Surface of Water is Always Flat

“The surface of all water, when not agitated by natural causes, such as winds, tides, earthquakes etc. is perfectly level. The sense of sight proves this to every unprejudiced and reasonable mind. Can any so-called scientist, who teaches that the earth is a whirling globe, take a heap of liquid water, whirl it round, and so make rotundity? He cannot. Therefore it is utterly impossible to prove that an ocean is a whirling rotund section of a globular earth, rushing through ‘space’ at the lying-given-rate of false philosophers.” -William Thomas Wiseman, “The Earth An Irregular Plane”

“Is water level, or is it not?’ was a question once asked of an astronomer. ‘Practically, yes; theoretically, no,’ was the reply. Now, when theory does not harmonize with practice, the best thing to do is to drop the theory. (It is getting too late, now to say ‘So much the worse for the facts!’) To drop the theory which supposes a curved surface to standing water is to acknowledge the facts. Whenever experiments have been tried on the surface of standing water, the surface has always been found to be level. If the Earth were a globe, the surface of all standing water would be convex. This is an experimental proof that Earth is not a globe.” -William Carpenter, “100 Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe”

“Since any given body of water must have a level surface, no one part higher than another, and seeing that all our oceans (a few inland seas excepted) are connected together, it follows that they are all VIRTUALLY OF THE SAME LEVEL.” -The English Mechanic, 26th, June 1896

“If the Earth were a globe, rolling and dashing through ‘space’ at the rate of ‘a hundred miles in five seconds of time,’ the waters of seas and oceans could not, by any known law, be kept on its surface - the assertion that they could be retained under these circumstances being an outrage upon human understanding and credulity! But as the Earth - that is, the habitable world of dry land - is found to be ‘standing out of the water and in the water’ of the ‘mighty deep,’ whose circumferential boundary is ice, we may throw the statement back into the teeth of those who make it and flaunt before their faces the flag of reason and common sense, inscribed with a proof that the Earth is not a globe.” -William Carpenter, “100 Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe” (86)

“Rivers run DOWN to the sea because of the inclination of their beds. Rising at an altitude above sea-level, in some cases thousands of feet above the sea, they follow the easiest route to their level - the sea. The ‘Parana’ and ‘Paraguay’ in South America are navigable for over 2,000 miles, and their waters run the same way until they find their level of stability, where the sea tides begin. But if the world be a globe, the ‘Amazon’ in South America that flows always in an easterly direction, would sometimes be running uphill and sometimes down, according to the movement of the globe. Then the ‘Congo’ in West Africa, that always pursues a westerly course to the sea, would in the same manner be running alternately up and down. When that point of the globe exactly between them was up, they would both be running up, although in opposite directions; and when the globe took half a turn, they would both be running down! We know from practical experiment that water will find its level, and cannot by any possibility remain other than level, or flat, or horizontal - whatever term may be used to express the idea. It is therefore quite out of the range of possibility that rivers could do as they would have to do on a globe.” -Thomas Winship, “Zetetic Cosmogeny” (110)

“There are rivers which flow east, west, north, and south - that is, rivers are flowing in all directions over the Earth's surface, and at the same time. Now, if the Earth were a globe, some of these rivers would be flowing up-hill and others down, taking it for a fact that there really is an ‘up’ and a ‘down’ in nature, whatever form she assumes. But, since rivers do not flow up-hill, and the globular theory requires that they should, it is a proof that the Earth is not a globe.” -William Carpenter, “100 Proofs the Earth is Not a Globe” (85)