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Cataclysms of the Earth
By Hugh Auchincloss Brown
Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number 67-16199
Presentation
Even if you loved The
HAB Theory, by Allan W. Eckert, these pages may still be
tough reading. The fictional character Herbert Alan Boardman
(HAB) and the theory in Eckert’s book, is based
on Hugh Auchincloss Brown and the theory presented in this
book.
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Hugh
Auchincloss Brown holds the "Doomday Toy," illustrating his
theory of the shift in the earth’s axis,
which is precipitated by the interaction of a polar ice-cap
with the force of gravity. |
Allan W. Eckert told me that he wrote The HAB Theory,
to use his novel as a vehicle to bring public awareness to
the prospect of an impending catastrophe as envisioned by Brown.
Eckert also wanted to point out the scientific self-defeatism
of intense specialization in various scientific fields, a point also
made in this book by Brown.
Both Eckert and Brown have grave concerns that
scientific tunnel vision, while good for one’s career, can also be
rather dangerous. If an individual scientist’s specific field
consumes all of his or her attention, he or she may not weigh it
well enough in its relationship to other fields of scientific
endeavor. They are concerned that very few scientists seem to grasp
any larger pictures.
In a world crowded with crackpot ideas and theories; you might be
tempted to stop reading the first time Brown’s statements
conflict with your current understanding of Physics, Geology,
Paleontology, or other physical sciences. Please don’t stop
there, try to finish reading it, even if you have to skim. Say you
don’t accept half of the ideas Brown presents, that leaves a
big batch of serious questions that may continue to tantalize you .
Hugh Auchincloss Brown had a long and distinguished career as
an engineer, inventor and businessman. He spent most of his
life searching for scientific evidence that would prove this theory
wrong. Everything he found reinforced it.
His writing style is from another time, and probably wasn’t all that
good even then. He tends to write his opinions as statements of
fact, rather than the more correct form of stating his conclusions
as opinions. Perhaps you can forgive an old man those transgressions
of writing style, by remembering that he did believe that everything
he wrote was fact.
Hugh Auchincloss Brown was 91 when this book was published.
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