaching (compare his
recorded
utterances with that of Jacob, above, and of other Old Testament
characters).
This ineradicable personal attitude, so valuable to the individual
accumulator,
so destructive to the community, clearly separates the Armenian, Hebrew
and other Semitic races from the North Caucasus type. See Strabo, III;
4; 5. 18.
UR-AL One difficulty
met with in tracing the North
Caucasus race is that the
Ur and Al combined politically and theologically. The two gods, Ur and
Al became a twin god, Ur-Al (KhurKhal), and Tartarus was known as
Ur-alu.
It is possible that the Ur may have been the dark North Caucasus type,
and the Al the light type, but there is not sufficient evidence to
separate
them into distinct races. 19. CONCLUSION
I have ,given above what may be called the main
movements and it is
believed that the account given is substantially accurate. It is of
course
not beyond criticism but its correction I must leave to the hands of
men
much better qualified in their particular lines than I am; it will, it
is hoped, be a good working basis. 40
III THE
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAUCASUS
ISTHMUS
and their
INFLUENCE ON PRIMITIVE THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE The
physical characteristics of that isthmus where
mankind had its origin
are sufficiently remarkable in themselves; and they are known, as one
might
know the individual elements which go to make up Niagara; so many
rocks,
so many trees, so much water. It is when we see them as a whole that
they
appear as a stage setting for the entrance of man into this world more
wonderful than has ever been seen in a dream. What follows will best be
read with the map and with the reference books specified, chosen as
being
authoritative and easily accessible. The isthmus
runs approximately north and south and
lies between the
Black Sea, on the west, and the Caspian Sea, on the east. The
Caspian Sea was formerly much larger than now
and extended, as the
Ocean of Atlantis, 1,800 miles to the east, to western Mongolia. Its
present
level is 80 feet lower than then; the former shore, known by the shell
deposits, is indicated by a dotted line; from which it will be seen
that
there has been no substantial change in the isthmus except that the
small
area of low ground to the right of the line was then under water and
the
sea washed the base of the peninsula of Apscheron.
1. THE BARRIER
Across the middle of the isthmus, in a
straight
line, ap- 41
proximately east and west, and
running into the
sea on both sides are
the mountains, the Caucasus range. These are the
highest mountains in Europe, Mt.
Elbruz being more than
half a mile higher than Mt. Blanc. They are not a disconnected series
of
peaks but a continuous range, the greater part of its length above the
limits of perpetual snow. (Ency. Brit. art. Caucasus.) Glaciers are
practically
continuous over a great part of the range but do not descend below
7,000
feet on the south and 5,700 feet on the north. To
the most expert of modern mountaineers and with
the best modern equipment
the passage of this range would be a difficult and dangerous feat; I
cannot
find that it has been done. To primitive man it was impossible. Nor
could
he go round the ends. of the range because as will be seen by using the
map scale both ends stick out into the sea in such a way that, whether
he went by east or by west, he must travel approximately 250 miles
along
a harborless coast with spur ranges projecting into the sea every few
miles,
their sides covered with dense forest. Thousands of years later a
powerful
king of that country, Mithridates, fleeing for his life, escaped that
way
because he knew his enemies could not follow him, but "he proceeded
with
great difficulty, frequently embarking in vessels." (Strabo; 11; 2; 13)
; Mithridates had boats, he knew where he was going, yet he took
months.
Primitive man had no boats, he did not know if he would arrive at any
place
which would support life; he would have been afraid and have turned
back
before he had struggled on for a single month.
2. NORTHERN ENCLOSURE
So until he discovered that wonderful door
which
was later to be closed
by iron gates, first by Aidoneus and again after ages by Alexander, man
could not pass from the north side of the isthmus to the south. When
the
last great glaciers (see map of fourth glacial age, Wells, Outline of
History),
slowly groaned their way south they pocketed what life was
42
in front of them, of that
region, into the north
end of the isthmus.
It could not escape south. There, in the centre of that pocket, hard up
against the mountain range and opposite the hidden door, were the Ever
Burning fields and the burning river Pyriphlegethon. Now, as Grosyni,
it
is the centre of the Baku oil district; two thousand years ago if one
poked
a stick into the ground oil would collect. And nearby was the wonderful
Mountain of Iron and Brass, Thammuzeira, which the Chalybes under their
queen Ashirta, worked and which became the sacred place of a great
religion. 3.
PASS OF EREBUS (ARABUS, ERIB) Here
man had his origin, on the eyot, almost
encircled by the Terek
and Sunsha, of Tartarus, and had developed to a high stage of
civilization
before he discovered that the heights of perpetual snow south of him
were
not the end of his world in that direction, as the great glaciers were
to the north. Had the door been a mountain pass, like the Simplon or
St.
Bernard, it would not have been long before it was found; but it was
not,
it was of an extraordinary character. To answer
thought of possible exaggeration of its
peculiar structure
I will quote from that conservative authority, the Encyclopedia
Britannica,
article Caucasus. "There exists, in fact, but one
natural pass
across the great chain
of the Caucasus. This route ascends the valley of the Terek from
Vladikafkaz
as far as Kobi (a distance of about 40 miles), where it quits the
valley
and is carried over the lofty crest or ridge known as the Krestowaja
Gora,
an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet, from whence it descends to Mleti in
the valley of the Aragus and follows the course of that stream nearly
to
Tiflis. It is commonly known as the Pass of Dariel from the remarkable
gorge of that name through which it is carried between Lars and Kasbek,
a defile of the grandest and most impressive character. Previous to the
formation of the present road this deep and narrow gorge,
affording
just passage for the torrent, while the
43
mountains rise on each
side abruptly to a
height of at least 5,000
feet above the level of the Terek, must have presented
almost
insuperable
difficulties to the passage of traffic along this route. Hence it was
known
and celebrated from the earliest times and is mentioned under the name
of the Caucasian Gates by Pliny, who describes them as actually closed
by a fortified gate, a measure which might have been easily adopted."
It was very dark. The Caucasus range is in
latitude 43 and runs east
and west, and the cleft is narrow and 5,000 feet deep and winding, so
even
at noon of midsummer a way must be picked along the edges of the
roaring
icy torrent in the dark. It was Erebus, the
region of gloom of the Greek
mysteries (from Arabus;
see Aeschylus, Prom. Bd. line 420; now the Aragus, see quotation from
Ency.
Brit. above; originally it was Ur-ab, "from Ur"; hence erib, "entrance,
exit"). 4.
THE DOOR (KUANTHURETRA) The
gates were at the northern entrance to the
gorge. I am not sure
that the statement made by Alexander's historians that he placed gates
there is correct, though he may have instructed one of his lieutenants
to do so. But thousands of years before Alexander's time Aidoneus, king
of Aides (Aidon; Aedon) had placed iron gates there, and it was these
that
Hercules was said to have carried off, as Samson did the gates of Gaza.
For Cerberus was not the seven headed hound or "thereutes" of Aides,
but
his seven .fold door or "thureta" of dark blued steel, which he had
placed
between Ur and Abur. In B.C. 100 the gate was at the southern end. See
Strabo, 11; 3; 5. "From the north there is a difficult ascent for three
days, and then a narrow road by the side of the river Aragus, a journey
of four days, which road admits only one person to pass at a time. The
termination of the road is guarded by an impregnable gate."
44
5. SOUTHERN ENCLOSURE
The south end of the isthmus is overhung by the
mountainous table land
of Armenia, between which and the Caucasus range is a heavenly valley,
divided into three parts by two small ranges running at right angles to
the Caucasus range and buttressing it and the Armenian table land.
The middle third of the valley is therefore like a
square four walled
enclosure, and it is into this that the gate opens. Two-thirds
of the valley, the western and middle
portions, were part
of the kingdom of Ea, and were called Aedon by the Phoenicians and Eden
by the Semites. The western half of Aeden was called Aethiopia by the
Phoenicians
and later Colchis by the Greeks. The eastern half of Aedon, the part
enclosed
on all four sides and into which the gate opened, was the "Paradeisos"
or enclosed park of the Septuagint and the "Garden in the east of Eden"
of the Semites. The eastern third of the valley,
through which
portion the Alizon flowed,
was called "Elysion" by the Greeks. Aethiopia
(Colchis; west Aedon) was inhabited by a
negro race. The black
race received its name from this district; it may have originated there
or in the neighborhood. They were employed by the Phoenicians for ship
building, and may have been brought there from some other region.
Iberia (eastern Aedon, Paradeisos) was inhabited
by the Aburi or Haburi.
This was the Greek name for the middle third of the valley.
Hypiberia (Hyperborea, Elysion) was where Aloni
and Alapsoni (Alazoni)
lived. Hypiberia was so named because it was beyond Iberia; compare
Achaeans
and Hypachaeans, Herodotus 7; 91. But the Greeks were always fond, as
Strabo
puts it (Strabo, 11; 11; 5) of making "deflections (paranomasia) from
the
native names" to give them a Greek meaning. I have referred to this in
connection with the river Araxes. So they "deflected" Hypiberia into
Hyperborea,
i.e. "beyond the North wind" (Boreas). This was
not a bad paranomesis because the
Caucasus 45
range sheltered Hypiberia from
the north wind, and
as Boreas came from
the north, Hypiberia was beyond his land, just as the Soudan, to the
south
of Egypt, is "huper Aiguptou." In early times the Greeks were well
acquainted
with the Hypiberians, who established the worship of their divinities
in
many of the Greek settlements, e.g. Delos, Eleusis; and who on a number
of occasions sent offerings to the shrines they bad founded and made
pilgrimages
to them (Herodotus, 4; 33-35). Even as late as 600 B.C. there were
visitors
to Greece from Hypiberia, e.g. Abaris of whom I shall tell later, who
came
by way of the south shore of the Black Sea. Then communication was cut
off by wars and the early geographers were not able to locate it. They
took Hyperboreas, `beyond the North wind," to mean beyond the North
wind
to the north instead of beyond the North wind to the south, and were
confirmed
in this opinion because they knew that some of the offerings of the
Hypiberians
to Delos had been passed along by the Scythians of the north shore of
the
Black Sea (this was at a time when the southern route was closed), see
Herodotus, 4; 33. So the geographers looked for the Hypiberians to the
north and did not find them and four or five centuries later decided
that
they must be mythical. But they were a very real and very wonderful
people,
from whom the Chaldaeans in Babylon and Pythagoras in Greece derived
their
knowledge of astronomy and other sciences, and the Greek priests their
mysteries. The great Caucasus range was,
physically, a
barrier between the peoples
of the north and of the south portions of the isthmus. But it had
another
function, it was the Titanic curtain of a great world drama, the
greatest
of all, and the more remarkable in that the action was on both sides,
there
was but a single exit or entrance, and the actors on one side of the
curtain
were believed to be in hell, those on the other side in heaven.
46
6. EDEN (AEDON)
To tell this I must first complete the description
of the stage. The
Caucasus valley has been described by many travelers but for the
present
purpose, which is to present the facts without any possible suspicion
of
coloring so that others may have the opportunity to judge for
themselves
that the conclusions reached are right or wrong, it will be better to
go
to the Encyclopedia Britannica. That says: "The
Caucasus range, from its character as a great
barrier extending
across from sea to sea constitutes the limit between two climates which
differ very widely from one another. The great steppes and plains of
Russia
on the north side of the chain are open to the cold winds of the north
and partake to a great extent of the severity of a Russian winter;
while
the valleys on the southern side are sheltered by the vast mountain
wall
to the north of them and hence enjoy a climate more in accordance with
their southerly latitude." "The vegetation of the
Caucasus is in general not
materially different
from that of the mountain chains of Central Europe. The extensive
forests
that clothe its flanks are composed entirely of the ordinary European
trees,
among which the oak, the beech, the elm and the alder are the most
prevalent,
but a peculiar character is imparted to them by the dense undergrowth
of
rhododendrons, azaleas, boxwood and laurels, as well as by the huge
masses
of ivy, clematis and wild vine, which attain a height and size wholly
unlike
anything to be seen in western Europe." "Fruit
trees of various kinds abound on the lower
slopes of the hills,
where the plum, the peach, the apple and pear are found wild as well as
the walnut, which is grown extensively in the cultivated regions where
it combines with the plane and the lime tree to form one of the chief
ornaments
of the landscape." 47
7. THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Of the central part of the valley (Paradeisos,
Aburon, Iberia, East
Aedon), the part enclosed on all four sides and into which the gate
opens
it says (article Georgia, vols. 10 and 26): "The
valley and declivities are fertile, producing
maize, millet, barley,
oats, rice, beans, lentils and wheat; also cotton, flag and hemp, now
exported
to Russia. The average produce of wine is at the rate of 230 gallons
per
acre. In the vineyards are the apple, pear and quince trees; other
fruits
include the pomegranate, peach, plum, almond, mulberry, pistachio, fig,
cherry, walnut, hazel nut, medlar, melon and watermelon, raspberry,
etc.
In summer the banks of the streams are covered with beautiful. wild
flowers-
the primrose in double form, the crocus of varied colors and snowdrops
appearing early in March in the greatest profusion." "Average
temperature; year 55; January 32.5; July
77; annual rain fall
20 inches." The luxuriant pasturage is independent of the rain fall,
which
is quite insufficient, especially in the eastern portion where the rain
fall is given as only 10 inches. For the explanation it will be best to
quote Strabo, who was born nearby and whose grand-uncle was governor of
Colchis. "The plain (Themiscyra, where he was
born) is
partly washed by the sea
and partly situated at the foot of a mountainous country which is well
wooded and intersected with rivers which have their source among the
mountains.
It is therefore well watered with dews and is
constantly covered
with herbage and is capable of affording food to herds of cattle as
well
as horses. The largest crops there consist of millets; they
never
fail,
for the supply of water" (from the dews) "more than counteracts the
effect
of all drought; these people therefore never on any occasion
experience
a famine." "The country at the foot of the
mountains produces
so large an autumnal
crop of spontaneously grown wild fruits,
48
of the vine, the pear, the
apple and hazel that
in all seasons o
f the year persons who go out into the woods to cut timber
gather
them
in large quantities; the fruit is found either yet hanging upon the
trees
or lying beneath a deep covering of leaves thickly strewn upon the
ground.
Wild animals of all kinds which resort here on account of the abundance
of food, are frequently hunted." (Strabo; 12; 3; 15. The small rain
fall
is hence an advantage, as the fruits are preserved all the year round
under
the covering of leaves and do not rot.)
That the climate of the central enclosed portion of the Caucasus valley
(East Aedon, Paradeisos, Aburon, Iberia), and therefore that of the
rest
of the valley, had not changed in Strabo 's time from what it was when
man first appeared there is shown by the Semitic tradition:
"For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon
the earth, and there
was not a man to till the ground. "But there went
up a mist from the earth and
watered the whole face
of the ground." Genesis; 2; 5-6. 8. THE RIVERS OF EDEN
Incidentally it may be noted that, as stated in
Genesis 2; 10; the river
which waters East Aedon, i.e. the Kur, does not rise within it, but
flows
into it from the west, from West Aedon, and after flowing through it
"passes,"
to quote Strabo, 11; 3 ; 2, " through a narrow channel into Albania"
(Hypiberia,
Elysion) and there divides into a number of channels, in the Adshinour
Steppe or Plain of Adshinour, near the town of Chaldan, and the left
hand
branch flows "in front of" Apsur, or Asshur. I have not investigated
these
particular coincidences for the reason that from other data I know that
this alluvial district was the prototype of the plain of Shinar and
Chaldea,
and any attempt to trace the different passes of the Kur would be a
failure,
as they change number and position as the delta grows. Strabo says, 11;
4; 2: that in his time there were said to be 12 such passes. Havilah
cannot
be iden- 49
tified by the gold, because the
whole valley had
gold. Strabo says,
11; 2; 19: "Some say they are called Iberians from the gold mines."
(Note,
he was confusing the Ghurochi or Urochi, whom the Greeks "deflected"
into
Georuchi, with the Iberi.) And "cush" may not have anything to do with
I I black" but may be connected with Susa, i.e. Schuscha in Karabagh. A
close identification of the branches of a delta after 10,000 years can
hardly be considered as a scientific objective. Also.
it must be remembered that Ezra the scribe,
the very learned archeologist
and priest who gathered together the old Hebrew writings into the Book
of the Law, the Pentateuch, was living in Babylonia and had been
educated
there. It is evidence of Ezra 's critical ability that nothing derived
from a Babylonian source is incorporated in the Pentateuch. (Note: Clay
has shown conclusively that the Babylonian Deluge tradition which
parallels
Genesis was derived from a Semitic source. See Clay, Hebrew Deluge
Story.
I have found in Babylonian literature a second deluge tradition which
came
from Elam but has some suggestions of Phoenicia. But this is quite
different
from the Hebrew, though in no way contradictory, in fact corroborative.
I have reasons for believing the Huburu of the Babylonian Deluge
tradition
to be the Haburi mentioned above, but dare not make the identification
positive until I have had opportunity of submitting it to the criticism
of competent Orientalists.) It would be only natural that seeing the
word
Phrat and having been taught by the Babylonians that the Garden of Eden
was at the source of the Euphrates, he should identify that Phrat with
the Phrat on which Babylon-was, even if this involved a slight forcing
of the other identifications. Excavations may some day disclose an
earlier
text. The curse, "amel must amal," is significant.
9. ETHIOPIA (AETI-OPE)
Of Ethiopia (West Aedon, Colchis) the
authority we
are quoting says:
"Its climate is extremely hot and the annual
50
rainfall very considerable,
reaching 80 inches at
Batum." The very hot
and very moist climate in which the negro is supposed to have
originated
is therefore found in this district. "Magnificent forests clothe the
mountain
sides and extend quite to the sea. It is characterized by a luxuriance
of vegetation to which no parallel can be found in Europe."
Jason's task, of ploughing with the oxen of King
Aeetes is probably
to be explained by the fact that "These vast forests of the western
range
still afford shelter to the aurochs or European bison, which now exists
here alone in a. truly wild state." There would be a difficulty in
ploughing
with them; still more if they were the true aurochs. Strabo,
11; 11; 17 says "It furnishes all
materials for ship building
in great plenty and they are conveyed down by its rivers. It supplies
flax,
hemp, wag and pitch in great abundance. Its linen manufacture is
celebrated
and was exported to foreign parts." Herodotus, 2;
104 says: "There can be no doubt
that the Colchians are
an Egyptian race. They are black skinned and have woolly hair, which
certainly
amounts to but little, since several other nations are so too; but
further
and more especially, the Colchians, the Egyptians and the Ethiopians"
(those
south of Egypt) "are the only nations who have practised circumcision
from
the earliest times. The Phoenicians and Syrians of Palestine themselves
confess that they learnt the custom from the Egyptians." (Compare
Genesis
12;10-16, 16; 1, 17; 10, Exodus 4; 24-26.) "I will add a further proof
to the identity of the Egyptians and the Colchians. The two nations
weave
their linen in exactly the same way, and this is a way
entirely
unknown
to the rest of the world. They also in their whole mode of
life and
in their language resemble one another." I have referred
above to
Homer's
statement that the Aethiopians were divided into two parts, at opposite
ends of the world, one at Colchis the other at Egypt. (Odyssey, 1; 23.)
51
Pindar speaks of the "dark
faced Colchians," Pyth.
IV. Homer says that
the Aethiopians were on the banks of the river Oceanus (Iliad I; 423),
which as we shall see was just above Colchis. Hesiod, in a fragment,
says
"He saw the Aethiopians, and the Iberians and the Scythians, milkers of
mares." Euripides, in a fragment of his Phaethon, calls the Colchians
the
"swarthy neighbors" of the Meropes, who lived just north of the
Caucasus
range. Egypt was originally called Aetia (or Aeton) and the Nile,
Siris.
