SUBJECT: AERO CLUB IN THE MID 1850's FILE: UFO2869
PART 2
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November 8, 1991
AERO2.ASC
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from Fate, June 1973
Mystery Airships of the 1800's (Part 2 of 3)
By Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman
The existence of the craft is beyond doubt, but what powered them?
Who were the members of the secret "Aero Club"?
"The airship as a practical invention is believed to be so nearly
ripe that a story of its appearance in the sky is not necessarily to
be received with disrespect," _Harper's Weekly_ commented in its
April 24, 1897, issue...not unless you assumed that thousands of
Americans had lost their senses, a discomforting notion which some
scientists, editors and skeptics seemed to embrace.
Prof. George Hough, a Northwestern University astronomer, assured
everyone that the "airship" was nothing but the star Alpha Orionis
as perceived by drunks, fools and hysterics. Most newspapers
ridiculed reports of the airship, finally desisting only for fear of
offending the growing numbers of readers who had seen the craft.
California's airship, reported in November 1896, was the first to
receive widespread publicity but that same month an unidentified
flying object passed through central Nebraska and sightings in the
state continued until the following May. Delaware farmers saw
airships as early as January 1897.
It took a sighting in Omaha involving hundreds of witnesses to put
the airships back in the headlines, however. The low-flying object,
Page 1
a large bright light, "too big for a balloon," appeared on the night
of March 29, 1897, and was visible for more than half an hour.
From then on America's skies were filled with airships. The reports
came primarily from midwestern states and descriptions of the ships
varied -- as these random examples show:
Everest, Kans., April 1 (_Kansas City Times_): "The basket or
car seemed to be 25 to 30 feet long, shaped like an Indian
canoe. Four light wings extended from the car; two wings were
triangular. A large dark hulk was discernible immediately above
the car and was generally supposed by the watchers to be an
inflated gasbag."
Chicago, April 11 (_Chicago Times-Herald_): "The lower portions
of the airship were thin and made of some light white metal like
aluminum. The upper portion was dark and long like a big cigar,
pointed in front and with some kind of arrangement in the rear
to which cables are attached."
Texas, April 16 (_New York Sun_): "...shaped like a Mexican
cigar, large in the middle and small at both ends, with great
wings resembling those of an enormous butterfly. It was
brilliantly illuminated by the rays of two great searchlights
and was sailing in a southeasterly direction with the velocity
of wind, presenting a magnificent appearance."
Numerous persons reported seeing normal-looking men and women inside
the ships. One of the most interesting "occupant" reports came from
M. G. Sisson, postmaster at Greenfield, Ill.
On the afternoon of April 19, 1897, while walking his dog through
the woods he spotted an airship 150 feet above him -- a phenomenon
he found less unsettling than the sight of a woman standing on a
deck on the bow of the craft netting pigeons. When she saw Sisson
she quickly stepped inside and the craft flew off.
Later that day Thomas Bradburg of Hagaman, about nine miles east of
Greenfield, found part of a letter supposedly dropped from the
airship. On a printed letterhead of "Airship Co., Oakland Calif.,"
it read:
"We are having a delightful time and plenty to eat. Mollie's
scheme for running down birds and catching them with a net
works excellently; we feast daily upon pigeon pie.
"Since starting out we have greatly increased the velocity of
the ship. The following figures will give some idea of the
speed which we are now able to make: St. Louis, April 15, 8:30
P.M.; Chicago, same evening, 9:33; Kansas City, one hour and 40
minutes later."
Purportedly many such "messages" were released from airships and no
doubt the majority were hoaxes. We mention the letter found by
Bradburg because of its possible tie-in with Sisson's experience
(whether Bradburg had heard Sisson's story before he "found" the
letter is unanswerable) and because "Oakland, Calif." on the
letterhead takes us back to the controversies of November 1896 as to
the inventor's place of residence discussed in Part I of this
article.
Page 2
The events of 1896, incredible as they were, are relatively
uncomplicated compared to what happened in 1897. California's
controversy concerned only one alleged inventor, the mysterious "E.
H. Benjamin," but April 1897 produced an onslaught of conflicting
claims involving a host of people -- stories which made it obvious
that someone was lying. Sometimes it was the "witnesses," sometimes
the newspapers and sometimes it may have been the airship occupants
themselves.
Let us examine several "contact" claims of this period:
Springfield, Ill., April 15: Farmhands Adolph Winkle and John
Hulle allegedly saw an airship land two miles outside the city
and talked with its occupants, two men and a woman, who said
they would "make a report to the government when Cuba* is
declared free."
* [As we pointed out last month this period (1895-1897)
spawned the Spanish-American War over the issue of Cuban
independence.]
Harrisburg, Ark., April 21: At 1:00 A. M. a strange noise
awakened a man identified as ex-Senator Harris and through his
bedroom window he saw an airship descending to the ground. The
occupants, two young men, a woman and an elderly man with a dark
waist-length beard, got out and helped themselves to a supply of
fresh well water.
Overcome by curiosity, Harris went outside and engaged the old
man in a long conversation, during which the latter claimed he
had inherited the secret of antigravity from his late uncle.
