author
Parallax
1816–1884
Best known for writing under the name “Parallax,” this 19th-century English writer became a central early voice in flat-Earth thought. His most famous work, Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe, grew from a short pamphlet into a much larger book.
1 Audiobook
About the author
An English inventor and writer, Samuel Birley Rowbotham published under the pseudonym “Parallax.” He is chiefly remembered for Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe, a work in which he argued for a flat, stationary Earth and promoted what he called a zetetic method based on direct observation.
Rowbotham first issued these ideas in a short pamphlet in 1849, then expanded them into later book-length versions. Whatever readers make of his claims today, his writing had a lasting influence on the history of flat-Earth belief and on later movements that drew on his arguments.
Reliable sources located for this overview did not provide a clear portrait photograph of him, so no profile image is included.