(Cirus is the longest river in the Caucasus valley.) I have traced the
negro race in Colchis back to about 2,500 B.C. Still, this does not
prove
that they originated there. On the other hand, it is quite possible,
and
agrees with their distribution. 10. HYPERBOREA (HYPIBEREA)
Of the third and eastern portion of the Caucasus
valley, Hypiberia (Hyperborea,
Elysion), the climate is similar to that of the central portion, but
less
rain fall, i.e. only 10 inches, but with the same heavy dews and
luxuriant
herbage. To speak first of Hyperborea; before it
was lost,
as I have told above,
it was well known to be in the Caucasus. "Abaris the Hyperborean," of
whom
Herodotus and others tell, was said to have come from the country about
the Caucasus. Another Abaris is called "Abaris Caucasius" by Ovid. The
Greeks used to call strangers by the name of their country, and Abaris
is a well known variant of Iberis. See river and town Abaran in Iberia,
and Strabo, 11; 14; 16. Also Aeschylus, Prom. Bound. lines 420 et seq.
"And the flower of Abarias in arms, who hold the high cragged citadel
hard
by Caucasus, and the dwellers in the land of Colchis; the maidens
fearless
in fight and the Scythians." (Smyth's translation and introduction.)
Abaris came by way of the south shore of the Black
Sea. The offerings
of the Hyperboreans to Delos were handed on by the tribes on the north
shore of the Black Sea. All the 52
visits of the mythological
heroes to the
Hyperboreans were by way of
the shores of the Black Sea. The Amazons were neighbors of the
Hyperboreans,
and the Amazons were in the Caucasus. The names of the known
Hyperboreans,
Abaris, Zamlochis, Opis, etc., were all Iberean. The religion of the
Hypibereans
was the same as that of the Hyperboreans, see below. The ,graves of
four
Hyperborean pilgrims were still to be seen in Delos in Herodotus's day.
The descriptions of the Hyperboreans and their land, Hyperborea, agree
exactly with the description of Hypiberea given by Strabo, 11; 4; 3:
"Perhaps such a race of people have no use for the
sea, for they do
not make a proper use even of the land, which produces every kind of
fruit,
even the most delicate, 'and every kind of plant and evergreen." (Note
that Pindar says, Olymp. III, that the wild olive tree from which the
wreaths
for the Olympian games were made, came from Hyperborea.) "It is not
cultivated
with the least care; but all that is excellent grows without sowing and
without ploughing, according to the accounts of persons who have
accompanied
armies there" (Strabo 's great uncle was governor of Colchis).
"The whole plain is better watered than Babylon or
Egypt, by rivers
and streams, so that it always presents the appearance of herbage and
it
affords excellent pasture. The air here is better than in those
countries.
The vines remain always without digging around them, and are pruned
every
five years. The young trees bear fruit even the second year, but the
full
grown yield so much that a large quantity of it is left on the
branches.
The cattle" (kept for the milk only), `both tame and wild, thrive well
in this country. The men are distinguished for beauty of person and for
size." (Until recently the women of this district were prized above all
others for the Turkish harems.) "They are simple in their dealings and
not fraudulent, for they do not in general use coined money. They are
careless
in regard to the other circumstances of life." Their chief deity was
Apollo. 53
A cool and gentle air descended
from the snowy
mountain heights and
flowed eastward to the delta; it is spoken of as very delightful;
though
it made the rainfall very low, 10 inches, this was more than made up
for
by the heavy dews and many rivers. Strabo's description of the
Hypiberians
may be compared with Smith's description of the Hyperboreans, article
Hyperborei,
Classical Dictionary: "In the earliest
Greek conception of the
Hyperboreans they
were a blessed people living beyond the North wind" (i.e. south of it,
and sheltered from it) "and therefore not exposed to its cold blasts,
in
a land of perpetual sunshine, which produced abundant fruits, on which
the people lived, abstaining from animal food. In innocence and peace,
free from disease and toil and care they spent a long and happy life in
the due and cheerful observance of the worship of Apollo, who visited
their
country soon after his birth. The Delian legend told of offerings sent
to Apollo by the Hyperboreans, first by the hands of virgins named Arge
and Opis (or Hecaerge) and then by Laodice and Hyperoche, escorted by
five
men named Perpherees" (Herodotus gives this as equivalent to "theoroi,"
but I find that the word was "wronged" from "Pyr-pherees" ie. fire
carriers,
a title given to Prometheus and to the priests of Apollo who carried
the
sacred fire to new or extinct shrines), "and lastly, as their
messengers
did not return, they sent the offerings packed in wheat straw, and the
sacred package was forwarded from people to people till it reached
Delos."
(Note. It is significant that the relaying of the offerings can be
traced
back from Delos, tribe by tribe, to the Scythians on the north and the
east shores of the Black Sea, north of the Caucasus range, but that
Herodotus
could find no tribe north or east of the Scythians who knew anything
about
it. See Herodotus, 4; 33. The Hyperboreans must therefore have been
next
the Scythians and on the south side of the Caucasus.) 54
11. ELYSION (ALYSION)
That part of Hypiberia which was watered by the
Alizon and was nearer
to the gate was the Elysion of the Greeks. The Elysian fields were the
fields through which the Alizon flowed. Homer's description is,
Odyssey,
4; lines 560 et seq. The Elysian plain
and the extremity of
the earth, where auburn
haired Rhadamanthus is; there in truth is the most easy life for men.
There
is no snow or storm or even rain, but always the ocean sends out the
breeze
of the west to blow cool on men."
(Note. Compare Strabo, 11; 5; 5. "Here they lay the scene of the
tradition
that Prometheus had been chained in Caucasus at the extremity
of
the
earth, for the Caucasus mountains were the furthest places
towards
the east with which the people of those times were acquainted." It was
the extremity of the earth because it was on the shore of the great
ocean
of Atlantis. Note also that Rhadamanthus is given the type of hair
peculiar
to the Al race.) The following lines, Homer, Iliad, 2; 734;
et seq.
are suggestive: I
`And of them that possessed Ormenios and the f fountains of Hyperia,
and
possessed Asterion and the white crests of Titanos, of. these was
Eurypylos
leader, Euaimon's glorious son." (Aides, Alaporus, Alap-uros, Evaemon.)
Those reading Homer in this connection should note
that not only Homer
but also other early traditions use the word Aethiopia, when applied to
the Caucasus valley to indicate, not Colchis alone, but the whole
valley,
including Hypiberea. 12. THE CABEIRI AND PYTHAGORAS
The valley of the Alizon was the hidden home
of a
great secret society,
called Kabiri (Aburi) by the Ur, and Dactyli (Achali) by the Al, which
for thousands of years permeated the institutions of the ancient world
and in more than one era attempted to entirely control them. The latest
attempt was that with which the name of Pythagoras is
associated, 55
but of which Zamolchis was the
actual head. The
society originated on
the north side of the Caucasus mountains but for some reason, possibly
secrecy and freedom from disturbance by Scythian raids, removed to the
Alizon valley, where they remained until about 600 B.C., after which
they
disappear. The so-called Pythagorean doctrines and most of his supposed
scientific discoveries were the standardized instruction to the
initiates
of the society; his method of demonstrating vegetarianism by means of
an
athlete (Milo) who ate no meat, in which he anticipated Yale by some
thousands
of years, may have been original. The Kabiri had
much knowledge of numbers, of
geometry, and of astronomy,
but their great power was derived from their knowledge of technical
secrets,
the making of glass, of steel, of enamels, of reducing ores, etc. The
most
(so far as I know) important secret sign of the Kabiri, indicating that
a brother member is prepared to render assistance, is hidden in Homer;
and as we shall see later, Homer had knowledge of another initiate
secret. The society built temples and established
mysteries, e.g. at Delos,
Samothrace and Eleusis. One of these mysteries was a knowledge of the
route
by which Elysion was reached. It was this secret that Homer knew, and
he
describes the way right up to the gate. I feel that possibly some part
of the ,great reverence in which Homer's writings were held was due to
the fact that when Solon collected them communication with Hypiberia
had
been cut off and that the mystery of the way by which Elysion was
reached
had within a few generations begun to assume a religious significance
analogous
to and possibly influenced by the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
The Kabiri certainly maintained records, for we
have the Acherontici
libri, to which class possibly the books of Numa belonged. They had
observatories
of some kind, the prototypes of the ziggurat of Babylon, and as they
gave
the longitude to Babylonia we should be able to determine the
observatory
site; possibly Schemacha, opposite the gap of
56
Marasy. If they did not destroy
these records is
there not a possibility,
in view of the dryness of the climate, above referred to, that they
might
be revealed by excavations conducted under proper scientific
supervision,
in the Alizon valley and on the slopes adjacent. If found they should
go
back to pre-Deluge times. We must now go through
the gate, for what we have
seen so far is only
half of the stage, and it is on the other half that the most poignant
scene
of the drama takes place. 13. THE KIRIBI
The way from Elysion to the gate, as will be seen
from the map, is through
that part of Eden which is enclosed by the four mountain ranges, the
Garden
of the Hesperides of the Greeks, the Garden of Eden of the Semites.
Here
was the dragon (kirubi) guarded tree with the golden apples which
prolonged
life. The two traditions supplement each other, we should never have
known
that the fruit of the tree of Life of the Semitic tradition was golden
colored and like an apple if it had not been for the Greek tradition;
and
many people have thought that Ezekiel was wrong when he said the
cherubim
(kirubi) were like dragons, with four feet and four wings (see Ezekiel,
chap. 1), but the Greek tradition says he was right, and he was. They
are
now found in the islands of the Malay Archipelago, but when the land to
the west was covered with trees and the climate was not so dry, they
migrated
in immense swarms as far as Egypt and the Caucasus. They never got
actually
into Egypt, but died in the ravines leading to the Egyptian plain.
Herodotus
says he saw one valley filled with "their back bones and ribs in such
numbers
that it is impossible to describe." The Egyptians thought that they
were
killed by the ibis, but it was really due to the change in temperature
and humidity, though the ibis may have been contributary by halting the
migration. Herodotus describes them correctly as having membranous and
not feathered wings and of different colors. The authoriti-
57
es say that the colors are very
vivid, blue, red
and yellow, and one
naturalist says they look like immense butterflies, soaring through the
air. One can hardly censure Eve for being attracted. But the ancients
were
extremely afraid of them. They were nearly three feet long and lived in
trees, on the insects, and could soar from limb to limb or run with
very
great rapidity on the ground. Though they are truly lizards they look
just
like a snake, being very slender and with a long tail. Two of their
so-called
wings are rib extensions, and these are what are used for flying. "They
fly very well," says a field naturalist of the American Museum of
Natural
History, who has lived in that district. The other two are merely
extended
pouches. Herodotus says that the Arabs did not dare to ,gather
frank-incense
until they had smoked them out of the trees with styrax, which shows
they
really feared them, for styrax is expensive. Strabo says (15; 1; 37)
that
they emitted drops of liquid which caused blood poisoning, but he had
not
personally investigated the subject as Herodotus had, and the
authorities
are agreed that they, the Agamidae, are harmless. On account of their
beautiful
appearance and remarkable structure they would be of interest if
brought
to this country by some of our Zoological Gardens. Students
of the Pentateuch will note that this
clears up the problem
of the meaning of the curse laid on the serpent. "Upon thy belly shalt
thou go"; no punishment to a snake but to the kirib the loss of its
beautiful
wings and its legs. Note. As there are some
differences, though not
material, in the descriptions
given by naturalists of draco, the writer made numerous attempts to get
in touch with some scientifically trained and accurate observer who had
personally studied draco Volans in the field. Through the kindness of
Dr.
G. K. Noble of the Department of Herpetology of the American Museum of
Natural History, New York, this has finally been accomplished. The
following
extracts from Dr. Noble's letter of Sept. 7th, 1923, settle the
doubtful
points. 58
"A field man in this
museum, Mr. H. C.
Haven, is very familiar
with Draco in the field. He tells me that Draco usually does not extend
its front legs when flying, as shown by Gadow, and thus the rather
widely
extended hind limbs and body membrane give the appearance of four
wings.
"It has recently been stated that Draco does not fly, but blows itself
up into a balloon and drops from the trees. This our field man tells us
is not true; that Draco flies very well. He tells me that the gular
pouch
or flap of Draco is not erected and that it does not blow itself up at
all when flying. In flight the dracos look very much like butterflies
for
their bright reds and yellows give them a very gay appearance. .
"Mr. Haven tells me that `most Malays claim Draco to be poisonous and
consequently fear it.' It is of course quite innocuous, but it will
open
its month and make a fuss. In various tropical countries some lizards
are
feared even more than poisonous snakes. It is therefore not surprising
that the Malays should fear Draco."
I have also ascertained that when draco is lying along the branches of
the trees, catching insects, the gular pooches or flaps are spread out,
and thus the four winged appearance is given at rest as well as when
flying. 14. THE
TREE OF LIFE Of the
tree of Life; we are able to fix this
definitely now that we
know the Greek and Semitic traditions relate to the same place and to
the
same object. It has fruit resembling an apple, the color of the fruit
is
golden (not coppery), it is one which would be picked out of others by
Draco Agamidae; it was found in the Caucasus valley at that time; it
was
not found west of the Caucasus; it has very important medicinal and
life
prolonging properties. There is one fruit only
which fills this
specification, and 59
it does so completely, i.e. the
Citrus Medica. Its
fruit is like an
apple, it is golden and not coppery, it would be picked out by Draco
Agamidae
(incidentally it came from the same place, i.e. India). It was known in
Media from the earliest times and Media ran up to the lower Caucasus
valley
(the Araxes was the boundary between the two, see Herodotus, 4; 40). It
was not known west of the Caucasus until a late date; the orange, lemon
and citron are the three great vitamine bearing fruits, and as the
orange
and lemon came from India and were not known on the shores of the
Mediterranean
or Black Sea until about 1,000 A.D. its health giving properties in
scurvy
and other diseases must have seemed miraculous. I have found that the
white
inner rind and to some extent the juice of the orange and some other
citrus
fruits has a remarkable effect on badly healing and inflamed surfaces,
and indications that the Citrus Medica has some element which acts
beneficially
on the intestinal tract and internal secretions. Investigation of the
medicinal
elements contained in the Citrus Medica, is being made, but merely to
clean
up the subject and not with the anticipation of any medical discovery,
as its known value as a vitamine source is quite sufficient to account
for its traditional reputation. Note. I am
indebted to Dr. W. A. Taylor of the
Bureau of Plant Industry
of the Agricultural Department, Washington, D. C., for his kindness in
checking up and confirming my statements in regard to the habitat of
the
citron and of the time at which it and the orange and lemon were first
known in Europe; and also for obtaining specimens of Citrus Medica for
my vitamin tests. 15. THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF
GOOD AND EVIL Of the
other tree of the Garden, the tree of the
Knowledge of Good and
Evil, we are told that it appeared to be good to eat and was a delight
to the eye, but that Adam was warned that it was poisonous, "in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." And that it gave a
sense
of 60
increased mental acuity when
taken in sub-lethal
portion, followed by
depression. It had a habitat in the Caucasus valley. There
is one fruit known which agrees with this
description. It was
known in the Caucasus region from the earliest times. Herodotus (1:
201)
says of the dwellers in the delta of that Araxes "which rises in the
mountains
of Armenia and flows eastward into the Caspian Sea" that: "They
store up fruits which they gather
from the trees to serve
them as food in the winter-time. They have also a tree which bears the
strangest produce. When they are met together in companies they throw
some
of it upon the fire round which they are sitting, and presently, by the
mere smell of the fumes which it gives out in burning, they grow
intoxicated
as the Greeks do with wine. More of the fruit is then thrown on the
fire
and their intoxication increasing they often jump up and begin to dance
and sing."
This fruit, the thorn apple, is still found in the region, for the
Russian
government, in the instructions issued just before the war to settlers
in that region, warned against it. It has an appetizing
smell, resembling the apple
in its content of malic
acid. Its effects are described in the
Encyclopedia
Britannica, article Narcotics: "A small
dose causes dimness of the
vision, except for distant
objects. The pulse becomes quick, rising in an adult from 80 to 120 or
160 beats per minute, and there is often a bright red flush over the
skin.
The intellectual powers are at first acute and strong but
soon
there
is giddiness, confusion of thought, excitement, a peculiar talkative
wakeful
restiveness, in which the person shows his mind is occupied by a train
of fancies or is haunted by visions and spectres. Often there is
violent
delirium before sleep comes on. From this a person may awake with a
feeling
of depression- or wretchedness- often associated with
sickness
and
headache." 61
For a discussion of the
possibility that the effect of the fumes of
this
narcotic on the associative elements of the brain may have been a
factor
in human development in the past, and may be in the future, see chapter
On THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND
EVIL. Since the above was written I have
received,
through the kindness of
the Smithsonian Institution, a copy of its annual report containing an
admirable paper by Dr. William E. Safford, "Daturas of the Old World
and
New; an Account of their Narcotic Properties and their Use in Oracular
and Initiatory Ceremonies." From this it would appear that the
particular
thorn-apple which grew in East Eadon was probably the Datura metel.
This
is described as "a spreading plant, sometimes becoming shrublike, with
the base of the stem and lower branches woody, and the root, which
penetrates
deeply into the soil, bearing several branches of similar size." Dr.
Safford
brings out the interesting fact, which he discovered with the
assistance
of Drs. Matsumara and Tanaka, that this plant is the supposedly
fabulous
plant Mandragora, "this name being nothing else than the Buddistic
pronunciation
of Li Shi-Chen's `man t 'o to kua.' " In this connection the peculiar
root
will be noted. The flowers are described as "exhaling a sweet but faint
lilylike fragrance," and the fruit "like small apples as large as a
hulled
walnut, but rounder" and the seeds "shaped almost like a human ear and
having a sweetish but insipid taste." It is a
strong, but dangerous, aphrodisiac. 16. THE MANDRAKE
The description agrees with the statement of
Genesis 3; 6; that it appeared
to Eve to be good for food, and was a delight to the eye. This plant is
also the "mandrake" of the story of Rachel and Leah, Genesis 30; the
reason
it was desired by Rachel was because it possesses two other properties,
for which it is still used extensively in the east.
62
17. IMAGES AND TRADITIONS
The substitution of images for the words of the
sacred traditions is
largely responsible for the failure of many people to realize that
these
traditions are substantially accurate. For the makers of the images
have
not as a rule read the traditions and consequently we have the Garden
of
Eden shown as guarded by a being of human aspect with wings and with a
sword in his hand, whereas the words of the tradition are "he placed at
the east of the Garden of Eden the kirubi, and the flame of a sword
which
turned every way"; again we have the ark represented as resting on the
top of a mountain peak, whereas the traditions say "on the mountains
of Ararat," i.e. on the table land of Armenia; (Berosus, writing 250
B.C.
says that in his day some fragments of the ark still remained and that
the natives used to scrape off the pitch to make amulets of it.) -
Would
it not be possible to arrange that future representations should be
accordant
with the traditions. 18. REVELATION TO GREEKS AS WELL
AS TO SEMITES Another
and much more important fact will have
been apparent, and that
is that the concept of a monopoly of revelation to the Semite is
entirely
erroneous. As we have seen, and shall see further, the sacred
traditions
of the Greeks and of other nations not only supplement but are in some
respects more accurate, and of a higher spiritual character than those
of the Semites. We shall not have a right theology till this is
recognized. 19.
PROMETHEUS, THE NAPHTHA BRINGER
The pass leading from this enclosed portion of
East Aedon has been described,
but mention should be made of Mt. Kasbek, which towers 16,400 feet high
on the left, for here is the sacred cave at the foot of Mt. Kasbek,
where
according to the Greek tradition Prometheus, the "fire-bearer" of
Aeschylus,
was chained for carrying the forbidden "naphthe"
63
from Tartarus through the pass
to the Abur. The
Greeks not knowing the
word "naphthe" thought it must be "naptheg," a hollow cane, and that
the
fire was carried in some way inside the cane; but it meant mineral oil,
"naphtha." 20.
