Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
375
The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
162
London
Times,
Dec.
24,
1851:
That
Hiram
De
Witt,
of
Springfield,
Mass.,
returning
from
California,
had
brought
with
him
a
piece
of
auriferous
quartz
about
the
size
of
a
man's
fist.
It
was
accidentally
dropped--split
open--nail
in
it.
There
was
a
cut-iron
nail,
size
of
a
six-penny
nail,
slightly
corroded.
"It
was
entirely
straight
and
had
a
perfect
head."
Or--California--ages
ago,
when
auriferous
quartz
was
forming--super-carpenter,
million
of
miles
or
so
up
in
the
air--drops
a
nail.
To
one
not
an
intermediatist,
it
would
seem
incredible
that
this
datum,
not
only
of
the
damned,
but
of
the
lowest
of
the
damned,
or
of
the
journalistic
caste
of
the
accursed,
could
merge
away
with
something
else
damned
only
by
disregard,
and
backed
by
what
is
called
"highest
scientific
authority"--
Communication
by
Sir
David
Brewster
(Rept.
Brit.
Assoc.,
1845-51):
That
a
nail
had
been
found
in
a
block
of
stone
from
Kingoodie
Quarry,
North
Britain.
The
block
in
which
the
nail
was
found
was
nine
inches
thick,
but
as
to
what
part
of
the
quarry
it
had
come
from,
there
is
no
evidence--except
that
it
could
not
have
been
from
the
surface.
The
quarry
had
been
worked
about
twenty
years.
It
consisted
of
alternate
layers
of
hard
stone
and
a
substance
called
"till."
The
point
of
the
nail,
quite
eaten
with
rust,
projected
into
some
"till,"
upon
the
surface
of
the
block
of
stone.
The
rest
of
the
nail
lay
upon
the
surface
of
the
stone
to
within
an
inch
of
the
head--that
inch
of
it
was
embedded
in
the
stone.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
