29. “I Declare the Earth is Hollow“
As its name indicates, Hollow Earth was a weird theory which argued that our planet was not a solid rock, but more like a ball. Inside the ball was concentric layers separated by empty spaces, that were probably inhabited by people. John Quincy Adams not only believed in that balderdash but actually wanted to prove it at the taxpayers’ expense.
A charlatan named John Cleves Symnes, Jr. was responsible for kicking off the Hollow Earth craze. A veteran of the War of 1812, Symmes moved to the frontier after the war. There, he reinvented himself as a scientist and became known as the “Newton of the West”. In 1818 the Newton of the West published Symmes Circular No. 1: “I declare the earth is hollow, and habitable within; containing a number of solid concentrick spheres, one within the other, and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees; I pledge my life in support of this truth, and am ready to explore the hollow, if the world will support and aid me in the undertaking“.