THE SHADES On leaving
the dark pass of Erebus (Arabus,
Aragus) through the iron
gates, the "kuanthuretra" of Aides, the way, still obscured, lies
between
two rapid streams, the Cocytus (Kochaiton, Black River) on the left and
the Pyriphlegethon (fire-flaming) on the right. Dimly visible in the
half
light in front of the gates and between the streams are many groups of
blinded outcasts. Homer describes them as clinging to one another like
bats, and wailing. I do not care to give the historical details of this
horrible practice; it was continued by the Scythians, who blinded all
their
slaves, and by the Medes. The wretched beings are there to get food.
21. RIVERS of
HADES (AMES) Further
down, the two streams approach each other
at a place where there
is a great white rock, thence, separating, they both flow down into the
valley of Acheron (Ashuron, Apsuron). Acheron has always been taken as
a river, but Homer's description is clear. Odyssey, g. 512. " There
Pyriphlegethon
flows into Acheron, and likewise Cocytus, a branch of the Styx and
thereby
is a rock" (it was white) "and a meeting of the two roaring streams."
Looking at the map, it will be seen that the Cocytus flows, as Homer
states, into the Styx, and the Styx and Pyriphlegethon into the
Alontas,
and that into the Ocean of Atlantis. On the eyot
between the Cocytus, Styx and
Pyriphlegethon was the great
city of Tartarus or Atlantus. The contour maps show mounds still there
which should reveal much when excavated, for this was the first city
which
the world ever saw. 64
Today the town of Grosnyi,
which is described as
the centre of the present
Baku oil district, is on what was then the southeast edge of Tartarus,
past which the Pyriphlegethon flowed, eastward, to where were the
"Burning
fields" and what the Encyclopedia Britannica calls "the remarkable
springs
of naptha, near Baku, which have long been known as an object of
interest
and a sanctuary of the fire worshippers." Of a similar district, where
oil will probably also be found, Strabo says, 12; 2; 7; "There are
burning
plains and pits full of fire to an extent of many stadia. In some parts
the bottom is, marshy and flames burst out from the ground by night.
There
is danger to cattle, which fall into these hidden pits of fire." There
appears to have been natural gas to the east of Eden, i.e. the flaming
sword.
The presence of the marshes, with their spontaneously ignitable gases,
in the neighborhood of the springs of naptha and the naptha soaked soil
and the naptha covered river, made at times an encircling flame about
Tartarus.
Some of the traditions represent it as always so encircled and the
story
of Brunhilda may possibly be related in some way to these. But from the
other traditions the flame was confined to the side on which the
Pyriphlegethon
was. It might easily have been admitted to the other encircling rivers
in an emergency, e.g. as a defence against attack.
22. THE ROUTE OF THE MYSTERIES;
TO
HADES AND ELYSIUM Before
describing the city I will tell of the only
way by which it was
reached from the outside world, the way which was revealed in the
mysteries,
which was revealed in part by Aeschylus, and was wholly revealed, in
detail,
up to the white stone at the spot where Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon came
close together, by Homer. Aeschylus was accused
of revealing the mysteries
and threatened with
severe punishment. He was not himself an initiate but his father was a
priest of Demeter (whose daughter was once queen of Tartarus). He
probably
became ac- 65
quainted with some portion of
the way without
realizing the importance
attached to the knowledge. Looking at the map,
the river Tiber (Hybristes,
now Tiberda) will be
seen, rising in the Caucasus to the west of what are now known as Mt.
Elbruz
and Edena Pass. At the bend to the west it flows into the River
Oceanus,
which flows into the Black Sea at the peninsula of Taman, at the
entrance
to the Sea of Azov. At the mouth of the Oceanus is the village of the
Cimmerians.
Strabo says of this, 11; 11; 5; "The Cimmerian village was formerly a
city
built upon a peninsula, the isthmus of which it enclosed with a ditch
and
mound." It will be noted that a north wind is the only one which will
be
favorable all the way up the river. Circe's
directions, as given by Homer, Odyssey,
1,506 et seq. are that,
after Odysseus has reached "the land and the city of the Cimmerians "
and
"the deep flowing Oceanus, " he should "set up the mast and spread
abroad
the white sails and sit thee down; and the breeze of the North Wind
shall
bear thee on thy way. But when thou hast now sailed in thy ship right
up
the river Oceanus to its end (di 'okeanoio pereses), where is an
ominous
shore and the groves of Persephone, even tall poplar trees and willows
that shed their fruit before the season, there beach thy ship by deep
eddying
Oceanus, but go thyself to the monstrous home of Aidoneus. Thereby
Pyriphlegethon
flows into (the plain of) Acheron, and likewise Cocytus, a branch of
the
Styx, and thereby is a rock and a meeting of the two roaring streams."
When he had reached this spot, Odysseus sacrificed a ram and a black
ewe,
"bending their heads towards Erebus " (the dark defile) and himself
"turning
aside" with his "face set towards the shore of the river." And when be
had done this "the spirits of the dead gathered from out of Erebus" and
answered him, as they stood opposite the point of his outstretched
sword. The place where Odysseus beached his ship
was at
the bend where the
Tiber joins Oceanus. The poplars referred
66
to were a peculiar species,
i.e. white poplars.
The way from there was
along the route of the present railroad from Newinnomysk to
Wladikawkas.
The Styx had to be crossed because it rises in the neighborhood of Mt.
Atlas, and so could not be gone around. The
itinerary of Aeschylus is the same up to the
end of Oceanus. Thence,
instead of going to Tartarus, his route leads up the Tiber to its head
and to the Amazons. He says, correctly, that the Chalybes were on the
left
as one went up the river. After reaching the
white rock, where Cocytus and
Pyriphlegethon come
together, if the traveller went to the left he came to Tartarus. If he
went to the right he passed through the dark defile of Erebus and came
out of the pass into Elysion. This knowledge was the secret of the
mysteries
which, like that of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, was supposed to be
so
valuable after death. 23. SOLON'S PARTIALLY COMPLETED
EPIC, "ATLANTIS" The
description of the country as a whole is best
introduced by telling
the story of Atlantis. Solon, who gave the
Athenians their constitution,
came of a noble family
which had lost its fortune. He became a merchant, for I I in his time,
as Hesiod says, work was a shame to none, nor was any distinction made
with respect to trade, but merchandise was a noble calling, which
brought
home the good things which the barbarous nations enjoyed, was the
occasion
of friendship with their kings, and a great source of experience."
(Plutarch;
Solon.) He secured Salamis for the Athenians, reformed their calendar
and
was the first to discern the fact that the scattered Homeric poems were
parts of a whole and to take steps to have them collected. After giving
the Athenians the laws known by his name he went to Egypt and studied
for
some time with Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis the Saite, the most
learned of the priests. 67
He was first of all a poet, and
many of his verses
were sung at the
public festivals of Athens. After his retirement as a legislator it was
his ambition to write an epic which should rank with Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey. The subject was to be the noble deeds of the Athenian nation,
long before the war with Troy, in opposing, alone, the domination of
Atlantis;
of which he had been told by the Egyptian priests, and he had collected
a large amount of material from examination of their records.
On his return to Athens he found his legislative
work largely undone
by Pisistratus, who shortly after established a tyranny. Solon had to
drop
the epic for more immediate matters, and died with the work scarce
begun. 24..
PLATO'S INTERRUPTED
REVELATION OF SOLON'S DATA But
the material collected survived, in part at
least, and came down
to the philosopher Plato, who was a descendant of Solon's on his
mother's
side. Plato held Solon in great reverence, was himself a traveler, and
endeavored to follow in Solon's footsteps and to give a constitution to
Syracuse. He piously desired to preserve the results of Solon's labor,
and published a portion of the material in Timaeus, and proposed to
complete
it in two other dialogues. The second of these, Critias, breaks off in
the middle, for Plato died. Some great scholars,
Jowett for example, whose
translation I am going
to quote from because it is sure to be better than anything I can do,
hold
that Plato's relation was a fiction. Now I am a great admirer of
Jowett's,
so much so that Mallock's book bores me. He was a great man in so many
ways, he, and A. L. Smith, turned out Lao many great men, scores of
them,
and did so much for Oxford (Jowett's " sat prata biberunt" and Smith's
playing fields); and for his scholarship, the quip that he was elected
to the chair of Regius Professor of Greek "in order to encourage him
in 68
the study of the subject" has
only its bubble of
wit for a life preserver.
Yet I cannot feel that he had altogether taken into account all the
circumstances.
Plato had much pride of family, that is seen in his Dialogues. For
example: Critias. "Then listen, Socrates, to a
strange tale
which is, however,
certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages,
declared.
He was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather, Dropsidas,
as he himself says repeatedly in his poems, and Dropsidas told Critias,
my grandfather, who remembered and told me. Now the day was the day of
the Apaturia which is called the registration of youth, at which,
acceding
to custom our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of
several
poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sang the songs of Solon,
which had not gone out of fashion. One of our tribe, either because he
thought so, or to please Critias, said that in his judgment Solon was
not
only the wisest of men, but also the noblest of poets. The old man, as
I well remember, brightened up on hearing this and said, smiling: Yes,
Amynander, if Solon had only like other poets made poetry the business
of his life and had completed the tale which he brought with him from
Egypt,
and had not been compelled by reasons of the factions and troubles
which
he found stirring in his own country when he came home, to attend to
other
matters, in my opinion he would have been as famous as Homer or Hesiod
or any poet." Now those who told "traveler's
tales" were looked
upon with a rather
peculiar contempt by the Greeks. Is it likely then that Plato should
have
made the most distinguished and revered member of his family a Baron
Munchausen.
Would he not have put the fictitious tale in the mouth of a fictitious
person. To me this would be conclusive, even if I did not from other
sources
know that the relation was true. Jowett says, in
discussing another point, "It is
singular that Plato
should have prefixed the most detested of Athenian names to this
dialogue."
Singular indeed, if the relation were
69
a fiction. But if Plato knew it
was true would it
not be rather unavoidable
that he should give to the dialogue the name of the man from whom he
had
received the material gathered by his famous ancestor and which
constituted
the entire dialogue. Plato went out of his way,
in the face of
expressed incredulity, to
say he believed it. Posidonius cites the opinion of Plato, "That the
tradition
concerning the island of Atlantis might be received as something more
than
a mere fiction." As regards the theory that Solon himself might have
invented
it, we know Solon's opinion of fiction. Moved by curiosity he went to
see
the first play, acted by Thespis. After it was over he called Thespis
aside
and asked him if he were not ashamed to tell so many lies before so
many
people. Thespis said there was no harm to do so or say so in play.
Solon
struck his staff vehemently on the ground; said "If we honor and
commend
this in play we shall soon find it in our business." Hardly the man to
think his reputation would be increased by making up traveler's tales.
25.. THE ROUTE TO
ATLANTIS - WHY
IT WAS IMPASSABLE AFTER
THE DELUGE To come to
the story itself. Critias learned it
word for word. "When a child I listened
with great
interest to the old man's
narrative at the time; he was very ready to teach me, and I asked him
again
arid again to repeat his words- and I rehearsed them, as he spoke them,
to my companions, that they as well as myself might have material of
discourse."
Critias says: Solon learned it at the city of Sais, in Egypt, which
city
had a deity "which is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith and is
asserted
by them to be the same whom the Hellenes called Athene" (this was
correct;
Aeth and Aethon). One day, in discussing history, one of the older
priests
said that their records contained accounts of a number of
great 70
deeds by the ancient Athenians
and others. Solon
asked about he Athenian
deeds. The priest said: "One of them
exceeds all the rest in
greatness and valour.
For these histories tell of a mighty power which was aggressing
wantonly
against the whole of Europe and Asia and to which your city put an end.
"This power came out of the Atlantic Ocean, for
in those days the
Atlantic was navigable." (It will be better to read this with
the
map;
with especial reference to the passages I have marked by italics.) And
there was an island situated in front of the straits" (of Kertsch)
"which
you call the Pillars of Hercules; the island was larger than
Libya
and
Asia put together, and was the way" (by the Manytsch Lakes
and
other
passages, see map) "to other islands" (Ust-Urt and others), "and from
the
islands you might go to the whole of the opposite continent" (western
Mongolia)
"which surrounded the true ocean" (the Ocean of
Atlantis). "For this sea" (of Azov), "which is
within the
Pillars of Hercules is
only a harbor, having a narrow entrance" (straits of Kertsch,
where
the city Heraklea and the Pillars were), "but that other" (the Ocean of
Atlantis) "is the real sea and the surrounding land
may be most
truly called a continent." "Now in this island of
Atlantis there was a
great and wonderful empire,
which had rule over the whole island and several others as well as over
parts of the continent, and besides these they subjected the parts of
Libya
within the columns of Hercules as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as
Tyrrhenia" (northern Italy). The Athenians
withstood them, "But afterwards
there occurred violent
earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of misfortune all
your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the
island of
Atlantis
in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is
the
reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and
71
impenetrable"
(shoals in upper Azov), "because
there is such
a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by
the
subsidence
of the island."
Examination of the contour maps show that the Manytsch and other
passages were formerly considerably wider than at present, and have
been
almost obliterated by the silting. 26. DESCRIPTION OF ATLANTIS
In the next dialogue of the trilogy, Critias
goes
on with the description.
(In passing I may say, as pointed out before, that the country of
Athens
to which the Egyptian priest's records related was not the later Athens
of Solon and Plato, but an earlier land of Athens, the triangle
included
between the River Urup, the Oceanus (or Aesop) and the Caucasus
Mountains.
~ This is immaterial to the story, but not uninteresting.) After
describing
the Athenians and their government, he gives details of the chief city
of Atlantis, i.e. Tartarus, and the surrounding country. From
examination of a large scale map, giving
contours, it will be seen
that the northern portion' of the Caucasus isthmus is a low plain. To
quote
the Encyclopedia Britannica, article Caspian: "Although
the Black Sea proper is separated from
the southern portion
of the Caspian by the mountainous region of the Caucasus, yet between
the
Sea of Azov and the northern portion of the Caspian there is only the
low
steppe inhabited by the Don Cossacks and the Kalmucks; and according to
Major Wood, an elevation of the Black Sea of no more than 23 feet would
cause it to overflow into the basin of the Caspian by the line of the
Manyteh." This low plain was densely populated. A
great
system of canals drained
and watered its entire extent. A few, sheltered by projecting spurs,
escaped
complete silting by the Deluge, and Pharnaces, about B.C. 50, "brought
the river Hypanis" (Oceanus, now Kuban; the Oceanus was called also
72
the Hypanis because it was one
of the boundaries,
"Hpana," of Atlantis;
many of these names survive in the Basque) "over the territory of the
Dandarii,
through some ancient canal, which he had caused to be cleared,
and
inundated the country." (Strabo, 11; 2;11.) The
soil was deeply alluvial, easily excavated,
and some of the canals
were of large section; especially those connecting the Oceanus and
Styx-Alontas
and constituting a drainage system for carrying off the flow from the
Caucasus
slopes. Though silted up, it might still be possible to trace some of
them
out from an aeroplane; the method which has been found so valuable in
locating
the silted up canals of Mesopotamia. 27. HEPTACYCLIC FLOW OF THE STYX
The Egyptian-Phoenician tradition states that
Tartarus was encircled
by three concentric canals, the land between the outer and middle
canals
being three-eighths of a mile wide, and that between the middle and
inner
canals a quarter of a mile wide. This did not
seem probable, and I was inclined to
discard that dialogue
of Plato's in which this statement is made. Later, I remembered that in
several traditions from Greek sources the Styx is described as
encircling
Tartarus seven times (see Smith, Classical Diet. art. Styx), which has
no intelligible meaning as applied to a river. But taking the two
statements
together they make a consistent and rational whole, for if the opening
from the Styx into the canal system were at the eastern side of
Tartarus
(which would be the proper engineering side) then according to the
older
Greek way of reckoning the Styx would flow around Tartarus seven times.
Both Egyptian-Phoenician and Greek traditions give
Tartarus three walls,
which is consistent with three canals or moats
73
This made me re-consider the
dialogue, "Critias,"
because when A hands
on a statement, `absurd and incomprehensible to him, which he has
received
from B, about X; and C hands on a second equally absurd and
incomprehensible
statement about X which he has received from D; and the two independent
statements make a consistent and reasonable whole, this is the
strongest
kind of evidence that all parties were telling the truth. One
illustration
of this is the first circumnavigation of Africa. Herodotus, 4; 42;
says:
"On their return they declared- I for my part do not believe them, but
perhaps others may- that in sailing round Libya they had the sun on
their
right hand." A second is the visit of Abaris to Greece. Herodotus says,
4; 36; "As for the tale of Abaris, who is said to have been a
Hyperborean
and to have gone with his arrow" (his insignia as a priest of Apollo on
a mission) "all round the world without once eating, I shall pass it by
in silence." Herodotus did not know that, going
west, south of
the equator the sun
rose on the right hand and so, as Rawlinson points out in his note,
this
is conclusive evidence that Africa was actually circumnavigated. And
Herodotus
did not know that the Hypibereans were vegetarians (see Strabo and
Smith,
quoted above), and that therefore Abaris, like George Bernard Shaw, ate
nothing at public functions. Shaw, asked why he did not eat at least
the
vegetable courses, said that it would spoil his appetite, so he had his
dinner before; and Abaris was probably equally sensible.
28. THE NAMES OE THE TEN
PRE-DELUGE KINGS OF ATLANTIS,
WHEN TRANSLATED, THE SAME AS THOSE OF THE TEN PRE-DELUGE KINGS OF THE
BABYLONIAN
AND SEMITIC TRADITIONS The
fact that the Greek and the
Egyptian-Phoenician traditions, incomprehensible
apart, were clear and confirmed each other when taken together, was
interesting
and important. But further examination of the dialogue,
Critias, 74
led to a discovery of such
nature that the
authenticity of Plato's narrative
can never be rationally questioned in future. For I found that he
gives
a list of ten kings, followed by a Deluge; in exact agreement
therefore
with the Priestly narrative in Genesis and with Berossus's
transcription
from the Babylonian records. Moreover, though these lists will no doubt
ultimately be found to be in agreement, so far only two or three of the
names in the list of Berossus have been identified satisfactorily with
those of the Priestly narrative, but I have been able to identify no
less
than six in that list with names, corresponding, in the list given by
Plato. The agreement of some of the names is
provisional
because what Solon
did was to ,get the Egyptian priest to give him the meaning of the
names
and then to translate them into Greek, and no man has the right to
think
he has been able to reverse that process and then identify the result
with
the Babylonian names from which those of Berossus's list are derived
without
making mistakes. More competent Orientalists than myself will no doubt
reject some of the identifications; others, perhaps most, may be
accepted. The names of Plato's ten kings are to
be found in
a certain list of
ships and it has been argued that this is a proof that the kings are
fiction.
This is a curious illustration of the way the same fact will be
interpreted
by different men. For myself, if I wished to know the names of the
members
of the royal family, or of the kings of England, or of its counties or
great battles, in the absence of other reference books I should go to a
list of the ships of the British navy. 29. THE CITIES WHERE THE TEN
PRE-DELUGE KINGS OF THE BABYLONIAN
TRADITION LIVED IN THE KINGDOM OF ATLANTIS, IN THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS
(Note added Sept. 12th, 1923. Since the above
was
written I have received
a copy of Dr. Clay's "Origin of Biblical Traditions" containing
Professor
Langdon's transla- 75
tion of a fragmentary list from
a tablet in the
Ashmolean Museum, i.e.
Place on
list. | City
on list. | My
identification
(in Caucasus isthmus) | 1 and 2 | Khabur |
Abur |
3
and 4 | Larsa |
Karsa |
5 and 6 |
Dur Tibiri |
Tibir |
7
and 8 | Larak
and
Sippar | Arak
and ? | 9 and 10 | Su-kur-Lam | Sakar |
In this list the names appear in pairs, with the exception of 7 and 8.