"Weight is no object to me," he said. "I suspend all gravity by
placing a small wire around an object.
"I was making preparations to go over to Cuba and kill off the
Spanish army if hostilities had not ceased," he went on, "but
now my plans are changed and I may go to the aid of the
Armenians." He would accomplish all this with a gun which would
fire, he said "63,000 times per minute."
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Vangard notes...
For those who have taken the time to study the work of John
Worrell Keely (Patron of KeelyNet), one can see a definite tie-
in with both of these amazing statements. We will not go into
detail beyond the reference, since the information is freely
available from the Keely section of this board.
The true seeker will STUDY and find out for himself. Keely died
in 1898, a documented fact while the mention of this mysterious
late uncle was given in 1897, one year after Keely's death.
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After offering Harris a ride, which the ex-senator refused, the
crew reentered their craft and disappeared into the night.
Stephensville, Tex., late April: Alerted by "prominent farmer"
C. L. McIllhaney that an airship had alighted in a field on his
Page 3
farm three miles from town, a large delegation of
Stephensville's leading citizens (our source lists all their
names) set out to see for themselves.
They found a 60-foot cigar-shaped craft and its two occupants,
who gave their names as S. E. Tillman and A. E. Dolbear. The
pair explained that they were making an experimental trip to
test the ship for certain New York financiers. Turning down
requests from onlookers who wanted to examine the craft, the
aeronauts boarded the machine and sailed off.
Conroe, Tex. April 22-23: Around midnight four men, one of them
hotel proprietor G. L. Witherspoon, were playing dominoes in the
hotel restaurant when three strangers entered. They said they
had landed their airship not far away and come into town for
supper "by way of a change," then went on to report they had
flown from San Francisco en route to Cuba.
Witherspoon and his friends declined an offer to examine the
ship, suspecting they were the victims of a practical joke. But
about an hour later, after the visitors had left, a brilliantly
lighted airship passed over Conroe.
Chattanooga, Tenn., late April: Several Chattanooga citizens
reportedly encountered a landed airship "in the exact shape of a
shad, (a type of fish) minus head and tail," resting on a
mountainside near the city. Its two occupants were at work
repairing it. One, who identified himself as Prof. Charles
Davidson, said they had left Sacramento a month before and had
spent the intervening time touring the country.
Jenny Lind, Ark., May 4: At 7:30 P. M. an airship passed over
town. Three men leaped on their bicycles and pursued it until
it landed near a spring next to a mountain. Its pilots, who
introduced themselves as George Autzerlitz and Joseph Eddleman,
talked with the three for a while, saying they subsisted on
birds which they would overtake and capture in flight. Before
leaving the aeronauts offered any one of them a free ride and
ended up taking James Davis to Huntington, 15 miles away.
This story appeared in the _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_ in the form
of a letter from two Jenny Lind residents, who urged the paper
to contact R. M. McDowell, general manager of the Western Coal
and Mining Company in St. Louis. McDowell told the _Post-
Dispatch_, "Yes, I know all those persons. I have extensive
works at Jenny Lind. I don't understand the letter, though. It
is very strange."
Hot Springs, Ark., May 6: John L. Sumpter, Jr., and John
McLemore, police officers, testified in an affidavit that they
had seen a 60-foot airship land that dark, rainy night. There
were three occupants, a young man and woman and an older man
with a long dark beard.
The latter approached the lawmen carrying a lantern while the
young man filled a large sack with water and the woman stayed in
the shadows, apparently hoping to remain unobserved. The old
man said they would stop off at Nashville after traveling the
country. The officers turned down an offer for a ride and then
Page 4
left on other business. When they returned 40 minutes later the
ship was gone.
The _Fort Smith Daily News Record_ noted that while Sumpter and
McLemore were subjected to a great deal of ridicule "they,
however, most seriously maintain that it is absolutely true, and
their earnestness is puzzling many, who, while unable to accept
the story as a fact, yet see that the men are not jesting."
Are these stories to be taken seriously? If they are hoaxes, at
least they are not so obvious as many of the tales that
circulated during the three months of the 1897 airship scare.
And the incidents detailed above have a certain consistency.
Three of them note the presence of a lone young woman with one
or two young men; two of them describe one airship occupant as
an elderly man sporting a long dark beard.
In two others the occupants give Sacramento and San Francisco as
the points of origin of their flights and another mentions New
York. These cities figure prominently in the November-December
1896 controversies as locations either where the craft were seen
or where they were constructed. And the business of the birds
in the Jenny Lind report is reminiscent of M. G. Sisson's
Greenfield, Ill., sighting.
Even if every one of the stories is no more than a figment of some
prankster's imagination, the fact remains that for the most part
(the lesser part we shall examine shortly) the craft were piloted
and PROBABLY BUILT BY HUMAN BEINGS -- as opposed to the hairy
humanoids and golden-maned Venusians of modern flying saucer
folklore. But who were the airship pilots and occupants? And what
happened to their marvelous inventions?
