SUBJECT: AERO CLUB IN THE MID 1850's FILE: UFO2871
PART 4
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November 26, 1991
AERO4.ASC
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This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Chuck Henderson.
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The source for this file is the February 1965 issue of
Flying Saucers magazine, published and edited by
Ray Palmer. Flying Saucers magazine is now
out-of-print.
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Flying Saucers magazine was, towards the end of the '70s,
incorporated into Palmer Publication's SEARCH magazine.
Then SEARCH magazine was sold to Owl Press.
If you might be interested in subscribing to this interesting
journal, their mailing address, etc...is:
Owl Press
PO Box 81
Rosholt, WI 54473
Please mention that you found this on KeelyNet, thanks.
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from Flying Saucers, February 1965
1896 SKY SHOW
By Ted Rathbone
In November of 1896, the astonished citizenry up and down the
Sacramento Valley of California were favored with a manifestation
of scientific achievement the like of which was not to gain public
notice again for three quarters of a century.
A "flying machine"' whose origin is still in dispute, maneuvered
purposefully and mysteriously from Oroville to San Francisco,
and from Oakland to Sacramento, unrestrained by darkness, rain,
wind, or the hue and cry of aroused observers.
The astute San Francisco Call ran a full front page on the 19th
of November on the sightings. A couple of scooped rival newspapers
questioned the veracity of the many reports, but only for a day.
As their offices became overrun with subscribers and others who
"saw it with (their) own eyes," the two papers changed their minds,
investigated, and were forced to take the story seriously. But
none of the papers discovered anything at all about the history,
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workings, or the purpose of the strange craft. 1896 was no different
from any other year in history in that unknown objects explored the
skies of earth and been observed, wondered at, and reported; and in
the thrust and squeeze of mortal progress, generally forgotten.
There was great talk at the time of the strange machine being of
local invention, originating in the Table Mountain area above
Oroville. This is so highly a proposition as to be called
impossible, although the top of Table Mountain would certainly have
provided a secluded and safe temporary landing site for an alien
visitor from the sky.
Names were inevitably associated with the advent of the strange
craft. There was a Dr. Benjamin who allegedly did the inventing.
Then there was one George Collins, his attorney, who offered to
the press a description of the sky machine although he obviously
had not as yet seen the actual vehicle. But one is forced to
question which came first, the advent or the association.
The sky vehicle which visited Northern California in 1896 employed
the vertical maneuverability and hover ability of a present day
helicopter, but without a sign of the ungainly and hungry rotor. It
swooped and soared over the roof tops of San Francisco and glided
neatly and precisely over the mining shacks of Cherokee in Butte
County, without benefit of wings.
The Collins story has the airship with crude, inept flappers. In all
pictures, however, the background is rain swept and cloud torn, and
although the craft was undoubtedly wingless, the 1896 outlook would
most certainly have added wings in the recounting. To be sure, there
were lighter-than-air craft in operation at the time on an
experimental basis, but the movements of these were about as
decisive and determined as the wanderings of the spider watching the
treetops slip by below her as she clings to her strands of silken
web.
Some of these pictures in which wings are shown not only have a
stormy backdrop, but all pictures clearly delineate powerful
searchlights. On this all witnesses agree, even to the extent that
with the Sacramento (1896) observations some hundreds of citizens
who gaped, open mouthed and startled, were partially and temporarily
blinded by the brilliance of the "great lights" emanating from the
sky object.
The ship obviously had access to a source of power incompatible with
the heavy glass jar batteries and even heavier dynamos with which
the world prided itself in that day.
It seems that November of 1896 in Northern California, there was
manifestation of the same type of phenomena which startled Kenneth
Arnold near Mt. Ranier in 1947. Call it or them what you will, but
their existence cannot be denied.
The strange sky craft visited Oakland. On Monday the 23rd of
November of that year when the bare electric bulb in the kitchen was
still a novelty and a marvel, horses, buggies and spellbound people
mingled in the confusion and wonderment on dark streets as the
"monster of the air" swung low over the housetops.
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It inspected building, street, and the startled life of the
metropolis in the glare of its blinding light beams. And of course,
the revealing lights were made still more dramatic as the unknown
vehicle came down through the clouds of a rainy, stormy night to
view the city.
Among the many reputable observers of the unknown machine were
Oakland's Mayor Davies, and Mayor Sutro of San Francisco. Mayor
Sutro witnessed the slow approach of the sky vehicle as it sailed
toward the Golden Gate from somewhere above the Pacific Ocean.
He and his family and all the servants made their way hastily out
onto the lawn at Sutro Heights Manor to watch the progress of the
object coming in from the direction of the sea. This, too, was an
evening visit, and San Franciscans hurriedly climbed ladders and
stairs to get a roof top view as the light beams from the sky played
about over their city.
The seals on Seal Rocks found themselves illuminated, causing them
to protest with grunts and squeals and retreat into the water. The
sky car cruised leisurely past the eminences of Twin Peaks, its
bright rays passing lightly over the pines and rhododendron, and the
formal gardens of the area.
Brakes on the cable cars were locked and destinations forgotten as
passengers and crew piled off to wonder at this dark sky chariot
with the bright lights which was passing through the sky above them.
One newspaper account said its "frame" was like "the body of a
bird," yet still no mention of anything even resembling wings as we
know them. Undoubtedly because the ship had no wings, nor had any
need of them.
At about 9:15 of that same evening, Van Ness Avenue was treated to a
little longer display as the "glowing giant" hovered at about 400
feet above the thoroughfare while the people on the street looked. A
few no doubt gazed in fear, others in boiling curiosity.