In Plato's list the names also appear in pairs. In Abur (Iberia) the
kings
were chosen in pairs. "The nobles, from whom two kings were chosen."
See
also Strabo, 11; 3; 6. And they had a double deity, Ur-Al (Khur-Khal).
Compare the Cabeiri. 30.
SOLON 'S LIST OF KINGS MADE
MORE THAN THREE CENTURIES
BEFORE BEROSSUS MADE HIS BABYLONIAN LIST; AND MORE
THAN TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES BEFORE THE
SEMITIC LIST WAS
DISCOVERED Solon was
in Egypt about 600 B.C. Plato wrote his
dialogues before 350
B.C. Berossus transcribed his list from the Babylonian records 100
years
later, i.e. about 250 B.C. Ezra the scribe did not collect the
Pentatuch
until about 450 B.C. i.e. 150 years after Solon, and the Priestly
narrative
was not isolated until quite recently and does not divide the names
into
pairs. Solon and Plato have therefore handed down
to us a
tradition of the
Deluge, entirely independent from and equally authentic with, the other
great Deluge traditions. And this tradition is our first, and so far,
though
we have much archeological information, our only written source of
knowledge
of this great civilization which existed before the Deluge.
76
31. OTHER BABYLONIAN TRADITIONS
RELATING TO ATLANTIS;
SHAMASH AND MARASH Other
Babylonian traditions may refer to Tartarus.
For they speak of
mountains "whose back extends to the dam of Heaven and whose breast
reaches
down to Arallu" (hades; see Clay, Amurru. p. 77). Examination of the
map
will show that the expression applies well to Tartarus, and both
Tartarus
and Erebus are sometimes called Ur-al. Also, in the Gilgamesh tradition
there is some evidence that the mountain at Shamash and the gap at
Marasy
which together form a rude observatory resembling Stonehenge except
that
the gap is natural, and where the zero meridian of longitude passed,
were
the place of Mar-tu, where Shamash, the sun, entered in, and where Noah
built the ark. If so, Gilgamesh may have come from the neighborhood of
Lake Urmia to pay his visit. That Ashurta went round Tartarus and left
portions of her clothing at each of its seven gates is not inconsistent
with the Greek traditions 32.
THE CEREMONIAL SINGLY
CONFERENCES AT UR-AL-U; THE
ROUND TABLE OF URT-UR; THE GRAAL; THE WATER OF LETHE
The ten rulers governed the land and held
conferences in Tartarus every
fifth and sixth years alternately, concerning inter-state matters.
These conferences were held in the temple of
Neptune, only the kings
being present, and all matters were decided in one day. I.e. they not
only
had a league of nations, but they had discovered the only possible way
to operate such a league to get results. The procedure was as follows:
The conference was held in the Temple of Neptune.
The kings first caught
and sacrificed one of the sacred cattle of that temple. For the capture
nooses and staves only must be used. This ceremony appears to have been
the prototype of the ceremonial Minoan bull fights. Compare also
Herodotus'
description 7; 85; of the Sagartians, an Al race living
77
between the Caspian and Black
Seas. "It is not the
wont of this people
to carry arms of bronze or steel, except only a dirk. When they meet
the
enemy, straightway they discharge their lassoes, which end in a noose,"
Herodotus wrote approximately B.C. 400, or almost two centuries later
than
Solon's visit to Egypt. The captured bull was led
up to a column of
orichalcum on which the
laws were engraved, laid on it, and his blood shed over the sacred
inscription.
The column was then purified. A ceremonial oath
was taken. A large bowl was
filled with wine, into
which each king put a few drops of the sacrificial blood, and then all
drank from it in golden cups, pouring some of it on the sacrificial
fire
and making oath that they would judge in accordance with the laws on
the
column. Compare Herodotus 4; 70; "Oaths among the Scyths are
accompanied
with the following ceremonies; a large earthen bowl is filled with
wine,
and the parties to the oath, wounding themselves slightly with a knife
or an awl, drop some of their blood into the wine; lastly the two
contracting
parties drink each a draught from the bowl, as do also the chief men
among
their followers." Note. The cobalt-blue patinated
(kuano) altar of
orichalcum, sapphirus,
the round table of Urt-ur, was brought to Wales and was in existence
A.D.
1,100. Search should be made. The laws are graved on its top. The
Ghur-al,
which held the drops of blood of the Five Tribes, went to Aburon.
"After spending some necessary time at supper,
when darkness came on,
and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on the most
beautiful azure robes, and sitting on the ground, at night, near the
embers
of the sacrifice over which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the
fire
about the temple, they received and gave judgment if any of them had
any
accusation to bring against any one; and when they had given judgment
they
wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet and deposited them,
together
with their robes that they might be a testimony."
78
The azure robes may have been
dyed with woad,
which was known in that
district. (Herodotus, 1; 203.) The reason why the kings sat about the
embers
of the sacrificial fire while giving judgment was not known to Plato,
but
may, I think be known to us, for in that country there grew (Herodotus,
1; 202) "A tree which bears the strangest produce. When they are met
together
in companies they throw some of it upon the fire round which they are
sitting,
and presently by the mere smell of the fumes which it gives out in
burning"
they are affected in such a way that (Ency. Brit. 17 ; 232 ;) " the
intellectual
powers are at first acute and strong." From other sources we learn that
the "sacred vapor of prophecy" of the atechnic oracle was a fume so
produced.
The water of Lethe (1-aeth-e, water-empty-ness) was a decoction of the
seeds; see Dr. Safford's paper, ibid. for a description of its use by
the
Indians to produce entire forgetfulness of past life.
33. EXPLANATION OF THE REPUTED
LONGEVITY OF THE KINGS
- THE KINGDOMS It was
the practice to call these kings after the
name of their kingdoms
or people, so the king's name was always the same. The king of Aedon
(Aides,
Hades, Gades) was always called Aetas (Aides, Hades, Gades) or Aidoneus
(Adonis). This may be the reason why such long reigns are attributed to
these kings and the origin of the belief in their great longevity. The
kings also had specific titles, e.g. Aidoneus was also called Thammuz.
Tham or Am meant ruler or lord. Uz (aes) meant rock or mountain and
later
something very hard and strong, iron, bronze, power. So Thammuz meant
"Lord
of the Mountains." In tracing out the kingdoms it must be remembered
that
the name of Atlas was first given to Mt. Kasbek, and only after a long
time transferred to Mt. Elbruz. There are indications that in some way
this transference was at first accidental, i.e. that those who saw '
Mt.
Elbruz thought they were seeing Mt. Kasbek; why, is not evident.
79
The first city, Atl-ont
(Atlontas, Atlantis) was
founded by the A1 on
the eyot between Cocytus, Styx and Pyriphlegethon. Later it took the
name
Tartarus, from the Ur. Possibly the change of name did not take place
until
shortly before the Deluge, excavations may tell us about this.
The kingdom of Hades appears to have
been at first
between Ail-ont and
the Caucasus range, and later to have conquered Atl-ont, which then
took
the name of Tartarus. We must first definitely locate the other pair of
pillars of Hercules, i.e. those which were inland and are referred to
by
Ptolemy as "Pillars of Alexander," also the artificial channel of the
Alontas,
about ten miles long and 100 yards wide, which should be somewhere near
the present Braguny, before we can speak with any definiteness of the
boundaries
of the kingdoms. Another kingdom was that of Udon, and another that of
Aethon, between the Urup and the Azov. The kingdom of the Chalybea (or
Chaldaei; this does not depend merely on Strabo 's statement that "the
present Chaldaei were anciently called Chalybes," Strabo 12; 2; 19; or
on the statements of other Greek writers; there is other evidence) was
at first in the peninsula of Apscheron or Ashur but was later extended
to the neighborhood of Mt. Tamischiera, the lordly mountain of metals,
of which the writer of the book of Enoch seems to have heard, and which
was near the Caucasus or "white mountains," north of Elbruz. At the
time
of the Deluge the Chalybes or Alyb were ruled by a queen Ashurta or
Ashirta.
Tradition states that she was married to Aidoneus or Adonis, king of
Hades
and Tartarus, who was also called Tham-uz, Lord of Power.
Other names of nations have been found
but most of
them seem merely
variants. E.g. the Meropes, who settled Cos and of whom Silenus speaks
were the dwellers on the Urup River. The Tammes who settled Boetia and
other places were subjects of Tham-uz, i.e. Aedi. The Telchini were
Chalybes.
This matter is covered in another chapter. 80
34. WHY MANKIND HAD ITS ORIGIN IN
THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS Physical
characteristics, more extraordinary than
it world have been
possible to conceive, were the cause of the development of civilization
in this northern portion of the isthmus. On Map A the southern
extension
of the last glacial age is shown by a wavy line. On the east it came
down
to the Ocean of Atlantis, on the west the region between the glaciers
and
the northwest shore of the Black Sea was a vast morass of which as late
as Herodotus's dap, "according to the account which the Thracians give,
the country beyond the Ister is possessed by bees (mosquitoes) on
account
of which it is impossible to penetrate further" (Herodotus, 5; 10). The
life which had been pushed down by the glaciers of this region was
therefore
pocketed between the glaciers on the north, the Ocean of Atlantis on
the
east, the Black Sea on the west and the Caucasus, impassable then,
because
its hidden gate was yet to be discovered, on the south. It is doubtful
if there would be much search for a passage south, for the snowcapped
mountains
world probably be considered as glaciers to the south. And
there would be no inducement to go farther. It
would almost seem
as if the Creator, growing impatient at the futile and tedious
Paleolithic
developments, had swept Man up into this corner and said "Here is
everything
yon can possibly need," for here were fire, metal ores, timber,
alluvial
soil, irrigating streams and useful animals and fruits and grains.
It would seem that the principal obstacle in the
way of the development
of Paleolithic man was that he had no fire. The generally accepted
theory
is that he had fire, as charred bones have been found with Paleolithic
remains. But this does not convince me, for, as a chemist, I know that
it is possible to produce charring without fire. And there is one thing
which definitely indicates that the use of fire was not known, i.e. the
acknowledged absence of pottery in Paleolithic
81
remains. Every time afire was built on a bit of
clayey ground it would
produce a pottery container which would have been invaluable to the
fire
builder; that there is no pottery means that there was no fire.
But at the foot of the Caucasus was the greatest
source of fire that
the world has ever known. "The whole soil of Apsheron is said to be
saturated
with naphtha, which rises whenever a hole is bored; and round the town
of Baku there are nearly a hundred bituminous springs, from many of
which
considerable supplies of naphtha are drawn. Some of these are
constantly
burning; and one of them, termed the "Burning field" was formerly a
celebrated
"shrine of grace" to the Ghebers or Parsecs, multitudes of pilgrims
resorting
to it as Mahometans do to Mecca." (Ency. Brit. art. Caspian Sea.)
The description just quoted applies to the
district after the soil and
wells had been burning for more than 10,000 years; it is fair to assume
that primitive man found the burning fields and wells on a greater
scale
than at present; and as accidents to shipping have shown that a few
tons
of oil will spread flame over many acres of water in a harbor, the
Pyriphlegethon,
flowing through what is now the centre of the Baku oil district, with
crude
oil carrying a high percentage of naphtha floating on its surface and
ignited
by the burning fields, must have presented an appearance very much as
tradition
states. The use for food of cattle fallen into
the burning
pits, as described
by Strabo, would have led to the use of fire for cooking. Pottery would
follow, for any man who had been tediously chipping stone into shape
for
days would realize at once the importance of the fact that the soft
piece
of clay which he had put into the fire had become hard without changing
its shape. It is not probable that stone
implements will be
found in this region,
as the use of stone would have been abandoned almost immediately.
82
35. MINERAL WEALTH AND WATER POWER
OF THE CAUCASUS ISTHMUS In
the peninsula of Apsheron are great numbers of
outcropping deposits
of rich iron ore, and "so simple is the operation required for
extracting
a small mass of iron from rich ore that the primeval man may have
discovered
it by means of a fire accidentally lighted upon ground where iron ore
existed
near the surface." (Prof. Saveur, Scientific American, Sept., 1923.)
Even
this would not have been necessary, for blocks of the outcrop would be
carried down to the valley of the burning pits and found there as lumps
of iron. "Iron and copper ores are known to occur in abundance," and
gold
and silver, the gold apparently only in placer deposits (the location
of
the ore bodies from which it came would be an absurdly easy task for a
modern mining engineer; the bodies must be immense), but the silver
appears
to have been mined. There are many deposits of magnetic iron ore;
extensive
deposits of bauxite; manganese occurs in extensive masses as pyrolusite
and psilomelane, high grade and generally free from impurities;
deposits
of corundum; clay deposits of exceptionally high fusing point and low
impurity;
phosphate rock; "marbles of endless variety"; slate of fine texture and
easy cleavage; ochre; asbestos; pyrite, steatite; graphite; a great
variety
of semi-precious minerals; sulphur; mercury ores; cobalt. (Ency. Brit.
5; 257 and 26; 677.) A kind of brass or bronze
called oricalchum was
made by the Chalybs
and carried to Greece by the Phoenicians. From the description it was
an
alloy of nickel and copper, or possibly cobalt and copper. After about
B.C. 750 it was no longer obtainable by the Greeks; possibly before
that.
A search for nickel ores should be made in this district, as the
description
fits much better to a nickel alloy than to a cobalt. The
names for the metals came from the Caucasus
isthmus. E.g. chalybs
(steel), chalkos (brass), acs (bronze), and aithon (iron), are derived
from chalyb, ae, and aethon. Some
83
may be tempted to see sideros
(iron) from iberis,
but such a derivation
is absolutely not possible.
Note. It is from ae-t-ur-os, "emptiness thing fire stuff" i.e. space
fire stuff, star stuff. (Note. The Caucasus is
better provided with power
than any other place
in the world. The principal sources are: 1.
Hydraulic, from the melting of the
glaciers and rain fall,
120,000,000 h. p.
2. Hydraulic, from flow equal to evaporation, from Black sea to Caspian
Basin, 5,000,000 h. p.
3. Oil.
4. Gas.
5. Coal.
6. Wind power.
7. Thermal.
The figures for the hydraulic power may be taken as correct; the writer
was engineering commissioner for the Ontario Niagara Falls Power
Commission,
and that plant was erected by his assistants. They are the horsepower
obtainable
from the sources 365 days per year, 10 hours per dap.) With a free hand
and a golf coarse one could in five years (the financial problems have
not been overlooked; the writer was brought up in the banking business)
transform the Caucasus isthmus into a creative Hyperborea which would
supply
all of Russia with more than it could possibly use of everything except
cereals, and give opportunity for the development of a civilization as
it should be, i.e. one in which the necessary physical labor becomes a
form of healthful, universal and useful physical exercise and all else
is a matter of individual initiative.) 36. EVIDENCE THAT SPEECH HAD ITS
ORIGIN IN THE CAUCASUS
ISTHMUS There is
evidence, from the language itself, that
man had no spoken
language until he came to the isthmus, and that
84
he learned to speak there. The
thing that
apparently impressed him most
on the isthmus was the fire, for which his word was "ur." Ash meant "up
from," so ashur meant something that fire came up from. Wood was ashur,
and the ocean to the east was ashur, because the sun, which to him was
a fire, came up out of it. Aps meant the place where the sun came up,
and
so the east, and the horizon, and then the end, and the crest of a
mountain.
All the early word roots are of such a character that they could hardly
have originated anywhere except on the isthmus. Ur and al were
onomatopoetic. 37. PRIMITIVE
THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE And so with
his theology and science. If he had
been asked what his
religion was he would have said that he was a rationalist; he believed
what he saw. He knew there was someone up in the sky who took an
interest
in his doings and was sometimes seriously offended with him, because
the
one in the sky sometimes shot flaming arrows at him. He knew they were
arrows because he had picked up the heads, and here were some ?of them.
("These objects, known as tektites, or fulgarites, now known to be
small
meteorites as the result of Professor Hoegbom's investigations, have
been
found in great numbers in Czecho-Slovakia, the East Indies and
Australia.
They are only an inch or two in diameter, consist chiefly of molten
glass,
and are curiously marked." Science, July 9th, 1923.) He'
knew the being in the sky was powerful,
because the arrows were
shot with great swiftness and the arrow heads were much larger than men
used. The one in the sky must be very, very old, because he used stone
arrow heads, such as men used in far back time. He
held a vessel of water in his hand and the
water did not fall out
unless there was an opening ?in its bottom. He
could stop it from flowing out by closing the opening. Rain
85
therefore was water which was
kept from falling by
a ceiling or firmament
which had openings in it (windows) which were normally closed.
He could see for himself that this firmament was
held up by the Caucasus,
because they were far higher than anything else, and a great level
plain
of white was often visible, resting on their peaks. The firmament was
very
real to him. Once when Alexander sat drinking with the ambassadors of a
savage tribe, the lapodes, he asked them of what they were most afraid,
thinking they would say, of him; but they said "it was not of any man,
only they felt some alarm lest the heavens should on some occasion or
other
fall on them." (Strabo, 7; 3; 8.) Before they
discovered the gate, the Caucasus
mountains were taken as
an end wall, and therefore the end of the world, and the inland Pillars
of Hercules were set up there. After the gate was discovered they were
taken as central support of the firmament. Springs
were obviously water coming from a
subterranean reservoir. As
the water was not seen to go back, it was thought that the reservoirs
above
and below were connected in some way. When the Theraeans colonized
Libya
they settled at Aziris, but after they had been there six years the
Libyans
asked them to move, saying they would show them a much better place.
The
Libyans brought them to a place west of Aziris, where there was a
spring,
and told them, " Here, Grecians, is the proper place for you; for here
the sky leaks." (Herodotus, 4; 158.) 38. DEVELOPMENTS IN SCIENCE; THE
ZIGGURATS; THE CABEIRI;
THE LONGITUDE OF BABYLON But
neither science nor theology remained for long
in this crude state.
The theory of numbers was derived from their study of the ratio of the
lengths of the strings of musical instruments (they were passionately
fond
of music; but the Egyptian people are said to have had only one tune,
the 86
Linus. Herodotus, 2; 79; the
negroid races have
always attached more
importance to rhythm than to melody), and geometry and hydraulics and
mechanical
engineering would be forced upon them by their irrigation problems.
They
learned a great deal about metallurgy from the working of ores, though
true glass does not appear to have come until later, possibly because,
using oil, their attention had not been called to the effects produced
by fusing sand and wood ashes. To know when to
plant crops they had to know the
time of the year and
they made considerable progress in astronomy. One of the earliest, but
not the first, of their observatories was at Shamash and Marash, on the
Asheron peninsula, where a gap in a mountain spur running north and
south
let a ray of light from the rising sun tip the peak of a mountain on
one
day of the year. It was the meridian passing through this observatory
that
the astronomers of Babylon took as their prime meridian. The
ziggurats of Babylon bad horns on them, a
primitive kind of transit,
derived from the earlier use, for this purpose, of the horns of a bull.
The peculiar bull horn ornaments of some Minoan public buildings
possibly
had their origin in this use and may have functioned as sun dials; they
are represented as associated with the Cabeiri. No
substantial advance in science or technology
appears to have been
made from the time of the Deluge to the break up of the Cabeiri, about
550 B.C. During all this period science and technology were in the
hands
of this close corporation, but about B. C. 600 the Scythians, who had
been
expelled from Asia, made it impossible for them to maintain the
headquarters
of their organization in the Apscheron Peninsula. The attempt by
Zalmoxis
and Pythagoras to establish a new headquarters in Italy failed, it was
suppressed throughout the Roman Empire, moved to Britain B. C. 10, and
disappears. Freed from its fetters, science and technology made rapid
advances.
The so called teachings of Pythagoras give a fair
87
idea of the stage of
development which had been
reached. In some respects
it was quite advanced, for example it was known that the sun was a body
of fire round which the earth and planets revolved, but they do not
seem
to have known of the properties of the ellipse, and though they knew
that
bodies were attracted to a centre, do not seem to have distinguished
between
cohesion and gravitation, or to have known the laws of the force.
