THE UFO CHRONICLES

Monday, March 21, 2005

Airships-The Beginning-1896

The San Francisco Call
11-22-1896

San Francisco- The Mysterious Flying Light That Hovered Over St. Mary's College, Oakland, and Then Started for San Francisco; It Is Exactly Like That Described By Sacramentans, and Similar to the Cut Published a Few Days Ago in "The Call" a Description Furnished by The One Who Saw It.

The Air Ship of 1896 (Part One)
By Frank Warren
3-19-02

On November 17th 1896 the Sacramento Evening Bee reported that a man named Leon was building a "flying machine" in Hoboken N.J., and he had told his friends he would cross the continent in two days. In fact, his friends accepted invitations to join him on this adventurous trip, with his new futuristic flying machine. Although Leon was very hush-mouthed about his project, one of his associates claimed that he already perfected the machine and it had risen to a height of two hundred feet in Chicago.

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5 Comments:

Paul Kimball said...: Frank:

The "cotton in the air" explanation for the Farmington armada is another example of silly explanations.

See - we can agree on something!

:-)

Paul Kimball
www.redstarfilms.blogspot.com; 7:17 PM
Avinash Machado said...: Hi Frank

Could this guy named Leon have been the pilot of the Airship that crashed in Aurora? For some reasons of their own the townsfolk might have claimed the pilot was a Martian even though it was an human body they found in the wreckage.; 4:57 AM
Frank Warren said...: Mornin' Avinash,

The only common denominator between the two events is the term "airship," beyond that, nothing else fits.

Moreover, although some have speculated that the whole story was concocted for "tourism"; airships, were' not common at that time, and were "cutting edge technology"--the point being is that no one need embellish a story about a "crashed 'Martian' airship (UFO)," the excitement and or curiosity would have just as great for one of ours.

Cheers,
Frank; 7:03 AM
Avinash Machado said...: Yes that makes sense. An Airship would just have been just as noteworthy in 1897. Regarding the flap of 1896=97 itself, what is your opinion? Do you think it might have resulted from test flights of experimental airships or dirigibles? Or do you feel it was just a hoax or even ET visitors?; 7:29 AM
Frank Warren said...: Mornin' Avinash,

The answer to your question (for the most part) is, "all of the above."

Contrary to popular belief, experimentation with "airships," i.e., powered contrivances had been taking place for decades, e.g., the Marriot Avitor Hermes was tested (by tether) in 1869; patents for various airships assemblage, can be found much earlier then that; to that end, it would be no surprise that some of the sightings were in fact of said, "experimental craft."

Nevertheless, the "airship phenomenon" of 1896-97 was an "international" occurrence, and by no means can all of the sightings be attributed to the activities of talented inventors of the day.

It has been proven that there were indeed "hoaxes" in some instances, and I don't doubt that "airship fever" can explain some of the sightings as well; however, as is the case with the bulk of UFO sightings in general . . . a small percentage defy "conventional explanation" . . . in my view, this holds true for these incidents as well.

Accordingly, it is safe to say IMHO that some of these sightings were indeed UFOs; however, to say with authority, that they were of an "extraterrestrial origin," methinks there isn't enough data (at present) to make that claim in that manner.

Cheers,
Frank; 9:02 AM