While 1897 newspapers printed reams of speculation about the
mysterious inventor's identity, little of the material seems based
on anything more substantial than rumor and hearsay. Amid all the
nonsense, however, are several bits and pieces which ring true. One
of these is a statement by Max L. Hosmar, secretary of the Chicago
Aeronautical Association and presumably a reliable man.
Speaking the day after a sighting on April 9, 1897, Hosmar told
reporters "It was an airship. I know one of the three men who are
in it. The ship is the customary inflated gas reservoir but the
inventors have discovered the secret of practical propulsion. They
can steer the vessel in any direction.
Word reached me several weeks ago that the craft had started from
San Francisco and would stop here for the purpose of registration.
The object of all the mystery is to arouse great interest in aerial
navigation and demonstrate its practicability. The trip is to end
in Washington."
Curiously enough, on the evening of April 15 an airship did
appear in Washington, D. C. It reportedly approached the Washington
Monument at an altitude of 600 feet, then sailed toward Georgetown
and disappeared.
About 11:00 P. M. April 19 near Beaumont, Tex., a farmer and his son
came upon an airship in a pasture. They found four men moving
Page 5
around the machine and one of them, who said his name was Wilson,
asked for and received a supply of water from the farmer's well.
At Uvalde, Tex., 23 hours later Sheriff H. W. Baylor spoke briefly
with the three-man crew of an airship which had alighted outside the
town. One of them men gave his name as Wilson and said he was a
native of Goshen, N. Y. Then he asked about a Captain Akers, whom
he said he had known in Fort Worth in 1877 and understood he now
lived in southern Texas. After getting water from Baylor's pump the
aeronauts entered their craft and took off.
A newspaper reporter located Captain Akers who said, "I can say that
while living in Fort Worth in '76 and '77 I was well acquainted with
a man by the name of Wilson from New York state and was on very
friendly terms with him.
He was of a mechanical turn of mind and was then working on aerial
navigation and something that would astonish the world. He was a
finely educated man, then about 24 years of age, and seemed to have
money with which to prosecute his investigations, devoting his whole
time to them.
From conversations we had while in Fort Worth, I think that Mr.
Wilson, having succeeded in constructing a practical airship, would
probably hunt me up to show me that he was not so wild in his claims
as I then supposed.
"I will say further that I have known Sheriff Baylor many years and
know that any statement he may make can be relied on as exactly
correct."
Another candidate for "airship inventor" is described in the _Omaha
Globe-Democrat_ for April 10: "The indications are that John O.
Preast of this county is the author of the mysterious machine.
Preast is a unique character, spending his time at his country
residence near Omaha in experimenting with airships, constructing
models and studying all the subjects incidental to the theories of
applied mechanics along the line of providing a vessel that will
propel itself through the air.
He has consumed the past 10 years in this way and the walls of his
home are covered with drawings of queer-shaped things, some
resembling gigantic birds, while others look like a big cigar, all
of which he says represent models of airships. He is a man of
superior education. He came to Omaha from Germany 20 years ago and
his lived the life of a recluse.
Mr. Preast refuses to admit that the ship reported in different
sections of the state is his invention but... (it is known that) he
told several persons that he would surprise the world with a working
model in 1897... The two times in the past week that the light has
been seen in Omaha it disappeared near Preast's home, hovering over
the place and then appearing to go out."
The most interesting thing about this Mr. Preast is how much he
reminds us of someone else -- the mysterious C. A. A. Dellschau.
Both men were recluses, German immigrants, compulsive students of
Page 6
aviation who spent untold hours making drawings of odd-looking
aircraft.
And who is "Wilson"? Could he be the "Wilson" of "Tosh Wilson and
Co." to whom Dellschau refers in one of his scrapbooks? A wild
guess, perhaps.
Germany is involved in the airship mystery because the objects first
manifested there in the 1850's. Unfortunately we do not have access
to the German reports -- but how odd it is that so many German names
crop up in Dellschau's list of men supposedly involved with the
"Aero Club" of Sonora, Calif., in the 1850's: August Schoetler,
Jacob Mischer, Ernest Krause, Julius Koch, A. B. Kahn and many
others.
Whatever the truth or untruth of Dellschau's jottings it seems
likely that some kind of secret organization of aeronauts lived and
worked in the United States and possibly Germany as well during the
19th Century. The mysterious "collector of curiosities" who showed
up in Galisteo Junction, N. Mex., in 1880 the day after an airship
had flown over, and stole away with the evidence it had left behind
may have been associated with the organization.
It would have taken several dozen aeronauts to pilot the inestimable
number of airships reported in different parts of the country in the
1896-97 flaps.
All of them presumably would have been involved with the society and
sworn to secrecy, for no one ever stepped forward to answer the many
questions raised by the sudden appearances of these airships. When
aeronauts did speak up much of what they said was drivel, although
there may have been some strains of truth.
Nevertheless, no one got a straight answer from an aeronaut about
the airship's source of power. The words "gas" and "electricity"
dot a number of accounts and once "antigravity" crops up.
Most airships carried both large gasbags and powerful searchlights
but from eyewitness descriptions the craft seem to unwieldy that one
wonders how they flew.
Maybe Dellschau's antigravity gas, "NB," is as good an explanation
of their propulsion as we're likely to find.
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