39. DEVELOPMENTS
IN THEOLOGY Even
before the Deluge theology had become quite
complicated. The first
god was Ur or Al, the god of light. Then came Aee or Ea, the god of the
sea, who was called Aem or Eam, lord of the sea, and whose name later
became
Tem, Tam, Tham, Jam, Jawb or Jove, and still later, in the southeastern
portion of the Apscheron peninsula, Sham and Shom. There was conflict
between
the two religions and each god as a result took on attributes of the
other,
e.g. Al became also a storm god and Shom also a sun god. The Semites
appear
to have first worshipped Sham or Shom as a sun god, and then to have
worshipped
the sun under the name of Al or El; and still later, after their
sojourn
in Egypt where the old name Jam had been preserved, and influenced
thereto
by Moses, the Hebrews returned to the worship of Jam or Jah. En or An
was
the moon god. For the theology subsequent to the
Deluge the
reader will best consult
the works of those eminent orientalists who have written upon the
subject,
especially Clay. The Hercules of the Greek myth
is not the same as
the Phoenician Hercules
(see Herodotus, 2; 44). The former was an adventurer who raided the
Caucasus
isthmus, carried off the cattle of Geryon (Uruon, or Guruon; compare
the
Gerusia of Carthage) and (a similar story is told of Samson) the gates
of Erebus, and was assisted by the king of the Alizonians, who gave him
transport up the river Oceanus in a camera or covered boat whose top
was
of gold. 88
Hercules of the Phoenicians,
Khurkhales (Ur-al),
was a deity, the sun
god Shom or Som, who had a spring festival, called "the awakening of
Hercules,"
and was the patron of sailors. Magnets were called "Heraclean stones."
The Phoenicians did not make images of deities, but put up pillars.
Hercules
was a twin deity, whose names were Ur and Al; hence two pillars with
lights
on top and the two kings. Hiram put two such pillars before Solomon's
temple,
Jakin and Boaz. The idol of Ashirta was a post of white poplar.
40. THE "WAILING
FOR THAMMUZ"; THE
AMAZONS One great
rite which spread throughout almost the
whole of the ancient
world and degenerated into a religion of undescribable practices had
its
origin from the catastrophe of the Deluge, i.e. the "Wailing for
Thammuz"
or Aidoneus by Ashirta, queen of the Chalybs, who lived in Uroch.
Thammuz,
king of Aides, and his forces were drowned, together with the Athenian
troops, by the Deluge, but many women escaped. These, as stated in
Solon's
narrative, were accustomed to share in all duties and labor with the
men,
which, he says, is why Athene is represented as armed. The custom
persisted
down to classical times, "The belief of the Greeks in the Amazons may
have
arisen from the peculiar way in which the women of some of the
Caucasian
districts lived and performed the duties which in other countries
devolve
upon men, as well as their bravery and courage which are noticed as
remarkable
even by modern travelers." Smith, Class. Diet. art. Amazons. "But
chiefly
when it was observed that certain characteristics of the Amazons
actually
existed in the women of Sarmatia." Ency. Brit. art. Amazons. These
women
lived between the rivers Urup and Tiber; see Aeschylus, quoted above.
The
Scythians called them Oiropa, which Herodotus takes to be "Oior-pata"
or
man slayers, but which was really "Europa" from the river on which they
lived. The women may have owed their survival to the fact that they
were 89
serving with the forces of King
Aidoneus and that
their regiments were
stationed on the mountain. "Theophanes, who
accompanied Pompey ; in his wars
and was in the country
of the Albanians, says the Gelae and Legae, Scythian tribes, live
between
the Amazons and the Albanians, and that the river Mermadalis (Tiber)
takes
its course in the country lying in the middle between these people and
the Amazons. But other writers, and among them Metrodorus of Scepsis
and
Hypsicrates, who were themselves acquainted with these places, say that
the Amazons bordered upon the Gargarenses on the north, at the foot of
the Caucasian mountains which are called Ceraunian," Strabo, 11;5;1.
There is no inconsistency between the authorities
quoted by Strabo,
and the position is exactly that given by Aeschylus, and, as will be
seen
from the map, is within a few miles of the mountain Tamischiera, "which
is the boundary between them and the Gargarenses, and on which they
spend
two months of the spring." Strabo, ibid. Tamischeira
is not a high mountain (6,000 ft.) but
it is the outermost
of the northern spur of the Ceraunian mountains, and from it it is
possible
to see far out over the plain; it is in the country of the Chalybes,
and
since it was the place where the women observed the rite of the
"Wailing
for Thammuz." there can be little doubt but that it was f from this
point
that Queen Ashirta saw her husband and his forces drowning in the
Deluge. Each year, on the anniversary of the
Deluge, the
women went to mount
Tamischeira and for two months bewailed the death of Thammuz. Surviving
men of the adjacent nation, the Gargarenses (Tartarenses) joined them
in
the rite. It would not have been rational, under the circumstances, if
they had not intermarried. But the women were unwilling to surrender
their
independence and so "the female children which may be born are retained
by the Amazons themselves, but the males are taken to the Gargarenses
to
be brought up." 90
The women of the Chalybes thus
became the Amazons
(Thammuzons-Strabo
gives the derivation as from Alizones, but though this is possible it
is
not probable. Homer speaks of both Amazons and Halizonians), and for
many
centuries maintained this strange social experiment successfully. The
Phoenicians
carried the rite and the customs which had become attached to it to
other
lands, where was no justification of circumstances and where it became
merely an excuse for sensuality. 41. CONCLUSION
A great civilization was wiped out by the deluge.
We can see the slopes
of Mount Tamischeira, covered with the women of the Chalybes, their
queen
among them, terrified by the earthquakes, looking out over the drowning
plain through the storm of rain, as the great tidal wave sweeps past to
the west. It is the last scene, when the light comes the shuddering
spectators
will leave that stage, the far dispersion has begun.
91
IV BY-PRODUCTS
OF HISTORY The data for the
reconstruction of the history and
civilization of the
Caucasus isthmus is quite dispersed in the literatures and
archeological
remains of a number of civilizations; in the years during which it was
gathered other data, relating to other problems, separated from the
historical
magma. Some part of this and of the deductions were given in. 1909 in
the
paper on " Hysteresis in Social, Moral and Economic Functions" referred
to in a previous chapter. I. "NATURAL
RESOURCES" A FALSE CONCEPT;
THE CAUSE OF WAR AND OF HIGH PRICES The
following is quoted from sec. 3: ECONOMICS.
A CATECHISM
FOR USE
IN SCHOOLS
Q. What are "the natural resources of a
nation"? A. A false concept; the cause of war.
Q. Are not woods, waterfalls, coal, oil, natural
resources of a nations A. No; they are not
natural, and whether they are
resources or detriments
depends upon the stage of civilization. Q.
Explain this; with reference to woods. A. Woods
were at first a detriment because they
occupied ,ground which
might have grown fruit bearing trees or crops. They were never a
natural
resource, but they became an artificial resource through the invention
of fire, the axe and woodworking tools. At the present time they are
again
becoming a detriment, for the capitalized annual insur-
92
ance against - fire, excess
fire losses, excess
depreciation of buildings
over cement, excess heating losses, prevention costs, amount to more
than
twice the total value of the woods themselves. Their present cheapness
stands in the way of the development of cheaper and better materials,
i.e.
cement and plant or mineral fibre board; large quantities of fertilizer
would be produced in the manufacture of cement, and the lowered cost of
cement would give better roads. For economic reasons they should be
burned
down; for aesthetic reasons solely, they should be preserved.
Q. With reference to waterfalls. A.
Waterfalls were never a natural resource. They
became an artificial
resource when methods of irrigating land were invented. They became a
detriment
when ships were invented. They again became an artificial resource when
hydraulic power plants were invented. They are now again becoming a
detriment
because the capital invested and the cost of their power stands in the
way of the development of cheaper and better sources of power, i.e.
large
scale coal burning power plants, sun power plants, wind power plants.
Q. With reference to so-called "natural resources
of the nation" generally. A. All national
resources are artificial, and all
become national detriments
in time. To hoard them is to waste them; not more than a fraction of
one
per cent of the coal or oil in the world will ever be taken out; water
heads not utilized for power purposes within the next fifty (35) years
will never be developed except as accessory to some other objective, or
because of exceptionally favorable conditions. Q.
Explain your statement that this false concept
is the cause of war. A. In the early time the
people of neighboring
nations were considered
the natural power resources of a nation. The Scythians used to capture
large numbers of prisoners, blind them, and use them for milking mares
and making butter, feeding them on the skim milk. Seafaring nations
used 93
them for rowing galleys. Later,
captives were used
for workmen and scribes
and teachers. After the invention of the sail and
of improved
mechanical appliances,
wars to obtain captive individuals were generally abandoned and the
adjoining
nation as a whole was considered as the national natural resource. Such
vanquished or intimidated nations were originally forced to pay annual
tribute, but the amounts so collectable were found insufficient; the
nations
were made provinces and taxes collected from individuals; if the
individuals
had not sufficient property, head or house taxes were imposed payable
in
produce, a practice still obtaining. (See for
example report, Sept., 1923, of
Commission on Permanent Mandates
on the branding, massacres by bombing from airplanes, of Blondel
Hottentots,
to collect dog tax.) But the most profitable way
of all by far was
found to be by control
of the trade of the vanquished or intimidated nation; and this was
applicable
to colonies as well, the nation or colony being prevented or
intimidated
by force or financial pressure from developing any industry which would
compete with the industries of the more powerful nation, or of engaging
in the transportation of its own exports or imports; and thus
controlled
and prevented from developing, was easily kept in subjection and was
supposed
to form a valuable natural resource of the dominant nation. As this
erroneous
idea is still held by statesmen and financiers generally, there have
been
innumerable wars between nations to obtain possession of each others
subject
nations or colonies. Q. Does not such dominance
by the more civilized
nation promote the
development of the less civilized? A. Comparison
between the development of
undominated or freed nations,
e.g. Japan and the South American republics, and the development of
dominated
nations shows that the former lag little, if at all, behind the rest of
the world, while the latter make little or no advance. Comparison
between the relative development of the
dom- 94
inating and dominated nations
at the time of
intimidation and the relative
development at the present time shows that the dominated nations are
now
relatively less developed. Q. If a nation does
not produce indigo or sugar or
nitrates or oil,
must it not conquer some nation which does produce indigo, or colonize
some country which produces sugar, or dominate some nation which
produces
nitrates or oil? A. This was formerly thought to
be so, but nations
which desired these
products and were not strong enough to take the producing countries
away
from the nation which held them, found that it was not necessary to
maintain
armies and fleets to obtain indigo, but that refuse from the nearest
gas
works dump could be turned, not only into better and cheaper indigo,
but
also into thousands of other valuable dyes, with new properties, which
have opened up great fields in medicine, and science and industry
generally;
that the nearest farm grew beets which could be developed till their
juice
carried more sugar than the sugar cane, and at less cost; that nitrates
could be obtained by sticking two wires close together and passing a
current
between them or by passing oxygen freed air over a cataly ser. The
total
cost to date of these three developments is less than the cost of a
single
scout cruiser. There are literally hundreds of plant industry engineers
who are capable of working out processes for producing fuel alcohol at
a cost much less than gasoline is now selling for, and the total
development
cost would be less than that required to maintain one battleship in
commission
for three months. 2. AMBASSADOR COLONIES; MINIMUM
HYSTERESIS TARIFF The
catechism goes on to explain that: 9. Trade
between nations is a great incentive to
progress, because by
it people are led to desire other things. Unless they see the better
things
used, they are satisfied as they are and do not progress.
95
10. But this incentive to
progress is best
provided by creating improved
means of communication and. by "ambassador colonies," i.e. colonies
occupying
areas of say one one-thousandth of one per cent of the area of the
country
to which they are accredited, and considered in every respect, except
that
the area is rented and not owned, as a part of the country sending it.
These would be permanent expositions, would be attractive places to
visit,
would receive ideas as well as give them, and greatly increase trade.
11. As they would be in effect hostages, they
would be an insurance
against sudden and unprovoked declarations of war. 12.
But every nation should place itself in a
position to make everything
it requires within its own territory. A "minimum hysteresis"
tariff-bounty
should be imposed on all imports, diminishing by one-tenth each year,
the
proceeds of the tariff to be applied solely as bounties to encourage
the
development of home production. As the home production in the first
years
will be only a few per cent of the importations, the cost to the
consumer
will be raised only a few per cent, so will not check importation,
while
the bounty received by the manufacturer may be one hundred per cent or
more, and will be automatically adjusting to the circumstances. For
details
of application see chapter on MINIMUM
HYSTERESIS
TARIFF BOUNTY.
Nations unable to do this should combine. 13. The
tariff being used only for stimulating
production, the expense
of running the government will be obtained from a sales tag, that being
the only sensible form of taxation, as taxation should obviously be on
what a man spends for his personal uses and not on what he saves; since
what he saves obviously and necessarily goes to others.
3. LABOR AND CAPITAL
14. Labor never has, and never can, produce
anything appreciable. If
labor could, there would be no unemploy- 96
ment, for the laborer is still
there. It is
capital which produces,
and we can conceive a situation where production is a maximum and yet
no
laborers are used; e.g. if the wireless governed apparatus developed by
Shoemaker and used for steering torpedoes by the Japanese at the time
of
the Japan-Russian war (and recently by the U. S. Navy to steer
battleships)
were applied to manufacturing. 15. It is the
capital spent on the machinery which
enables a workman
to weave as much cloth in a day as a thousand could with the old loom.
The laborer's share, as a laborer, is only a small fraction of one per
cent of the production. The true basis of the
workman's claim comes from
the fact that, as a
citizen, he is entitled to his proportionate share of the capital, i.e.
the savings, which have been handed down by the generations prior to
his
time. 4. SALES TAX;
PERSONAL USE TAX 17. If in the past
savings had been taxed out of
existence, and spendings
not taxed, there would be no mechanical or financial tools, no monetary
head (analogous to hydraulic head) and no possibility of production,
and
everyone would be living on acorns and the like. 18.
As everything not spent for personal use.
becomes capital, and capital
is merely another name for "means for producing," and as the more there
is produced the more there is to divide around, it is obviously
supremely
silly to place any taxes on increase of capital. If anything, it is to
the workman's interest that it should be given a bonus. 19.
A sales tax places the cost of government
where it belongs, because
it is in respect to what he applies to his personal use that he obtains
the benefit of the government. In respect to what he saves he obtains
no
benefit from the government, but the nation receives a benefit from
him. 97
20. A sales tag is the simplest
of all taxes and
the expense of collection
is less than five per cent of the cost of collecting an equivalent
amount
from income tag. 21. In history we find that the
income tag and the
secret police are
the two means invariably used by those who have overthrown popular
governments
and made themselves dictators. 5. AMOUNT OF DIVIDEND CAPITAL
SHOULD EARN 22. At
the present time capital is shirking its
work and loafing, because
if it does its full work it will be taxed out of existence. Assume a
shop
with ten machines of such types that they will build machines of
everyone
of those types. Then (I have been shop superintendent and also
estimator)
in a year they may be capable of turning out thirty such shop
equipments.
Deducting a suitable amount for the material, building, etc., that tool
capital has turned itself over more than twenty times. A fair estimate
for a proper return on tool capital is then 2,000 per cent. We may
therefore
say that tool capital which does not earn 1,000 per cent per annum is
loafing
and is not being used efficiently. 23. Loafing
capital should be heavily taxed,
because the nation as a
whole, and the workman in particular, is not getting the benefit of it.
The amount of the return which would be earned will depend upon the
class
of production; but as a tentative regulation, no dividends from capital
paying less than 200 per cent should be applicable to the personal uses
of the shareholders, on the ground that the capital is not being
efficiently
used. This would make for better management. All books should be
permanently
open to the public through the Data department referred to below.
24. The saved capital of each generation should
come back to the commonwealth,
and as death dues in their present form are very destructive to
production,
this should be arranged by taking five per cent of the amount left,
for 98
twenty years, the amount being
applied to, and
forming the source. of,
funds for permanent public improvements. 6. THE CAUSE OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND
THE NECESSITIES OF A
SATISFACTORY SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
25. The fundamental cause of unemployment is the
fluctuation in the
yield of farm products. A poor crop year affects the railroads, the
steel
industry, foreign trade, etc., and throws everything out of balance.
This
is the great obstacle in the way of any satisfactory social.
organization. 26. A second necessity is a means
for storing
power cheaply and efficiently.
If we had this we could make use of the radiated energy from the sun.
This
was first measured by Langley, and later by Abbott, and in the Times
for
Sept. 8th, 1910, I have given the average annual radiation for
different
localities. It amounts to nearly double the horse power of Niagara
Falls
per square mile and approximately 15% is available, if it could be
stored.
This would make us independent of coal. 27. A
third necessity is improved means of
communication. Progress is
due to definite desire, and if we do not see we do not desire, except
vaguely. 7.
DEVELOPMENT THE WORK OF A FEW
INDIVIDUALS- LIST OF
EDISON'S INVENTIONS 28.
How can these necessary developments be
obtained. The most astonishing
thing in history is the fact that all development has come from a very
small group of men. Take for example Edison, as the result of whose
work
we have: The incandescent electric
light, both
carbon and metallic filiament. The system of electric
distribution, including
central station and underground
conductors. The carbon microphone transmitter,
without which
the 99
telephone receiver, which was
invented by Gray,
would never have developed
into our present telephone system. The moving
pictures. The phonograph. The
method of making cement which has made its
use practical for modern
construction work. The Edison hot cathode valve,
which is used in
all radio sets and is
the basis of DeForest's great invention, the auction amplifyer.
The Edison storage battery. The
mimeograph. The Edison duplex and multiplex
telegraph
systems, etc., etc.
By placing oneself in imagination in a city which has none of these,
some
realization of the extent to which development depends upon the work of
individual men may be obtained. The list of Stephenson 's inventions is
equally instructive; and those of other inventors. H. PROOF THAT INVENTION IS NOT A
PRODUCT OF THE TIMES
BUT OF THE INDIVIDUAL 29.
It is sometimes said, by those who have not
studied the history
of inventions, that inventions are not made by the individual inventor
but are the product of the time, and that if one man does not make them
another will. Now the first phonograph was made of two pieces of thin
sheet
metal, one wrapped round a cylinder, the other fixed and with a point
fastened
on it. Any one of Tutankamen's mechanics could have made it in a few
hours.
But what good did it do Tutankamen to know that if his mechanic did not
invent it Edison would. I happen to know just how the phonograph was
invented,
for shortly after I came with Edison I had the luck to work out some
minor
but bothering details in a way which pleased him and saved his time for
more important problems, and took the opportunity to ask him about it.
In the course 100
of some other work he had run a
strip of embossed
paper under a thin
disc which had a point fastened to it and had noticed that it made
peculiar
noises. I suppose thousands of Tutankamen's mechanics had run rough
things
across the diaphragms of drums and tom-toms and noticed that they made
peculiar noises without thinking any more about it. But to Edison it
conveyed
the suggestion that if he were to reverse the process, i.e. talk to the
disc while a smooth piece of paper was being run under the point, he
would
have a reproducible record of what he said. He tried it, and it worked.
"Yes," said Batchelor, his old partner, who had come up and was
standing
by as we talked, "you can bet I was scared when I heard that thing say
`Mary had a little lamb,' when he turned the crank." Batchelor had very
distinct and painful recollections, for he had bet Edison twenty-five
dollars
that it would not talk. Note. No one has told of
the first moving picture.
It was made by Edison
in 1888, in an old wooden shack, near the present ore-milling building.
It was a talking movie; the office boy danced a clog and whistled and
sang.
