History of the Mystery Airship Sightings in the late 1800's

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                  Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
                       Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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                               March 3, 1990
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                 History of the Mystery Airship Sightings
                            in the late 1800's
    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    One of the  mysteries involving the work of John W. Keely involves
    his Airship which was developed during the period of 1888 to 1893.

    Keely flew his airship for the  first  time  in  1893.   We have a
    drawing of the ship and it is very compact and has no hull.

    A reporter inspecting the ship leaves us this record :

         "The space  which  the propeller of the airship  occupies  in
          Keely's Laboratory comes within a radius of six feet square.
          A small  space  for so powerful a medium - distributing over
          1000 horsepower, as tested  by  experiment.   It consists of
          over 2000 pieces and weighed in excess of 1000 pounds."

    A small stool was placed on the unit so that it faced  a keyboard.
    Attached to the  keyboard  were  many  tuned resonation plates and
    vibratory mechanisms.  Mr. Keely  said  that  when the plates were
    polarized with "negative attraction" the airship  would  rise  and
    float above the ground.

    Keely could make  the  airship  accelerate to any desired speed by
    damping out certain notes on the keyboard.

    The Keely Airship was successfully  demonstrated  to  the U.S. War
    Department in 1896.  The demonstration took place in an open field
    where Keely brought  the  airship  from  zero to  500  MPH  within
    seconds.

    Keely was sitting on the stool and before the keyboard.  There was
    nothing to shield  him from the movement of the ship yet he seemed
    to suffer absolutely no acceleration effects.

    The War Department was impressed, yet stated they could see no use
    for such a complex device.

    Later versions might have added  a  hull  and  changed the size to
    accomodate a payload.

    Note also that the Airship Sightings began in 1897, one year after
    Keely's War Department demonstration.

    It is quite  possible that a person or group might  have  financed
    further improvements on the Keely Airship technology.

    We cannot fail   to  notice  the  April  dates  on  the  following
    sightings, especially since the first  sighting came on April 2nd,
    one day after April Fool's day.
                                  Page 1
                Chicago Record.......Friday, April 2, 1897

                             See Great Airship

    Kansas Missouri, Missouri people excited.....mystical black object
    casting before it  red  light startled whole city for the last two
    weeks!

    At last descended...ten-thousand   people   swear   they  have  no
    hallucinations!  Scoffers and disbelievers claim  the  people have
    been seeing the  planet  Venus  or  the  Evening Star, even though
    according to the almanac this planet  should  have  set  below the
    horizon at least an hour before!

    Object appeared very swiftly, then appeared to stop and hover over
    the city for ten minutes at a time, then after flashing its green-
    blue and white lights, shot upwards into space....light  gradually
    twinkling away and looking like a bright star.

                              Time : 8:15 PM

    -----------------------------------------------------------------
              Everest, Kansas has sighted a strange airship.

    Competent reporters state  that  this must be the airship that was
    built in Oakland, California and  which  broke  away  at launching
    time...this giant airship  hovered one half hour  at  a  time  and
    descended at regular intervals very close to the Earth.

    A giant searchlight  flooded  the  whole city with light from this
    aerial monster which with the velocity  of  an eagle darted up and
    away.

    Power source must have been attached to the light for it dimmed as
    the ship went up and away.  One observer states that  there seemed
    to be a  basket or car beneath a great dark object thought to be a
    gas bag overhead...car was shaped like a canoe and had four wings,
    two on each  side,  fore  and aft...light  was  greenish  or  blue
    against the light  of  a  locomotive  in the rail  yard  that  was
    yellowish.  Colored lights seemed to be all around the car."

    -----------------------------------------------------------------
                       Chicago Record, April 3, 1897

                      Flying Machine Now in Michigan!

    People of Galesburg  saw  a  brilliant  white  light approach from
    SW...object appeared large  and  black  with  a  crackling,  sharp
    sound.  It hovered close to the Earth.  Reporters  state that they
    heard HUMAN VOICES from aloft...from the airship!

    When the ship went off, it seemed to be tipped with flame.  (Local
    comment was that the airship had caught fire!)

                              Time : 10:00 PM

    -----------------------------------------------------------------




                                  Page 2
                       Chicago Record, April 6, 1897

                         Airship Now Into Illinois

    Seen first at  8:00  PM  in NW....large red light.  Suggestions of
    balloon are refuted because airship  flew at tremendous speed INTO
    A HIGH WIND!
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                       Chicago Record, April 7, 1897

    Airship seen many times last few weeks.  Large numbers  of  people
    first hand witnesses.   One time, a motorman of a trolley actually
    stopped his vehicle  so  he  and  passengers  could  look  at  the
    wonderful sight...just ahead of his trolley, the ship seemed about
    six-hundred feet up and about one-hundred feet long.

    The motorman, Mr.  Newville,  says  it  was ellipsoid  with  large
    projections fore and  aft.   There was a bright headlight in front
    and a red light in the rear."
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    From Hastings, Nebraska, came the  report  that  the "airship" had
    been seen in  Grand  Island,  Oxford, York and Kearney.   Scoffers
    claimed these people  had  seen  Venus, yet all the reporters were
    people of substance and not given  to  reporting spurious stories.
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                       Chicago Record, April 9, 1897

                           Airship Seen in Iowa

    Between West Liberty   and   Cedar   Rapids  appeared   a   bright
    light...giant airship...steel body.   When  leaving it appeared to
    be a large star weaving about and  stars  do  not weave around the
    heavens!
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
                      Chicago Record, April 10, 1987

                Airship Sighted over Chicago and Evanston!