The next morning the city hall and all municipal offices were
besieged by excited men and women, all demanding an explanation of
just what it was they had seen the night before flying around over
the city, shining its lights everywhere and scaring horses and
people half out of their wits.
A special meeting of The Board of Supervisors was called to cope
with the questions of the populace. In the matter of an unknown sky
vehicle however, it is not known just what The Board's answers were,
but we can be sure that in this instance they saw the limits of
their supervision.
One 1896 newspaper cut shows the strangely familiar rounded outline
of the ship inspecting St. Mary's College, Oakland. The shape of the
object in the air is remindful of other, more recent phenomena which
a government department have found highly unpalatable, and to whom
the UFO and its viewing has become anathema and grounds for
excommunication.
The illustration shows four air screws arranged around the lower rim
of the oval, hanging from the underside, which would certainly be an
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unhandy place for them. The propellers can be nothing but the
viewer's assumption that such were necessary for propulsion because
the ship was flying and something had to make it fly.
But if whirling propellers were the motivation it would have
required an eye faster than human to identify them and determine
they had four blades. Notable in the description is the absence of
any reference to a roar, whir, or sound of any sort coming from the
strange machine, whereas in any propeller driven aircraft most of
the noise heard on the ground comes from the blades churning the
air.
The propellers go with the wings: ready answers for the unknown.
During this same time, over in Camptonville which lies a couple of
ridges and a river to the west of Oroville, one of Camptonville's
leading citizens, a Mr. Meek, reported on a landing made by, it is
presumed, this same ship. The unknown craft settled to the earth on
a level spot just out of town, whereupon five of the strongest and
bravest of the town's young men ventured out to investigate.
There was no hostility from the only crew member they saw, but
unfortunately conversation lagged because neither party understood
the other.
No doubt there were many on those wet windy November evenings in
Oakland and San Francisco who knew an unvoiced longing as they
watched the departure of the strange craft heading out. Then as now,
the new and wonderful possibilities of which they had been given a
glimpse must have sent a surge to the hearts and inflamed the
imaginations of many of those observers.
But the Spanish-American War was even then a-brewing, and the never
neglected direction of public sentiment was under way. The
excitement caused by the unknown visitor from the sky was crowded
out by the induced fever of mundane strife and politics, and the
story then, as similar stories now, became officially forgotten.
If such effortless and manageable power were available as that
demonstrated by the unknown vehicle, it is difficult to conceive of
it being immune to exploitation. In fact, a powerful California
Railroad Entity threw money and manpower into an effort to discover
the origin and workings of the sky vehicle, but in vain.
The "in vain" is as conclusive proof as any of the unassailability
of the secret of this ungravitating visitor from the sky. Or of it
not being "local invention."
Besides the railroad, the government investigated also, thinking
perhaps it was An Implement of Spanish Aggression. Here too, as with
so many other authenticated UFO sightings, all they found was
mystery, and no answers, but a lot of eyewitnesses.
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Vangard note...
The AERO series on KeelyNet has some people asking why we would
"waste" our time on such old and "unproveable" information.
For those who choose to look beyond the blinders and with an
"integrating" eye, there are many interesting leads and tie-ins
with Keely (most publicly available on KeelyNet, others as we
find time to place them on the system).
For starters, we are finding that there were apparently two main
(possibly three) groups working on aerial devices in the 1800's.
The Western group was based on the work of the German immigrants
who founded the Aero Club (controlled or influenced by the
mysterious NYMZA group from the East).
Someone in that group had discovered a (currently unknown) gas
with incredible lifting power. We at Vangard Sciences believe
this gas to be a COMPONENT of hydrogen or more precisely a
direct indication of elements with LESS MASS than hydrogen.
The Eastern group (Keely Country) had aerial devices and
technologies using magnetic or neutral center principles as
discovered by Keely and possibly others who might have been
either in association with him or working independent of Keely.
Comments from the Western group indicate that attempts were made
to join forces with the Eastern group since the Eastern group
had the greatest potential for military uses.
The Western group was Pacificist to the extreme which forced
secrecy and even death to members who even hinted of any desires
to capitalize, release or otherwise promote their discoveries as
a group.
Both the Eastern and Western groups DID NOT confine their
researches to aerial technologies alone.
Unfortunately, because of the secrecy involved, much of the
information is lost or intentionally destroyed to prevent its
use for "negative" purposes.
There is a great possibility that the groups survived into
modern times and might still be playing a part in many of the
UFO-type phenomena that continues today.
If such is the case, that the groups did not die out but in fact
continued to advance their researches, they could by this time
be at a point in their developments which would make them appear
to us as advanced beings.
Would it not be to this mysterious group or groups advantage to
intentionally influence those working in such areas to create
outlandish stories in order to help discredit the real
researchers? And would you not also take the necessary steps to
silence those coming too close to the truth?
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The Airships of 1897 have long been of interest to us here at
Vangard Sciences and was further accelerated by Wally Chariton's
book "The Great Texas Airship Mystery." We had the privilege of
meeting with Wally and discussing the subject.
Wally had never heard of Keely or his airship or aerial
navigation experiments at that time. A recent call to Wally
about the Dellschau notebooks was received excitedly and he
wants to be kept abreast of what turns up.
At this point, we are looking into gas properties, Russell's
Octave Periodic Table of the Elements and such diverse areas
as diffusion, osmosis and catalysts.
Thanks to the sharing of information from people like Jim
Shaffer, Jimmy Ward and Pete Navarro, this information will not
be relegated to the wastebasket and might indeed lead to new
discoveries.
We at Vangard Sciences will continue to integrate and distribute
what we find on the AEROS and other related subjects through
KeelyNet.
Thanks for your support!
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