The light for taking and re-producing was from a large battery of
condensers,
the gap geared to phonograph and film. There was no flicker, and I have
never seen a better moving picture. 9. PROOF THAT INVENTION IS NOT THE
RESULT OF KNOWLEDGE
OR OF FACILITIES If
it be objected that Tutankamen's mechanics,
though they built penny
in the slot machines and made better carriage wheels than we do now and
made speaking tubes for the oracles, had no scientific knowledge of
sound,
it is easy to prove that this was not the cause of their failure to
invent.
For, during more than a century before Edison, eminent physicists
engaged
in the study of sound, Duhamel, Koenig, Helmholtz, to mention a few
names,
had been using the vibrograph, which was a diaphragm carrying a point,
resting against a cyl- 101
inder carrying a strip of
smoked paper (i.e. the
Edison phonograph exactly,
except that the paper was smoked), to record the
sound waves, but
it never occurred to one of them to run it backwards. They
must
have
discovered it through running it back accidentally if they had not been
too much concerned with the injury to the lamp black record to listen
to
the sounds it made. Here then we have had, for
more than a century,
eminent physicists,
studying the subject of sound, and having actual phonographs in their
hands
and using them to record the speech vibrations, without it ever having
occurred to one of them that by running the apparatus backwards they
could
reproduce the speech. On the other hand, Edison hears once the peculiar
sound made by a rough strip of paper, and immediately builds the
apparatus,
and while it is building bets his partner that it will talk.
30. 1 have gone into this in detail, and have also
called attention
to the fact that inventors make not one, but many inventions, because
we
cannot intelligently plan for development of our civilization until we
realize that neither scientific knowledge nor the possession of
facilities
for inventing, nor the desire to invent, imply in any way the least
ability
to invent; any more than a knowledge of sound and the possession of a
piano
and the desire to compose is an index of musical ability; or a
knowledge
of metallurgy, possession of machine tools and the desire to make
things
implies that a man is a good mechanic. Each man has his own ability and
whether one is more important than another is a matter of no
consequence,
and depends upon circumstances; the point to grasp is that the
abilities
are distinct; the problem to solve is, how can we best obtain the
developments
needed. 10.
DEVELOPMENT NOT OBTAINABLE BY
ORGANIZATION - THE DARK
AGES THE RESULT OF OVER-ORGANIZATION
31. A patent medicine for everything nowadays is
organization. But history
tells us that this is not the solution,
102
that on the contrary what we
call "Dark Ages" have
in every instance
been caused by over-organization; and that the innocent barbarians who
are always blamed only came in afterwards and are in fact the parties
to
whose credit the subsequent renaissances should be placed. For full
discussion,
see chapter on "THE DARK AGES THE RESULT OF OVER-ORGANIZATION." The
explanation
is, in part, as follows: II. THE LAWS CONNECTING
DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATION 32.
The law connecting organizations and
development is that "No
organization engaged in any specific field of work ever invents any
important
development in that field; or adopts any important development in that
field until forced to by outside competition." E.g.
a. The telegraph companies did not invent
the cable; and after
the cable had been laid continued their effort to build land lilies via
Alaska. b. Neither telegraph nor cable companies
invented the telephone; they
turned it down when offered to them for $250,000. c.
Neither telegraph nor cable nor telephone
companies invented the
wireless telegraph; they turned it down when offered them. d.
Neither telegraph nor cable nor wireless
telegraph companies invented
the wireless telephone; they turned it down when offered them.
e. The gas companies did not invent the electric
light; and rejected
it when offered. f. The horse car street railways
did not invent
the electric railway,
and rejected it when offered. g. The steam engine
companies did not invent the
steam turbine or the
internal combustion engine and rejected them when offered. h.
Neither the electric nor the turbine nor the
shipbuilding companies
invented the turbo-electric drive; the
103
chief engineer of the principal
electric company
reporting that "electricity
could never be used except as an auxiliary on ship-board." i.
The electric companies did not invent the
high frequency alternator,
and when persuaded to make one up, returned it with the statement that
it could never be made to operate satisfactorily above 10,000
frequency. j. Neither the Navy Department nor the
ship
building companies invented
the wireless compass or the echo continuous sounding machine; and they
rejected them when offered. k. Neither the
wireless companies nor the Navy
invented the radio telescope;
and they rejected it when tendered.
So far as is known there are no exceptions to the above rule, and it is
evident that There is less propect of obtaining development
in a
given
field from organizations engaged in that field than from any other
conceivable
source. Such organizations are very useful for minor
economies,
such
as standardizing parts, etc., but waste many times what they save in
this
way through maintaining obsolete methods, and can only remain in
business
for extended periods by establishing monopolies through financial or
political
connections. When such monopolies are first formed they are prosperous
for a time, as they can obtain men who have been trained outside, but
when
this source is exhausted they fall into difficulties. 12. TOTAL FAILURE OF COUNCILS AND
BOARDS TO ACCOMPLISH
DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE MOST STIMULATING CIRCUMSTANCES DEMONSTRATED IN
THE
WORLD WAR 33. A
second natural suggestion is that
development should be directed
through committees or councils. But history shows us that this method
also
must be unsuccessful. See chapter on "THE DARK AGES THE RESULT OF
OVER-ORGANIZATION." The recent world's war will
illustrate this. 104
If ever there was a time when
committees and
councils might have been
expected to make developments it was during this war. There were
innumerable
such councils and committees, they could pick their own membership,
they
had unlimited funds, and there was desperate necessity for development.
Yet of the important developments made during the war, i.e.:
a. The trench mortar. b. The tank.
c. The Zeppelin wireless locator. d. The
method of locating gun positions by
sound. e. Gas masks. f. The
Liberty engine. g. The method of locating
submarines. h. The smoke cloud for tanks.
i. The use of oil for clearing trenches of
poison gas. j. The microphone for locating enemy
mining
operations. k. The star shell. 1.
The method of routing transports to avoid
submarines, by which 2,000,000
men were carried to France without loss. m. The
mines of the North Sea barrage.
not one of these is to be credited in any way to any of these
committees
or councils. All were the work of individuals, not connected in any way
with the committees and councils. 13. HOW EDWARD VII GAVE
INSTRUCTIONS WHICH RESULTED IN
THE INVENTION OF A DEVICE FOR ADVANCE WARNING OF ZEPPELIN RAIDS
34. Note. There is one thing which I should
like
to tell here, out of
respect to the memory of the late king, Edward VII, and that is that a
good many of the citizens of London owe their safety during the
Zeppelin
raids to him, though he was dead. If it is not told here it never will
be, 105
for it is buried in a report in
the files of the
War Office. Early in
1910 Major E. G. Godfrey-Faussett called on me at my rooms and informed
me that he was one of the king's aides, that the king was interested in
the problem of communicating between artillery batteries in action, and
had asked him to call on me and ascertain if I could suggest a suitable
system, and if not, if I would take up the matter. With the aid of
Major
Godfrey-Faussett's instructions and information I worked out a good
system,
using the loop direction finding antenna shown in the first figure of
my
patent of Jan. 14th, 1907. While testing it I noticed that the position
of aeroplanes could be determined very accurately with two such loops.
Owing to the king's death, nothing more was done at the time, but when
the war broke out in 1914 my brother Trenholme and I naturally
volunteered,
being sons of the founder of Empire Day, Mrs. Clementina Fessenden,
with
the Canadian Contingent. He was offered a commission, but later, when
some
of the men got a little out of hand he was asked to take over the work
of sergeant major, he having qualifications for handling such
situations.
I was turned down on the excuse of age and shipped over by General
Hughes
with a letter of introduction (Aug. 18th, 1914) to the War Office and
to
the Admiralty, that to the latter not necessary, as Admiral Hood was an
old friend and had taught me to play golf. Before leaving I made
arrangements
for manufacturing a large number of aeroplanes for delivery May 1st
1915,
and took with me the specifications for my method of locating gun
positions
by sound and what I called King Edward's method" of locating aircraft.
These were laid before the War Office and at its request further
memoranda
were drawn up; but permission to test them at the front could not be
obtained
and in December the Admiralty wished me to return to the United States
in connection with some of its work there. But later on the "King
Edward
method" of locating aircraft fell into the hands of some enterprising
officers
of the War Department and they made
106
good use of it during the
Zeppelin raids. The
Germans, not knowing how
to use the loop of figure 1 of the Jan. 14th, 1907, patent, used the
star
of figure 2, which necessitated the Zeppelin commanders sending out
signals
so that the star stations could give them their positions, and the
officers
referred to were able to locate the Zeppelins and plot their courses
long
before they reached England, and so give warning in ample time and let
our own aircraft know where to look for them. If it had not been for
King
Edward's request the matter would never have been taken up and the
apparatus
never developed, and it seems as if this should be known.
14. THE NAVAL ADVISORY BOARD AND
SUBMARINE BOARD DIRECTLY
RESPONSIBLE FOR SUBSTANTIALLY THE ENTIRE LOSS OF SHIPPING DURING THE
WORLD
WAR 35. Unfortunately
the operations of these councils
and committees were
not always merely futile; so far as can be ascertained they were in
most
cases positively harmful, sometimes extremely so. E.g. they were
responsible
for substantially all the losses from German submarines during the war.
The documents referred to in what follows are in the files of the Navy
Department. The history is as follows: In Sept.,
1914, a pair of oscillators for
signalling between submarines,
with the double commutator attachment for detecting the position of
hostile
submarines, was brought to England and tested at Portsmouth. The
signalling
tests were very satisfactory and a considerable contract was placed
with
the company owning the patents (in which company and patents the writer
had, and has, no pecuniary interest). Efforts to obtain a test of the
detecting
device were not successful, the danger from submarines not being
considered
very great, but the detecting apparatus was left at Portsmouth in case
it should. be decided to make a test later. During 1915 and 1916 a
number
of boards and committees passed on requests for tests, and on April
24th,
1917, Admiral Grant 107
learned of these requests and
ordered an immediate
test. This took place
at Newport, April 26th, and 28th, and submarines were in every case
successfully
detected up to three miles by commutator and up to one mile by echo.
See
official report No. 86, May 1st,1917. Admiral
Grant then sent listening crews to Boston
and arranged for other
tests there, detailing two small steamers and two submarines for the
purpose,
and when it was found that the listening crews had no difficulty in
detecting
the submarines, arranged for a conference at Washington between Admiral
Benson, Admiral Lee, Captain Gaunt and myself, May 15th, 1917; at which
the writer's arrangement of picket lines of slow boats, to detect the
submarines,
coupled with a small number of destroyers to chase and destroy the
detected
boats, was approved; immediately following which was an interview with
Mr. (now Lord) Balfour, who also approved the plan. Unfortunately
a. Naval Advisory Board had been
appointed, which had
formed a Submarine Board. None of the physicists or inventors who had
worked
on submarine detection or submarine signalling were allowed on this
board,
and no information as to what was being done was permitted to reach
them.
The board's first action was to take away the boats detailed by Admiral
Grant, and all other facilities for training the listening crews; and
to
notify the writer and others who had worked in this line that they
would
not be expected to go on board the boats. About a
week later the Submarine Board made a
report that the method
was of no use for detecting submarines. No information could be
obtained
at the time, but about six months later it was learned that the board
had
attached the two oscillators to the sides of a submarine, not realizing
that, as the stiffness of the oscillator diaphram and of the submarine
side were about the same, they would both move together and produce no
sound.
On learning this, the cause was
explained to the
board, 108
and application made for
another test. The
application was rejected.
Later, through the kindness of a Navy officer it was learned that the
rejection
was based upon some mathematical formulae relating to long waves in
water;
on examining which it was found that the board had not understood what
the formula meant, and it was explained to the board and a third
request
made, which was rejected. An offer was then made
to the Navy to install a
set of the detecting
apparatus on the Aylwin, at private expense. This was done, but when it
had been installed the board refused to permit it to be tested and
ordered
the Aylwin to leave Boston, Nov. 12th, 1917. By communication with
Washington,
the Aylwin was held in Boston and two tests, completely successful in
every
way, were made on Nov. 13th and 14th, in one test the Aylwin being on
top
of the submarine six times in the hour from distances up to four miles.
The board then, without informing the inventor,
removed the commutator
and some other parts from the Aylwin, and held her from going abroad
during
the month of December. In response to a
telegraphic inquiry from Admiral
Benson, the captain
and first lieutenant of the Aylwin and the captain of the submarine
which
was chased unanimously reported that if a destroyer equipped with the
apparatus
could get within two miles of a submarine the chances were even that
the
submarine would be destroyed; and in reply to Admiral Benson's inquiry
as to whether they would consider it advisable to equip twelve
destroyers
with the apparatus, replied in the affirmative, and recommended that
the
Aylwin leave immediately for European waters. The
board telegraphed their disapproval of these
recommendations, and
on Admiral Benson directing the Aylwin to proceed to European waters,
removed
other parts of the apparatus and installed some of their own apparatus
through a hole which they cut in the bottom of the Aylwin. The Aylwin
got
away in January, without commutator, as it was not known that it had
been
taken off; on arriving at Portsmouth an Ad-
109
miralty test was arranged for,
but on starting
test the board's apparatus
tore a hole in the bottom of the Aylwin, stopping test and
necessitating
docking. Nothing was known of this until after
about six
months, and then another
installation at private expense was arranged for. This was hardly
completed
before the armistice was signed. In 1919 the
apparatus was tested out on a United
Fruit boat and found
capable of detecting up to a distance of twenty-two miles. The losses
from
submarines amounted to approximately one million dollars per day, which
would have been saved had there been no board. It is perhaps needless
to
say that none of the board's apparatus ever worked, for we have had
hundreds
of university laboratories, with hundreds of millions of dollars of
equipment,
for many years, and while their research work has been valuable, the
total
development or invention output to date has been substantially nothing;
less than many an inventor's shed with its equipment of hacksaw, files
and lathe. 36. Some possible mis-apprehensions
may be
forestalled. a. The writer has never had
any
communication of any nature
with either the Naval Advisory Board or the Research Council, and does
not know even the names of the men on them. The facts stated are given
without bias, and because the facts themselves, and the study of
history,
show that such organizations area menace to civilization. I would much
prefer to omit all mention of them, but it is proposed to indicate the
remedy, and this cannot be done without first diagnosing the character
of the schlerosis. b. The Admiralty were in no way negligent
in
regard to submarine protection
and made a number of attempts to get in touch with American inventors;
but were blocked because the Submarine board secured a formal order
from
Secretary Daniels, who was fully informed of all the circumstances,
that
all communications with reference to sub- 110
marine detection matters must
be carried on
through the Submarine board.
(Secretary of Navy's order of June, 1917.) The Admiralty could
therefore
not find out what American inventors were doing, and the inventors
could
not get their apparatus tested. And this
notwithstanding the fact that most of
the inventors offered
their inventions to the government without compensation during the
period
of the war; while some members of the board received considerable sums
for their defective devices; even in cases where e.g. the electric wave
compensator interference proceedings in the Patent Office, they had
attempted
to patent, as their own, devices sent in to the board by outside
inventors,
not knowing that applications had been filed by the inventors prior to
the sending in. c. At no time was there any
abandonment,
notwithstanding the apparently
impregnable opposition from the board, of the determination that the
troop
ships must be protected from submarines. The essential parts of a
sufficient
number of sets of apparatus were prepared, and had news been received
of
the sinking of a single troop ship, within a few hours the data in the
case would have been before Congress and the apparatus on board the
destroyers
ready to install. But the Edison system of routing was working well and
continued to work perfectly until the end of the war so the emergency
measure
was never taken. 15. EDISON AS A
MATHEMATICIAN- THE EDISON SYSTEM
OF ROUTING CONVOYS DURING THE WORLD WAR With
reference to the Edison system of routing the
convoys, Edison is
a natural born mathematician and never undertakes anything without
first
securing sufficient data. One time, in the early days of the electric
light,
owing to an injunction, he had just two weeks to get out a carbon
filiament
which should be structureless, in order to prevent the Pennsylvania
stations
from being closed. We discov- 111
ered a chloroform soluble nitro
derivative of
asphalt which would carbonize,
but when the chloroform evaporated from the squirted filiaments in the
carbonizing, it left them in powder form. Several hundred different
solvents
were put in as many small tumblers, together with a small portion of
the
asphalt derivative. Only one dissolved it, oil of birch. Edison, who
had
left me to look after the solvents while he attended to something of
more
importance, came into the room. It was about five o'clock and the light
was just coming in; we both looked rather disreputable; he in a blue
checked
laboratory gown, dirty and eaten full of holes by chemicals, with a
three
days' beard, and a cigar in the corner of his mouth; but for all that,
more grand than any emperor. I suppose I must have been rather tired,
we
had been at it for about a week and had been too busy to eat much, for
I began to speculate on what molecular arrangements could be common to
chloroform and birch oil. Edison listened for a few moments, then his
eyes
twinkled: "Well, Fezzy, I guess what we need is more tumblers"; and
this
was always his rule, to first get the data. Like Faraday, it is his
natural
mathematical instinct which enables him to use the data. Once Kennelly
(now professor of Electrical Engineering at Harvard) and I were reading
Thomson's "Applications of Dynamics to Physics and Chemistry" which had
just come out, and happened to leave it open at a page which had a lot
of sextuple integrals while we went to lunch. On coming back we found
Edison
had been in to look for us, and across the top of the page "This
inscription
was found written on the door of an ancient Aztec lunatic asylum." But
when, some years previously, the size of the neutral of the three wire
system had come up, and the mathematicians had failed, he solved it
himself
and his results stand today. And when the United States entered the war
and before the Advisory Board had time to throttle his work, with the
assistance
of some of the Navy officers he got together all the data on submarine
sinkings, 112
deduced from them the
conditions under which the
submarines were able
to operate, and laid down a system of routing which got the whole
2,000,000
troops across safely. This was all he could do before the Board was
formed,
but it was enough. A list of 45 of his inventions "which were
suppressed
by the Board" was published by the Brooklyn Eagle, Feb. 16th, 1923
(discovered
in the files of the Board by Lloyd N. Scott). Many of them would have
been
of great value to the allies, and have materially reduced the cost of
the
war. 16.
FALSIFICATION OF REPORTS BY
BOARDS, TO COYER UP FAILURE
TO MAKE DEVELOPMENTS- THE LIBERTY MOTOR SIGNALLING DEVICES
37. Those who have studied the subject know
that
ability to do research
work and ability to make developments are absolutely distinct, and the
complete failure of these boards and councils to accomplish, in spite
of
the immense sums of money spent, any development whatever, was only
what
was to be expected. But the necessity of covering up this failure has
led
to a remarkable and extensive falsification of their public reports,
against
which the student of economic' history should be warned, because these
falsified reports may be used to obtain further development throttling
powers from Congress. E.g. the development of the Liberty motor was
extensively
advertised as an accomplishment of one of these bodies. It was really
due
entirely to one of the engineers of the Packard company, and had been
already
built and tested. The whole business of the reported development was a
concoction, the only changes made were some minor ones in lubricators,
etc, which were later found to be unadvisable. Another
example is the patenting of signaling
devices, communicated
to them officially, by Signal Corps officials, forced to such action by
the necessity of showing some result for their expenditures.
113
17. THE FAILURE DUE TO THE
ORGANIZATION It may
be claimed that such deplorable happenings
are not due to the
system but to the men. But this is not so; for example the writer has
had
business dealings with the Navy Department for twenty years and during
all this time has never known or heard of any action of any officer
which
was not strictly honorable. But with the Boards this is not so.
