The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

368
EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
mined by the fixed positions of the pivots set into the ring.
Now, if, instead of fixing the ring into a stand, or pediment,
we set it into another, larger ring, by inserting two
pivots into the larger ring at two points at right angles to
those of the inner ring, we have an axis within an axis, and
the globe can be made to rotate in either direction. If a third
ring is used, then the globe has freedom of action in any
direction whatever.
There is still the problem of imparting momentum to this
globe. Since it has no fixed axis, this is a difficult problem.
Brown solved it by suspending the device to the ceiling by
a string attached to the outermost trunnion. This string
could be wound up by rotating the outermost trunnion in
one direction by hand for a while, just as a boy may wind
up the rubber bands used to give momentum to a toy air-
plane. Then, when the trunnion is released, the string un-
winds, putting the globe itself in rapid rotation, but a free
rotation, one not confined to a fixed axis.
In view of continued skepticism, I could not be entirely
satisfied by the Maxwell statement, supported though it
might be by the demonstration. Since I am not myself a
physicist, I felt it not unlikely that some persons would conclude
that, in the first
place, I had misunderstood Maxwell,
and that, in the second place, I was incapable of interpreting
correctly the evidence of my eyes. I therefore wished to obtain
an authoritative interpretation of Maxwell's statement,
and, accordingly, I wrote Dr. Harlow Shapley,
of the Harvard Observatory, as follows:
the Director
After a year of intensive work with a group of people here, I have
concluded that the work we are doing is dependent upon a clear
answer to the question as to whether the geographical poles are stabi-
lized by the momentum of rotation of the earth, or solely by that of
the equatorial bulge. I have had discussions about this with Dr.
Adams of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and with Dr. Clemence of
the Naval Observatory. They have given me references to the work
of Clerk Maxwell and others, without quite satisfying me. I am not,
of course, equipped to understand all of the technicalities, but I am