Tolstoi Theory

The International Date Line runs down the 180th parallel of longitude from the North Pole almost to Wrangel Island, then slants east to pass through Bering Strait, slants west again to Long. 180DEG again and on down to the South Pole.

Crossing this line from east to west, travelers "skip a day." Should they cross at dinner time, for example, they would find themselves supping their soup on Sunday, sipping their coffee on Monday. Crossing from west to east is equally strange. If, on a Monday, the traveler regrets not having said his Sunday prayers the day before, he will have a chance to make amends. The same Sunday will return to him, holy as ever.

To some travelers the International Date Line is disconcerting, but not to Count Leo N. Tolstoi, philosopher, sculptor, playwright, political scientist, third son and namesake of the late Russian novelist. Crossing the Date Line eastward in 1917, he fell to thinking about the phenomenon. He noticed that it had made him feel blithe of spirit, hopeful. When he reached Chicago, he wrote in his notebook: "I have made a greater discovery than any man now living--perhaps it is the greatest discovery of all time!"

It was scarcely a "discovery" in any scientific sense. But it was a theory of much originality. Briefly, the theory was this: that traveling in the direction of the earth's rotation, i.e. eastward, is salubrious; and conversely, westward travel is depressing. Count Tolstoi secured many a traveler's testimonial to bear out his generalization.

Last week in Manhattan, Count Tolstoi talked about his theory for publication. "I am no fool," he said. "I have thought about this thing with all the wisdom I have accumulated, and the more I think of it the more I am convinced of its truth. I have discussed it with scientists and writers; some of them I have convinced. My friend Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer, was impressed with what I told him.

"It is the effect of the centrifugal force of the earth acting upon the human system.

"When one goes from west to east one is lifted by the action of the earth itself. When he travels from east to west the very action of the earth pulls him down, depresses him. And--here is a bold, statement--I do not believe that Newton was right in describing the force which pulls us down as gravitation. I believe it is nothing but the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the earth. If we could travel fast enough from west to east we would be able to overcome that pull.

"Count Tolstoi's enthusiasm even led him to predict that airplane flights from west to east would be more successful, as in the recent past, than east-west flights. He recommended great west-east pilgrimages to improve the health and general well-being of all mankind.

"But speed, speed!" he said. "That is the key which shall unlock all the knowledge to us."to as he sped off to a conclusion which left science far behind.

He supposed the case of an aviator able to fly at a speed equal to Earth's rotation (roughly, 1,000 m.p.h. midway between Poles and Equator). If the flyer flew against the rotation of the earth, from east to west, he would keep pace with the sun, remaining constantly at the o'clock when he started. Going the other way, eastward, he would pass a whole day in 12 hours.

Of the westward flyers, Count Tolstoi said: "Time would stand still for him"

Of the eastward flyers, he said: "His life would be doubly fast. In one day he would have lived two."

Here Science stumbled in its effort to keep pace with Count Tolstoi. For Science regards seconds, minutes and hours merely as handy divisions of the time it takes the Earth to revolve once on its axis. Addition or subtraction of these man-invented units would not alter the absolute duration or "speed" of a nian's life any more than would visiting the North Pole, where Earth's rotation speed approaches zero m.p.h.

But Count Tolstoi pressed on. He believes that the stars affect mankind. Upon his westward-flying man, he pointed out, the influence of whatever stars he started under would remain unchanged. The eastward-flying man would undergo changing astral influence with doubled rapidity. And he would be lifted away from the Earth by going with the rotation.

Given speeds of 100 or 1,000 miles per minute, man could, thought Theorist Tolstoi, entirely overcome the effect of Earth's rotation, leave Earth and journey "to the Celestial East, which is some point in the universe from which the ions of which we are composed originally came. When we reach that point and discover the source of life we shall have captured the secret of immortality!"