18. OTHER
FALSIFICATIONS; THE ECHO
SOUNDING APPARATUS
THE HOT CATHODE RECTIFYER AND AMPLIFYER
The recently advertised development by a Navy
board of apparatus for
taking soundings by echo is a complete falsification. The apparatus was
invented and used in 1914. The following is an extract from the reports
of Captain Quinan, of the Miami, iceberg patrol, published in the
Hydrographic
Office Bulletin, stay 13th, 1914. "We stopped
near the largest berg, but though
within 150 yards, obtained
no echo from the steam whistle. Professor Fessenden, with his
oscillator,
placed 10 feet below the surface, obtained satisfactory results up to
two
and one-half miles. These echoes were not only heard through the
receivers
of the oscillator in the wireless room, but were plainly heard by the
officers
in the wardroom and engine room storeroom below the water line." "The
accuracy
of the method for sounding was tested at depths of 750 and 1,250
fathoms,
and the results agreed with the depths given on the chart." "On the
morning
of April 27th, anchored in 37 fathoms of water and made tests with
oscillator
to determine by echo the depth of water; the result giving 36 fathoms,
which seemed to me very close." The sounder was tendered to the Navy a
number of times between 1914 and 1920, and was used by the United Fruit
Co. in 1920, to run several lines of soundings between Boston and
Panama
and other southern ports. The Board then tried to use the method
without
an oscillator, and not succeeding, obtained one in some way and after
making 114
some satisfactory tests, sent
out accounts of
these accompanied by a
statement that the apparatus had been invented by the board. Even now
the
apparatus is much inferior to what might have been obtained outside the
board, for in 1920 a later development of the inventor's 1914
apparatus,
simpler and cheaper and giving continuous depth readings on a dial on
the
bridge, was tendered and refused. In the annual
report for 1920 of one of the boards
is the statement
that it invented the hot cathode amplifyer. The hot cathode rectifier
was
invented by Edison, who used it for rectifying high frequency
oscillations
(Edison U. S. pat. no. 307,031, Oct. 21st, 1884; Trans. A. I. E. E.
Oct.
1884). The use of potassium vapor and kathodes covered with alkaline
earth
oxides was invented by the writer in 1905 (U. S. pat. 915,280; Feb. 8,
1907). The extremely important invention of placing an anti-kathode
between
the anode and cathode was made by DeForest (U. S. pat. 836,070; Jan.
18,
1906). The anti-kathodeiess amplifier and generator (originally
believed
to be a thermal but now known to be a magnetic effect) and the hot
cathode
light cell with barium-calcium coating were invented by the writer (U.
S. pat. 1,133,435; Feb. 9, 1914). No board had any part in any of these
inventions. 19.
THE INVENTION OF THE WIRELESS
TELEPHONE- THE FIRST
TRANS-ATLANTIC TRANSMISSION OF SPEECH
No less than three different government boards and
one outside corporation
have announced that they were the inventors of the wireless telephone,
and one of them has claimed to be the first to transmit speech across
the
Atlantic; all of which is fabrication. The history of the development
of
the wireless telephone is given in the patent office records and in the
Trans. Am. Inst. E. E. July, 1908. Speech was first transmitted
wirelessly
in Dec. 1900, at Cob Island, Aid. In 1903 an exhibition was given to
engineers
in Washington, D. C., and Annapolis, Md., of apparatus capable of
transmit- 115
ting 25 miles; and the
engineers gave affidavits
to that effect. Apparatus
guaranteed to operate 10 miles was tendered to the U. S. Navy in 1905,
in the following letter: "U. S. Bureau
of Equipment, Navy
Department, Washington, D. C. July 8, 1905. Sir:
We have been advertising wireless telephones for
some time, and on several
occasions during the past year have offered to supply your department.
During the course of our recent conversation I learned that these
tenders
had not been noted. We have also on various
occasions during the
past two or three years
tendered other apparatus and it is possible that these have been
overlooked. A list is therefore subjoined of
various types
of apparatus which we
are prepared to furnish your department in lots of 25 or more:
1. Apparatus for measuring wave lengths
accurately to 1/4 per
cent.
2. Apparatus for wireless telephony up to a distance of 10 miles or
more.
3. Apparatus for wireless telegraphy for use up to distances of 1,000
miles.
4. Apparatus for secret sending, guaranteed to send and receive
messages
without possibility of their being read by other vessels not equipped
with
this apparatus.
5. Apparatus for locating the position of ships at sea at all distances
within 200 miles of shore.
6. Apparatus for indicating the position and course of ships in fog
within range of 3 miles.
7. Apparatus guaranteed to prevent interference. Respectfully,
REGINALD A. FESSENDEN.
Forty or fifty sets of type three and two of type seven were some years
later purchased, passed the tests for guarantee, and were paid for. The
use of the others was not ap- 116
proved, though operation was
guaranteed. This
letter is given in full
as the extent to which developments are held back is not generally
understood.
After 18 years some of the above are not yet in use. E.g. the method of
locating ships in fog and of preventing interference. The
transmitting had so far been done with the
continuous wave spark
generator (U. S. pat. 706,741; Nov. 5, 1901, and 706,742 and 706,743,
Aug.
12th, 1902; 730,753, Apr. 9, 1903) the method used being that of U. S.
pat. 706,747, Sept. 28, 1901. Orders had been placed for two high
frequency
alternators in 1905, at my expense and risk, but the electrical company
finally shipped them with a letter stating that in their opinion they
could
never be operated above 10,000 frequency. Discarding everything but the
pole pieces I redesigned them, operated them, first at 70,000 and then
at 100,000 cycles, designed and built a new type (which was later still
further improved and constructed in large sizes by Dr. Alex Anderson)
and
on Dec. 11th, 1906, invitations were issued to Dr. Kennelly, Elihu
Thomson,
the engineers of various telegraph and telephone companies and the
editors
of several technical papers to be present at a test at Brant Rock and
to
witness the working of wireless and wire lines in conjunction, and
broadcasting
music and speech. (See Trans. Am. Inst. E. E. July, 1908.) A report of
the demonstration will be found in the American Telephone Journal, Jan.
26th, and Feb. 2,1907. In the same month speech was first transmitted
wirelessly
across the Atlantic, to my Machrihanish station, on several occasions.
A full account of this will be found in the Scientific American for
Sept.
7, 1918. "The First Transatlantic Wireless Transmission." the power
used
being 750 watts, frequency 70,000, height of masts 450 feet; no
amplification
was used, though amplifiers giving 900 amplification were available
(see
London Electrician, July 5, 1907), as none was needed. Regular working
was established between Boston and New York (Brant Rock and Brooklyn)
and
later to Washington, D. C. In 1908, as the result of a year's in-
117
vestigation by the engineers of
the Amer. Tel. and
Tel. Co. contracts
were drawn up for the introduction of the wireless telephone system
into
the long distance field by Mr. F. P. Fish, president of that company,
but
these were disapproved by his directors, and Mr. Fish, under whose
administration
the telephone service had been brought from an unsatisfactory to a
wonderfully
efficient state, shortly afterwards resigned.
20. STILL OTHER FALSIFICATIONS-
THE WIRELESS DIRECTION
FINDER- THE EXTRACTION OF HELIUM- FUME PRECIPITATION- ULTRA-AUDIBLE
SOUND
WAVES- TURBOELECTRIC DRIVE Three
different boards have come before the public
as having invented
the wireless direction finder, but none of them had anything to do with
it or made any improvement. The history will be found in German pat.
225,256,
Jan. 14th, 1907; and in the London Electrician, Dec. 19th, 1919.
Other similar misrepresentations by boards and
councils relate to the
extraction of helium from natural gas, the method of drying wood for
aeroplanes,
the use for extracting fume dust by the charged electrostatic plate
method
used for so long in lampblack manufacture, ultra-audible sound waves,
etc. The turbo-electric drive for battleships has
been
the subject of similar
misrepresentations. It was first laid before the U. S. Navy in 1900.
Turned
down, the matter was taken up with an electric company in 1901, which
did
not approve, but later got out a design for an auxiliary drive. Taken
up
with the Navy again, it was turned down by three boards, and finally
attracted
the attention of Meyer, then assistant secretary, who, after going over
the figures, offered the use of one of the scout cruisers if I could
persuade
any electric company to take it up at its own risk. The electric
company
was approached again, but its chief engineer wrote me a letter stating
"electricity could never be used on shipboard
118
except as an auxiliary." After
some further
discussion of figures, another
conference was had, at the end of which Mr. Rice stated that he was
prepared
to go ahead; and Meyer and Rice made the turbo-electric driven
battleship
the big success it is. 21. FALSIFICATION OF
HISTORY BY BOARDS- THE
ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT THE
WRIGHT BROTHERS AS THE INVENTORS OF THE AEROPLANE- LORD NORTHCLIFFE'S
COMMENT In the propaganda to cover up their
failure to
make any developments
and to cover up the essential distinction between research work and
invention,
these boards and councils have not stopped at the attempted
appropriation
of the work of inventors, but have attempted to discredit that work. A
recent example of this is the attempt to show that Langley invented the
aeroplane, and not the Wright brothers, and that Langley's aeroplane
would
fly. The Langley machine was shipped to Hammondsport, N. Y., and on its
return was mounted in the U. S. National Museum with this inscription:
The Original Langley Flying Machine, 1903.
The first man-carrying aeroplane in the history of
the world capable
of sustained free flight. Successfully flown at Hammondsport, N. Y.,
June
2, 1914." The knowledge that this
statement was completely
false excited the indignation
of one of the members of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Mr. Griffith
Brewer,
who, at the proceedings of the Society, Oct. 20, 1921 (see Aeronautical
Journal, Dec., 1921) brought out the fact that: The
machine tested at Hammondsport
differed from the Langley
machine in the following respects: a. The wings were
of different area,
different camber and different
aspect ratio. b. The system of wing trussing, which in the
Langley machine had always
failed, was completely changed at Hammondsport.
119
c. The large keel surface of
the Langley
machine was altogether omitted. d. The original
Langley propellors were
superseded by a modern propellor,
based on knowledge not possessed by Langley. e. A
system of lateral control unknown to
Langley was added. The dihedral
angle of the wings on which Langley relied entirely for maintaining
lateral
balance was supplemented in the Hammondsport machine by the action of a
rudder of increased size used as an aileron. f.
The steering wheel, post and shoulder yoke
of a modern machine were
installed complete in the Hammondsport machine. g.
The original Langley engine of 52 h. p. was
first modified and then
superseded by a modern engine of 80-100 h. p."
Comparison of the photographs of the machine made at Hammondsport at
the
time of flying, and as it is now at the Smithsonian Institution, and
the
very frank statements of Dr. Manly (who was not present at the flying
and
was in no way responsible for the statements made) with reference to
the
change in motors, etc., substantiate completely Mr. Brewer's
statements.
Lord Northcliffe's comment was
"There have been long and persistent attempts to belittle the work
of Wilbur and Orville Wright. I have closely read and followed the
history
of the hundred years of aeroplane experiments, and am convinced that
the
credit of the first flying machine is due to the Wright brothers, and
from
the point of practical flying, to nobody else." 2. LANGLEY; MAXIM ; MANLY- THE
WRIGHT BROTHERS ORVILLE
WRIGHT 'S ACCIDENT And
Lord Northcliffe was right. I was personally
acquainted with Langley,
and he did the fundamental scientific work on the problem, for prior to
his time it was thought 120
to have been mathematically
proved that flying
could never be accomplished,
and he first showed that the inertia of the air had not been taken into
account, and experimentally demonstrated by his whirling tests that
there
was sufficient lift for flight. This work was not done at the
Smithsonian
Institution nor under its auspices, but at the Allegheny Observatory,
and
with funds provided by Mr. Thaw. It was here also that Langley, with
his
able assistant Mr. Very, did their work on radiation; and that Brashear
made the flats for Rowland; and that Keeler first measured the rotation
of Saturn rings and planned the mapping of the sun's surface by calcium
line photographs, which was later carried out by Hale. And it was here
that Wadsworth revolutionized astronomical technique by designing the
coelostat
methods so successfully carried out at Mt. Hamilton; and that the
writer
had the good fortune to discover and to measure the negative
electrostatic
charge on the sun, which Hale later confirmed by his sun spot
measurements.
(See 'Astrophysical Journal, "An Electrical Theory of Comet's Tails,"
Dec.,
1896.) All this individually and with an old yellow objective and the
scantiest
equipment conceivable, and in friendly co-operation. Langley would have
been the very last one to attempt to take away from the Wrights the
credit
for their achievement, for he knew how much was still before him.
Maxim I knew well. He was the first, at Baldwin
Park, to construct an
aeroplane which lifted from the ground, carrying a man. But he too
realized
how much was to be done, and arranged so that when it rose it caught on
an over rail. To Manley is due the credit of having demonstrated that
an
internal combustion engine could be built light enough for the purpose.
The Wrights, Hill the mathematician, the Edison
boys and myself were
all down on the North Carolina sound; the
121
Wrights at Kittyhawk with their
aeroplane; I at
Manteo, opposite, with
the wireless telephone and the pheroscope; Hill working on the moon's
inequalities;
and the Edison boys shooting. When they came to Washington Wilbur
promised
to take me up with him, but the day we drove out for the trip we found
the Army had bought the plane and the officers in charge were not
willing.
After the accident to Selfridge and Orville Miss Kate Wright said she
could
not get Orville to go to sleep; when she read to him it made him more
wakeful
as he got interested in what she was reading; had I not some book which
would make him sleep? I said that, much as I admired Pater's literary
style
I had never succeeded in reading "Marius the Epicurean," so I brought
it
over and Orville slept. I like to think of Miss Kate, reading at night
in the army hospital at Fort Meyer to Orville, while his brain relaxes
and his broken limbs slowly knit together under the soothing influence
of the precious Marius. Neither of the Wrights was ever slow in
expressing
appreciation of Langley's work; though it must be admitted that they
were
sometimes less complimentary to the score or so of people who came down
to look at what they were doing, aired their obsolete theories, and
then
went away and told others they had showed the Wrights how to build
their
flying machine. 23.
FALSIFICATION BY BOARDS A
DANGER TO CIVILIZATION BECAUSE
IT GIVES WRONG CONCEPT OF METHOD BY WHICH DEVELOPMENT IS ACCOMPLISHED
AND
SO PREVENTS DEVELOPMENT The
propaganda of the boards and councils,
considered as an attempt
to cover up their total failure of achievement by claiming results
achieved
by others, is of no importance; for after all, what does it matter who
does the work so long as it is done. Its dangerous importance lies in
the
fact that by giving a wrong impression of the way in which development
is accomplished, it prevents that development.
122
24. POSITIVE OPPOSITION OF BOARDS
TO DEVELOPMENT- THE
WIRELESS TELESCOPE, CONTINUOUS SOUNDER, AND SHORT WAVE PELORUS
And it does this not only by propaganda but
directly. E.g. In 1901 the
writer designed an apparatus for transmitting vision by wireless which
he called a "pheroscope." With this apparatus a lens is pointed at any
scene and everything which is going on is transmitted instantaneously
and
appears on a screen, magnified in diameter, at the receiving station.
It
is useful for military purposes as it enables the captain of a
battleship
to see everything that is happening in the field of vision of an
observer
in an aeroplane; and also because it enables aeroplanes to be detected
and followed by gunpointers at night and in fog. Also, as explained in
the patent specification, by using mirrors with different numbers of
faces
it cuts out all atmospheric disturbances and makes all communications
secret
and permits of the use of low masts and loops for distant signalling.
Brashear was kind enough to make the necessary
four sided mirror, and
the device was tested and worked satisfactorily. It was then dropped in
order to complete the development of the wireless telephone. After the
demonstration to Dr. Kennelly and Elihu Thomson and others in December,
1906, referred to above, of broadcasting music and speech by wireless
telephone,
a patent application was filed for broadcasting writing and pictures
and
speech and music, and one of the early forms of the pheroscope was
described
in it. (U. S. pat. 1, 105,881; Dec. 19, 1906.) A new type of light
responsive
cell was invented in 1913, in which the light falls on a hot cathode on
which a drop of sealing wax has been incinerated. (U. S. pat. 1,133,435
; Feb. 9th, 1914.) It was then dropped again till 1920, for, contrary
to
the general belief, if it is a real invention there is no danger of
anyone
anticipating it. The writer has hundreds of inventions in his
notebooks,
dating back thirty years and more, none of which have been discov-
123
ered by others; and I know that
Edison has the
same also. Even when
the general method has been published, as in U. S. pat. 1,105,881,
above,
there is little danger, for to invent requires exact knowledge of
detail
and the trouble with most people who try to invent is that they do not
know when they have got the thing they are looking for. In
1920 it was taken up again and further tests
made with the old and
with some new types of receiving cells, and it was tendered to the Navy
Department. At the same time two other devices
were tendered,
the echo sounder with
continuous depth indicator on bridge, referred to above, and a new type
of wireless direction finder, using short waves (thus overcoming
atmospheric
disturbances and the directional errors referred to in London
Electrician
paper of Dec. 19th, 1919, above referred to). The two latter were
rejected,
on the ground that the continuous depth indicator was not needed; and
that
the Navy preferred to continue to use the old direction finding method
shown in fig. 2 of the writer's pat. No. 225,256; Jan. 14th, 1907, in
spite
of the writer's warnings that it was dangerous. But
an order was placed for two sets of the
pheroscope apparatus, guaranteed
to work 500 miles. All special material was secured and arrangements
made
for manufacture, but the confirmatory order did not arrive. Finally, on
Oct. 20th,1922, the following letter was sent to the Department:
Bureau of Engineering, Navy Department,
Washington, D. C. Oct. 20th, 1922.
Fessenden Radio Telescope. Sir: This is
the apparatus for which I have your
instructions to make up
two sets for two communicating stations, same to be furnished to the
Navy
at east of manufacture, and without any charge for my time or work.
Every
effort is being made to keep the cost down, so far as is consistent
with
perfection of operation, and the estimates so far re-
124
ceived show that it can
probably be kept below
$10,000 per set; but
other estimates to come in will probably be lower, in fact it is
possible
that the cost may be halved.
I would suggest that you send me (and
as soon as
you can conveniently)
an order in the following form, virtually: Sir:
Will you please furnish the Bureau, at your earliest
convenience, two
complete sets of your Radio-Telescope; of the type disclosed in your U.
S. pat. app. No.. . . . . . . . . . Price to be in accordance with your
letter to the Bureau of Oct. 20th, 1922. Signed,
Enclosed on separate sheets, for convenience of
your files, are memoranda
in accordance with your instructions at our last interview.
Respectfully, REGINALD A. FESSENDEN.
To which the following reply was received: Prof.
Reginald A. Fessenden,
45 Waban Hill Road,
Chestnut Hill, Mass. Nov. 8th, 1922. Sir
Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of Oct. 20th, 1922, enclosing
brief outlines of a number of suggestions along various lines in which
the Navy is interested, along with power of attorney to secure copies
of
the patent applications which you have filed covering these
suggestions. The Bureau appreciates the
opportunity you have
so generously given
to investigate these works of yours, and each and every suggestion will
be carefully gone into by the various personnel of the Bureau qualified
to consider these subjects. Very Respectfully,
Signed (Bureau of Engineering.)
The character of this reply will be noted. No suggestions of any kind
had
been made; what the writer had done was to tender apparatus, guaranteed
as to performance, at cost price, 125
not to exceed a specified
amount, and with quick
delivery. No reply
is made in the letter to the request for a confirmation of the verbal
order,
though considerable expense had been incurred in getting together the
more
delicate parts, and though no apparatus tendered by the writer to the
Navy
during a period of twenty years had ever failed to pass all tests as
guaranteed. It is perhaps needless to say that
nothing further
has been heard in
regard to the matter. Some months after receipt of the above letter, a
letter was received from the company with whom arrangements to
manufacture
the apparatus had been made and who were also connected with the
Research
Council, stating that they had so much other work that they would be
unable
to make the sets up. The Navy officer who wrote
the letter was the one
who placed the original
order, but who was of course not to blame. I have learned, from another
source, that he wished to place the confirming order, but was overruled
by the Council, who having a full description of the apparatus and
copies
of the patent specifications, decided to try and make it up themselves.
