Good evening, and thank you for joining me for another boring books for bedtime.

I hope tonight's selection provides all the boredom your busy brain needs to quiet down and let you get some sleep.

So find a comfortable spot.

Adjust your volume.

Take a nice deep breath in.

Let it out slowly.

And off we go.

Tonight, let's relax with more from one of the most unusual books read on this podcast.

We're reading Sims' theory of concentric spheres,

demonstrating that the earth is hollow, habitable within,

and widely open about the poles.

By a citizen of the United States.

First published in 1826 by Morgan Lodge and Fisher of Cincinnati.

Let's pick up right where we left off toward the end of Chapter 6.

Let's begin.

The fluid or gas which fills the mid-plane and intermediate cavities, is most probably the same,

or partaking of the same nature, though perhaps in a pure state, with that which oozes out of fissures in the earth at the bottom of

deep mines, called by chemists hydrocarbonate, which being highly inflammable, takes fire from

the lamps used by workmen, and explodes with such violence as to destroy both men and horses employed in the mine.

This is a frequent occurrence in the deep coal mines of England, and great numbers annually have lost

their lives in this way before the introduction of Sir Humphrey Davies' lamp.

I am also informed from good authority that the miners, in some of the deep coal mines in England,

...