spinner 2

Morgan (1982) correctly argues that this is not the first time scientists have encountered the phenomena known as ‘spinning’. In the 1870s, geologist Matthew Cook described a strange, wavy pattern of erosion that characterized the rocky coastline of Lake Pemberton, Maine. After a survey of other bodies of water in the area, he concluded that the only way this pattern could have been formed was if the lake itself had been subject to some external force, one that centered around the middle of the waters and swung the entire site into its own circular orbit. Seventy years later, whilst studying in the arid regions of the Andes mountains, archaeologist William Flemings would observe a similar natural quandary: one mountain top appeared to have been severed some four hundred feet from the peak, rotated exactly 200 degrees, and then replaced. The marks left at the severance line were so clean Flemings could distinguish individual rock formations that had been spliced, the top half turned steadily along to jut unnaturally from the hillside. While Morgan has achieved some success in tracking these ‘spins’ through our known scientific history, he fails to complete a workable hypothesis regarding the origin of these spinning sources, or indeed, plausible evidence that they were caused by the same. The briefs of his later work indicate that his last theory involved sudden shifts in the electric gradient of lightning strikes, through which a powerful charge might incite a surge of physical momentum, but his notes on the matter were never reproduced, and his will dictated that any unpublished writings were to be burned along with his body. At the time of his death it is reported he had just arrived home from a sojourn spent observing spiral decay patterns in the moors of northern Scotland.

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15 Feb This entry was published on February 15, 2017 at 12:31 am. It’s filed under Fiction, Responses, uneasy world carnival and tagged image by ed fairburn, response, todd. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.