author
Parallax
1816–1884
An English writer and lecturer best known for publishing under the pseudonym “Parallax,” he turned his observations and arguments about the shape of the Earth into one of the 19th century’s most notorious works of fringe science. His writing helped give lasting form to ideas that would echo far beyond his own time.
1 Audiobook
Zetetic astronomy: Earth not a globe!
by Parallax
About the author
Born in 1816, Samuel Birley Rowbotham wrote as Parallax and is chiefly remembered for Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe. He was described in reference sources as an English inventor, writer, and utopian socialist, and his work first appeared as a short pamphlet in 1849 before being expanded into a longer book in the 1860s.
Rowbotham built his reputation through lectures and experiments, especially observations connected with the Bedford Level, which he took as evidence for his flat-Earth views. Whatever readers make of those claims today, his books are a vivid example of how bold certainty, showmanship, and self-styled investigation could attract an audience in Victorian Britain.
He died on December 23, 1884, in London. No suitable verified portrait image could be confirmed from the sources checked during this conversation, so a profile image is not included.