The matter has been dropped in order to see how
many years it will take
the Navy Department and the Council to get out these three classes of
apparatus,
i.e. the continuous sounder with bridge depth indicator, the short wave
direction finder, and the radio telescope, or pheroscope. As the sets
would
have been furnished early in 1922, the result so far is that the public
has been deprived of the benefit of the inventions for nearly two
years. 25.
COMMENTS ON BOARDS IMPARTIAL-
NO FINANCIAL INTERESTS
INVOLVED I have gone
into this matter in some detail
because it is necessary
to do so. The Lord knows, for I believe he guides my work, that no one
dislikes controversy more than I do. Once, while attempting to gee the
submarine detecting apparatus, referred to above, tested, I said to an
acquaintance who 126
happened to be present at the
meeting of the
Submarine board: " Why
is it they are not willing to try it. It will not cost them a cent."
"Well,
you know, Fessenden, ninety-five per cent of a man's time is taken up
in
fighting things through against other men who are trying to block him."
"I know nothing of the kind; not five per cent of my time is spent that
way, if it were I should never get anything done; you men are in hell
and
do not know it." Nor am I interested in any way
financially, for up
to date I have yet
to receive the first penny for any of my patents. Once I was urged to
take
up the matter of my wireless telephone patents, as the company which
had
them had made a profit of over five hundred thousand dollars in one
year
and was in addition drawing large royalties from the Marconi company
for
the wireless telegraph applications. The verdict was for four hundred
and
six thousand dollars and forty-five per cent of the stock, but the
company
had anticipated the decision and went into a receivership before it was
given, the directors sold themselves the patents, and later disposed of
them for five million dollars; so, as the legal expenses had been heavy
I decided not to bother about such matters until the laws were amended
to give inventors better protection; and have obtained the money
necessary
for developing my inventions by work along other lines. For this reason
I can speak much more freely than if I were a financially interested
party. 26.
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS THE RESULT
OF INVENTION THE ELECTROSTATIC
DOUBLET THEORY OF MATTER, CRYSTAL LINE FORM, NATURE OF COHESION, THE
STATIC
POLE ATOM, GYROSCOPIC QUANTA, TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY INTO MATTER
The statement that inventions are derived
from
scientific work is seldom
correct, and more often the reverse is the case. See for example the
history
of the phonograph, given above; or take away from science the
inventions
listed above under Edison's name; would it not be handicapped. The
electro- 127
static doublet theory of matter
arose from one of
Edison's problems,
i.e. the manufacture of a non-inflammable rubber. It was a saying of
his
in 1886, that "the chemistry of the future is the chemistry of
colloids."
To make the new rubber it was first necessary to find why rubber was
elastic.
The generally accepted theory, held by Kelvin, Sutherland and others,
was
that the attraction was gravitational and that the elasticity was due
to
an elongated form of molecule. The change of
volume of compounds was first
investigated and found to
be explainable by the close packing of similar shaped atoms of
different
sizes, and this was found to give the crystalline shape. Elasticity was
then discovered to be a function of atomic volume, and in amount
exactly
what would be given if the atoms were electrostatic doublets, with
ionic
charges. A paper on the subject was sent to the Philosophical Magazine,
but the concept was too new, and one of the editors inquired if the
author
did not know that electrical charges could not exist inside conductors.
Fitzgerald, however, was very encouraging, and later wrote that if it
were
true it would account for the Michelson-Morley results. It was finally
published in the Electrical World for Aug. 6th and 22d,1891; in Science
for July 22d,1892, and Mar. 3d, 1893; in the Chemical News for Oct.
21st
and 28th, 1892, and Oct. 27th, 1893; and in the Physical Review for
Jan.
and March, 1900. In the Electrical World for May 6th,1893, will be
found
the first sketch and description of the modern electrical atom, shown
as
a carbon atom, with four electron negative charges at the corners of a
tetrahedron and with four positive charges in the center. The fixed
position
of the charges was later objected to, but as the result of numerous
discussions
at the Mohawk Club, Schenectady, one convert was made, Langmuir, who
has
shown that it is quite as satisfactory as the planetary, and has
greatly
extended the theory. Other developments, i.e. the gyroscopic quanta and
the method of transformation of radiation into matter are given in
Science
for April 10th, 1914, and Oct. 17th, 1913. 128
SOLUTION OF
PROBLEMS I. CROP
STABILIZATION To come
to the solution of the problems: A. Crop
Stabilization. The solution is given in U.
S. patents 1,121,722,
Oct 6th, 1906, and 1,268,949, Feb. 4th, 1918, which have been donated
to
the public, with the exception of some claims formally necessary to
permit
their issue as patents. The amount of starch
grown per acre is limited
solely by the radiation
received; we raise 10 or 15 bushels of wheat per acre, the radiation is
sufficient for more than 1,000; and some crops, e.g. cassava, give more
than 500. All the wheat now grown in the United States could be grown
on
an area approximately five miles square, if the radiation were
utilized.
In the method shown, there are no weeds, no crop diseases, no drought
or
frost; all the work is done by machinery; the plants grow much faster
and
better because of the greater amount of carbonic acid gas in the air,
obtained
from burning the straw or stubble; most of the inorganic salts are
returned
to the soil and none is lost by washing away; the growth is stimulated
by the rhythmic electrification. (This rhythmic growth has been
confirmed
by the great East Indian scientist, Bose.) It is absurd to put the food
and the employment of a nation at the mercy of the weather and insects.
Obviously the only point is comparative cost. If
an acre of ground costs
$200 and 15 bushels of wheat can be raised, on the average, then if 150
bushels can be raised the land and protecting glass will stand a charge
of $2,000 per acre. Also, because of the decreased area to be plowed,
etc.,
the absence of disease and insects, the quicker growth of the crops,
the
greater number of crops per year, the low cost of the work, etc., it
will
stand a much higher charge still. 129
My estimates show that at the
present time crops
can be raised by this
method for less than one-third the present cost, including all interest
on the additional capital, overhead, etc.
Its use should begin at points near cities and grow outward. The steel
and glass and cement needed would give a stable load for these
industries.
The idea that the new construction would need large amounts of
additional
capital is an economic fallacy; capital is only needed in cases of
economic
instability; I cannot go into this now. But if considered necessary, it
can be provided and unemployment meantime diminished by the method
suggested
some years ago, i.e. by making a minute survey, by core drills 440
yards
apart, of the entire country and issuing bonds based on the ore bodies
discovered, secured by the right to extract the ore in case of default.
Every nation should begin this work at once, and it would be a good
solution
of the intermittent unemployment problem, since money paid in doles is
forever lost and a charge on the community, while in this way the
payments
would result in large profits and the work could be carried on as
necessary.
A method of locating ore deposits by sound waves is given in U. S. pat.
1,240,328, April 9th, 1914. 2. POWER STORAGE
B. Power Storage. The solution of this is given in
U. S. patents 1,247,520,
June 7th, 1907; 1,112,441, April 4th, 1906; 1,217,165, March 8th, 1909.
These also show methods of obtaining power from solar radiation; the
wind;
and evaporation from low areas, as Death Valley, the Dead Sea, the
Caspian
Sea. In the American Electrician, May, 1898, I
showed
that "the best storage
battery was a reservoir on a hill." Five or six years later the
Westinghouse
Co., with which I was at that time connected, had some South African
contracts
and it was arranged to try out the method there. But later I
130
found that it was much less
expensive to excavate
a regular mine shaft
1,000 or 2,000 feet deep and run galleries from it, beneath some
impervious
strata, using the galleries for the lower reservoir, and a river or bay
for the upper. In cities the galleries would be
enlarged to carry
pipes, telephone
and light cables, and even light freight. The construction of these
galleries
would relieve unemployment and give an asset. As
shown in the article in the London Times for
Sept. 8, 1910, and in
the Scientific American for April 30, 1921, the first cost of a plant
of
this type is approximately 30 cents per h. p. hour of storage capacity
and the cost of storing one horse power hour for one year is
approximately
three cents. This makes it economical to store and use power from
intermittent
natural sources, such as the wind and solar radiation. The storage
plants
can also be used as "power banks"; manufacturers having more power than
they need at one time of day can deposit power through a meter which
runs
in the reverse way, and draw out when needed. It
is preferably used with the writer's system of
secondary distribution,
in which, in place of attempting to keep the terminal voltage at the
consumers'
end constant within narrow limits, necessitating immense amounts of
copper,
the voltage is allowed to fluctuate and to drop to the most economical
point, automatic regulators being used in the houses. Also, the
consumers'
load is kept constant by storing the power when not used for
illumination
or power, in porcelain or fire clay cylinders, as heat to be used as
required
for heating water or rooms. The advantages of
this system for a country like
Japan, for example,
which has much water power but very variable in amount during the year,
is obvious. It also permits of power being transmitted much longer
distances,
by placing power storage at the place where it is used; for if the
average
load factor is 33%, by transmitting 33% of the power all the time, only
one-ninth as much copper need be used in the trans-
131
mission lines, and it can be
transmitted much
further economically.
Southern Italy, for example, could be supplied with power from the
Alps. The method has been investigated by
engineers a
number of times and
always favorably. The difficulty may be illustrated by the experience
of
one of the largest cities in the United States, which seriously
considered
using it in 1910. The economies were so evident that it was regarded as
settled, till the matter was taken up with the Commission of Public
Utilities.
The Commission approved its use. They were then asked if the electric
company
would be permitted to pay larger dividends, and were informed that it
would
not. They were asked whether, if the method proved a failure, the
electric
company would be allowed to raise its price temporarily, to make up the
loss. They said that the company would not. As one of the directors of
the electric company said, "It looked to us like a case of heads we do
not win, and tails we lose. I think we should have gone in for it if it
had been our own business, but we had our stockholders to consider."
This
illustrates one of the disadvantages of over-organization, there is no
incentive to make advances. When I first went into the electric
business,
in 1886, electricity was selling for 10 cents per kw. hour, and it
sells
for the same now. In my report as Engineering Commissioner to the
Niagara
Falls Power Commission, I recommended that the Province of Ontario
should
build the transmission lines and allow anyone who wished to supply
power
to them, or take off. This method should be used in all so-called
natural
monopolies. 3.
COMMUNICATION- TELEGRAPHY ;
WIRELESS TELEPHONE; RADIO
TELESCOPE (PHEROSCOPE); SOUND WRITING LANGUAGE;
MICRO-PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK (PHOLOG)
C. Means of Communication. The solutions to
various problems in this
field are contained in some 300 patents, and may be divided into the
following: 132
1. Telegraphy. The
system finally evolved
is that described
in the Electrical World, Sept. 15th, 1894, i.e. "a multiplex system
using
sine waves, in which the operator does not make or break the circuit
with
the key, but puts in circuit a device which automatically sends out
sine
waves into the line." This was never pushed because when, in 1891, I
took
the matter up with a friend who was at the head of one of the cable
companies,
he was frank and kind enough to say, "We do not want high trafc
capacity
systems; we would not give anything for one. But if you can invent
something
which will prevent any cable from sending more than four words per
minute,
we will give you a million dollars for it." Which was of course sound
business
policy then. Since the wireless has begun to compete, the situation has
changed, and the system will be used, I understand, but the patents
expired
long ago.
A telegraph alphabet. in which the dots and dashes are both the same
length, but different frequency, was devised U. S. pat.1,170,969, Dec.
23d,1907. A large number of wireless telegraph inventions
were made, most of which
are in use, e.g. the heterodyne, continuous wave generation, the wave
chute,
the large capacity antennae, compressed air condenser, suspension
insulator,
loop antenna, direction finder, aeroplane height indicator, high
frequency
dynamo, vacuum tube producing continuous oscillations sustained by its
electric or magnetic field (U. S. app. 222,301; Aug. 26th, 1904), those
mentioned in IV; 18; etc., etc. 2. Telephony. The
wireless telephone, U. S. pat.
706; 747, Sept. 28,1901;
now in general use; and many improvements, and methods for using with
wire
lines and broadcasting. 3. The Pheroscope or
Radio Telescope. For
transmitting scenes and moving
pictures. Not yet in use as no demand at present. When it comes into
use
it will also enable 133
wireless telephony to be used
for telephonic
intercommunication in cities,
in place of present exchange system. 4. Sound
writing language. A language in which
the tracings made by
a point on a, diaphragm may be read directly by the eye, as well as
reproduced
phonographically. This will eliminate the necessity of writing by hand
or typewriter and serve as a. universal language. U. S. pat. app. no.
358,078,
Feb. 18; 1907. 5. The Micro-projection book and
moving
pictures. Made from two quartz
discs, one sixteenth inch thick and an inch and a quarter in diameter.
The book is photographed on one of them, making a platinum positive,
and
then fired. The second disc is laid over the first, under light
pressure,
and heated, when, as discovered by the engineer of one of the British
optical
companies, the two unite to form a single piece of quartz. The
photograph
is made with a reduction of about 250 times, and five or six ordinary
books
may be contained on a single disc, and illustrated in colors. It is
read
by dropping the disc in the slot of a small projector attached to the
arm
of a chair, or on a desk, and having a small daylight screen, about
twice
the size of the page. The method will be of much use for law and other
libraries, and for data collections. The pages are turned by pressing a
button, which, in the case of encyclopedias, turns the disc to the
desired
article. When it is not desired to read visually, the book may be read
audibly by a parallel phonographic record. Each disc gives fifteen
minutes
of moving pictures. Elect. World, Aug. 22; 1896. U. S. pat. app.
423,186;
Nov.10;1920. I am much indebted to Messrs. Bausch
and Lomb
for their kindness in
making up the optical parts for the recording and reproducing trains.
4. ELIMINATION OF
ANTI-CIVILIZATION EFFECTS OF OVER-ORGANIZATION
D. Elimination of anti-civilization effects
of
present 134
boards and councils. The
fundamental causes of
the ill effects are the
failure to see that research work and development work are of an
essentially
different nature; and the usurpation of, and interference with,
development
work by bodies adapted for research work. This is analogous to the fact
that most of our state and business troubles are due to usurpation of
and
interference with administrative work by that part of the organization
which should be executive only. The distinction
has been made clear; perhaps
best through demonstration
of the law connecting organizations and development, given above, i.e.
that "No organization engaged in any specific field of work ever
invents
any important development in that field; or adopts any important
development
in that field until forced to do so by outside competition."
The remedy is to keep these two functions, i.e.
research, or the obtaining
of information; and development, or invention, separate. The first is a
function of the administrative branch of the organization; the second
is
a function of the executive branch. The method of
doing this is given in detail in
the chapter on RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT. In outline it is this: The
organization of any government has three
parts, the Administrative,
the Executive, and the Judicial. The first decides what is needed, the
second does it, and the third sees that what is being done does not
conflict
with what has been done before. The departments
connected with Research, i.e.
the obtaining of facts,
should be a part of the Administration, i.e. of Congress, for it is
Congress
which should decide what is to be done. The Department of Research
should
include not only the obtaining of physical facts, but statistics, and
history
of states and business organizations, and information in regard to
employment
and interstate commerce. It should be closely in touch with Congress.
The department connected with development, i.e.
invention, should be
a part of the Executive, i.e. of the President and
135
Cabinet element. The boards of
the army and navy
should be triplicate,
Junior, Intermediate and Senior, and all inventions should pass through
all boards, the Junior and Intermediate being for the training of the
personnel
and the Senior deciding finally. The decisions of each officer in each
board should be recorded, in the same way as their service records, and
only those who have, while on the Junior and Intermediate boards,
demonstrated
that their judgment is good, should be promoted to the higher boards.
If
their judgment is not good, they should be given other details.
All inventions should be open to opposition for
one year from grant,
and after that presumed valid. All inventions
should be open to use by all
manufacturers on payment
of a royalty. One-half of this royalty should be unalienable from the
inventor,
all return to other interested parties being derived from the other
half. 5.
PERSONAL USE TAX; GRADUATED;
COLLECTED WITHOUT BOOK-KEEPING
OR TAX DEPARTMENT; NO TAXES ON PRODUCTION
For details, blank forms, etc., see chapter on TAXES. In
outline; - every tax payer elects some
savings or national bank for
his Personal Use account but does not deposit unless he wishes to.
When a man is hired the company takes his
signature in the usual way
and if he has no bank forwards one of the signatures to the bank
indicated
by the man. When the man signs his time card or pay roll he indicates
on
it how much he wishes in cash, being free to change his mind at any
time
up to pay day, when the company pays him the amount of cash indicated
and
mails the original time card to the bank where the balance,
withdrawable
at any time by cheque, is placed to his credit. In
buying cash may be paid or the purchaser may
sign his name to the
clerk's list of purchases on which the clerk has written the name of
his
bank, the store depositing the original signed list to its account
giving
the purchaser one 136
carbon as a receipt and
retaining the other for
its books. If goods
are sent C. 0. D. the original is signed when goods are received. If
charge
account the originals are not deposited until the end of the month or
time
arranged by purchaser. If goods are returned, the credit slip is
deposited.
In other words the system is exactly the same as at present except that
the purchaser does not have the trouble of writing out the cheque,
merely
signing his name, and the store-keeper is saved the trouble of sending
out accounts, etc. The bank, knowing always the
total of the
expenditure, reserves the
amount of the graduated tax and at the end of the tax year remits to
government,
Rulings for distinguishing between personal and non-personal should,
not
exceed ten lines. Payments in error are rectified by deposits from the
corporation concerned. Every time the writer
makes an improvement in
accounting experts say
it will not work. But it always does, and this will work simply and
well. From the above it will be seen
that the
main problems, i.e.
Stabilization of crop yield and of employment; Securing a
sufficient amount of power; Sufficient means of
communication; Elimination of the injurious
effects of
organization; present no insuperable
difficulty and may be accomplished when desired.
137
The archeological work
which is being carried on in Mesopotamia, in
Egypt,
and in Elam is of the utmost importance, and if the present imbecile
squabbles
about oil were dropped, some plant engineer (for the work hardly calls
for invention, the method is so obvious) detailed for a year to the
work
of producing a better and cheaper liquid fuel than petrol, and a
fraction
of one per cent of the amount saved, say ten million dollars per annum,
devoted to the archeological work, the results obtained would be
invaluable.
Even if we find the records of the parent civilization, of the Caucasus
isthmus, this will not lessen the value of the records of these later
settlements
for they form the connecting link with our own civilization. It
is however highly probable that we shall find
them, in part at least.
The city on the eyot, the capital of the Ur-al, was not destroyed by
the
Deluge. Beneath its surface were immense subterranean chambers, reputed
to be prisons, but really the prototype of the underground labyrinth at
Lake Moeris, which had 1,500 chambers and held the sepulchres and the
records
of the early Egyptian kings. (Herodotus, 2;148.) It is not probable
that
these were entirely destroyed by the Scythians, or that they were
entirely
removed to the Alizon valley by the Cabeiri, or that they have
disintegrated,
in spite of their immense age, over 9,000 years. The
openings to the chambers are of course lost
and were probably always
a secret. The chambers themselves may be re-discovered in just one way,
i.e. by core drills. One oil engine driven dynamo and a score of
electric
core drills could cross section the eyot in five or six directions in a
few months. The depth of drilling would not need to be more
138
than 150 feet, and the cores
would tell when
archeological material
was cut into; and cement could be used to stop influx of water through
the drill holes while a larger shaft was being sunk. It is probable
that
many of the records are on bronze or orichalcum, others may have been
preserved
by bitumen from the oil wells. Excavations should
also be made in Colchis, at
Sarapana and on the site
of the great temple described by Strabo, to recover the earlier
Egyptian
records. 139
Note - The
Deluged Civilization
of the Caucasus Isthmus
was published in three parts as separate volumes, with the latter two
volume
out of sequence: Chapters 1-6 were
published in 1923. Chapter 11 was published in
1927. Chapters 7-10 were published in 1933,
posthumously, by Fessenden's son
Reginald Kennelly Fessenden. Every effort has
been made to ensure accurate
transcription of the original
documents. - Donald J.
Holeman, January 7, 2001 |