Hugh Auchincloss Brown (23 December 1879 – 19 November 1975) was an electrical engineer who advanced a theory of catastrophic pole shift. Brown claimed that massive accumulation of ice at the poles caused recurring tipping of the axis in cycles of approximately 4000–7500 years. He argued that because the earth wobbles on the axis and the crust slides on the mantle, a shift was demonstrably imminent, and suggested the use of nuclear explosions to break up the ice to forestall catastrophe.[1]
Brown graduated from Columbia University in 1900.[1][2] He is a grandson of the Scottish American merchant Hugh Auchincloss (1780–1855), who founded a mercantile company which became known as J & H Auchincloss, or Auchincloss Brothers.[3][4][5] Through his mother, Matilda Auchincloss (1824–1894), Brown was a cousin of businessman Hugh D. Auchincloss Sr. and first cousin once removed of stockbroker and Standard Oil heir Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr., stepfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill.[4][6] Through his father, Horatio Silas Brown, he was descended from John Howland, a signatory of the Mayflower Compact, and Elizabeth Tilley, a fellow Mayflower passenger.[7]
Works
edit- Popular awakening concerning the impending flood (privately printed 1948)
- Cataclysms of the Earth (1967)
References
edit- ^ a b Krebs, Albin (November 11, 1975). "Hugh Brown, Who Cited Peril From Polar Ice Cap, Dies at 96". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ University, Columbia (1900). Officers and Graduates of Columbia College, Originally the College of the Province of New York Known as King's College: General Catalogue 1754-1900. University.
- ^ "Hugh Auchincloss (1780-1855) - HouseHistree". househistree.com. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ a b Auchincloss, Joanna Russell (1957). John and Elizabeth (Buck) Auchincloss : their descendants and their ancestry. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Freeport, Me. : Dingley Press, 1957.
- ^ Kim, Dong-Woon (1998). "The British Multinational Enterprise in the United States before 1914: The Case of J. & P. Coats". The Business History Review. 72 (4): 523–551. doi:10.2307/3116621. ISSN 0007-6805. JSTOR 3116621. S2CID 154557902.
- ^ MacBean, William Munro (1922). Biographical Register of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York ... Society.
- ^ Nelson, William (1902). The New Jersey Coast in Three Centuries: History of the New Jersey Coast with Genealogical and Historic-biographical Appendix. Lewis Publishing Company.
External links
edit- "Can the Earth Capsize?" Time 13 September 1948
- Robert Plumb (August 30, 1948). "Engineer Says Vast Polar Ice Cap Could Tip Earth Over at Any Time". The New York Times. p. 19.
- "Economist Disputes Theory That Polar Ice Cap Perils Earth". The New York Times. August 31, 1948.
- "Antarctic Doomsday, An Editorial". The New York Times. September 1, 1948.
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