Halley's Hollow-Shell Model (1692)
reference
The astronomer famous for Halley's Comet once argued the Earth was hollow with spinning shells inside.
Who they are
Edmond Halley's 1692 hollow-Earth model, presented to the Royal Society.
What they do
The engine catalogs it as the scientific starting point that later hollow-Earth myths grew out of.
How it works
Halley proposed a roughly 500-mile-thick outer shell plus inner concentric shells and a core, each separated by atmospheres and each with its own magnetic poles turning at slightly different speeds, to explain why compass readings drift over time.
Why it matters
It matters as the real scientific origin of the later fictional hollow-Earth myth, though the engine marks the idea itself as flatly disproven since a 500-mile shell would collapse under its own pressure.
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #115 — Inner-World] [web-checked Jun 18 2026] Edmond Halley's 1692 Royal Society model (read 1691, printed in Phil. Trans. 1692): an ~500-mile outer shell plus inner concentric shells + core, each separated by atmospheres and EACH WITH ITS OWN MAGNETIC POLES rotating at slightly different rates — proposed to explain anomalous compass declination (secular variation). The scientific origin-point the later literary myth descends from. DISPOSITION: literal-falsified (a 500-mile shell collapses under hydrostatic compression).
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