Flat Earth Society

The modern incarnation of the Flat Earth Society is a website and forum founded in 2004 by Daniel Shenton and currently operated by John Davis.

History
The Society has its stated roots in the work of Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816-1884), an English inventor and proponent of Zeteticism. Rowbotham became convinced of the flatness of the Earth after performing the Bedford Level experiment, and gained prominence under the pseudonym Parallax for publishing a pamphlet and later novel that went over a model, titled Zetetic Astronomy. for a flat Earth.

After his death, the Universal Zetetic Society was founded in his honour. This went on to inspire a number of other flat earthers on into the 1900s, such as William Carpenter, WIlbur Glenn Voliva and Samuel Shenton, founder of the original International Flat Earth Research Society.

The modern Flat Earth Society is not a direct descendant of any previous organisation but rather claims to take inspiration from many, including containing a sizable library of flat Earth reference materials.

New membership was opened in 2009, and it claims musician Thomas Dolby as its first member.

Controversy
In 2013, a number of prominent users of the forum broke away to form their own site under the banner 'TFES.' They still share much in the way of theories with the original site and their differences are personal rather than scientific.

The Flat Earth Society is strongly associated with Leo Ferrari who founded a Canadian society of the same name in 1970 for the purposes of parody. The satirical claims of Ferrari are still featured prominently. Many view the site as perpetuating disinformation mixed in with science.

Associated Models
Universal Acceleration

Infinite Plane