Bernhard (Ben) Tepper was one of the early students at Concordia College, Murtoa. He was born at Dimboola in 1878 and first worked as a farmer and a carpenter. His initial plan was to study theology and train for the mission field until he realised that the need for teachers was far greater. He went on to excel in his studies, gaining very good reports.

His Geography workbook (one of the treasures in our archives), is filled with flowing copperplate handwriting, and on one page he outlined several proofs that the earth is round. These explanations probably seem very quaint to students of today.

Perhaps a more concrete and convincing experimental example, this time of the earth’s rotation, can be seen in a Foucault Pendulum just inside the entrance of Concordia’s Nautilus Centre. First demonstrated in the 1850s, wherever it is placed the pendulum swings from a motionless point while the earth rotates beneath it.