    People are tripping over themselves these days trying  to  get the
    best look at  this  green and white-lighted giant airship that has
    had the people all over the mid-west in a dither.

    Some people think the end of the  world is near...Scientific minds
    have explained the  whole  thing  away by now.  The  mystery  will
    surely be cleared up in the next few days.  Mr. Carr, an aeronaut,
    has built an  experimental  balloon  and is financed by a New York
    theatrical wig manufacturing company...Mr. Carr states his machine
    works marvelously, but  CANNOT  GO  AGAINST  THE  WIND...power  is
    storage battery with propeller!

    Professor Hough of Northwestern University and head  astronomer of
    the observatory stated  when  asked  to train his telescope on the
    object : 'I am busy with sights  on  Jupiter  and  it would be too
    troublesome to change to look at this new thing.'   The  next day,
    Hough said: 'The  thousands  of people that are reporting this so-
    called strange airship are in reality  looking at Alpha Orionis in
    the Constellation Orion!"
    -----------------------------------------------------------------



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                      Chicago Record, April 12, 1897

            Giant Airship Continues Over Chicago and Environs!

    People all over  the  city are in an uproar, and while everyone is
    viewing this grand  sight  on   the   south   side,   two  amateur
    photographers who are news dealers in Rogers Park,  looked out and
    saw the airship.

    Their photo shows  the  north Western Railway station and above it
    the reported airship!  The photographers  are  Walter  McCann  and
    G.A. Overocker.  This airship was seen to come in  over  the  lake
    and traverse the whole city for several days."
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    The same report with an Omaha date line of April 11th says :
         "A gentleman brags he has mystery airship problem solved.  He
          is an  inventor  and  desires that he be allowed thirty-five
          acres to demonstrate his airship  for  the Trans-Mississippi
          Exposition.  The  gentleman didn't sign his  name,  but  the
          reporter hopes the dilemma will be settled by his promises."
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    The same report  again, with a Fort Dodge, Iowa date line of April
    11th says:
         "Old German residents say that this very same type of airship
          came over Germany THIRTY YEARS  before  and  the people were
          scared to death...said the devil's army was  approaching and
          these were his vehicles."
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    The same report  again,  with  a Milwaukee, Wisconsin date line of
    April 11th says:
         "The residents of Milwaukee cannot be talked out of what they
          are seeing...thousands report  the  authenticity of a giant,
          beautiful airship with colored lights...the  police  records
          are full  of  the  story for they have been called to answer
          what it is!"
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
                      Chicago Record, April 13, 1897

                          Airship Called a Hoax!

    Several notable citizens  are   known   to   have  caused  airship
    scene...remains of paper  and  wood  device in wreckage  in  their
    yard.'  (No name given of the 'notables')
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    The above mentioned  device  was  supposed  to  have  been  in the
    wreckage, but another column in the same paper said:
    "Airship seen in Rock Island, Illinois and Elkhart, Illinois!"
            How could it have been seen if it had been wrecked?
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
                      Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1897

    "One chap knows all about the airship.   He says: 'These thousands
    of people didn't see a steel hull because this is  the  airship my
    friend built in  California  and  is  on  its way here to Chicago.
    Although, I must say, he sure has  made good time for he isn't due
    until NEXT WEEK and the hull is PAPER, not steel.   My  friend, O.
    Chanute is on  board  too  and  I will introduce all of you to him
    when he arrives!"
         The man who spoke the above  was  Secretary  of  the  Chicago
                   Aironautical Society, Max L. Harmar.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Page 4
    The same strange sightings were made at Sisterville, Virginia.
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    In 1897 and  other  years,  there were also amazing observances in
    Texas.

    An excerpt  from  the book "Genesis" published by Dell and written
    by W. A. Harbinson, copyright 1982  gives  more information on the
    sightings from the late 1800's:

        "The first major UFO flap was in 1896 - about November of that
         year -  and continued until May 1897.  This  was  five  years
         BEFORE the  Wright  brothers  experiments, but there were, by
         this time, various airship  designs  on the drawing boards or
         in the Patent Office.

         On August 11, 1896, patent number 565805 was given to Charles
         Abbot Smith  of  San  Francisco  for an airship  he  intended
         having ready  by  the following year.  Another patent, number
         580941, was issued to Henry  Heintz  of Elkton, South Dakota,
         on April  20, 1897.  However, while many UFO's  sighted  were
         shaped roughly like the patent designs, there is no record of
         either airship having been built."

        "At that  time  the  general belief was that aerial navigation
         would be solved through an  airship  rather  than  a heavier-
         than-air flying  machine  -  so most of the  eariler  designs
         looked like dirigibles with a passenger car on the bottom.

        "What stands  out  in  the 1896 and 1897 sightings is that the
         UFO's were MOSTLY CIGAR-SHAPED,  that they frequently landed,
         to talk to the witnesses, usually asking for  WATER FOR THEIR
         MACHINES.

        "The most  intriguing of the numerous contact stories involved
         a man who called himself Wilson.  The first incident occurred
         in Beaumont, Texas on April  19,  1897, when J. B. Ligon, the
         local agent for Magnolia Brewery, and his son Charles noticed
         lights in the Johnson pasture a few hundred  yards  away  and
         went to investigate.

        "They came  upon  two men standing beside a large, dark object
         which neither of the witnesses  could  see  clearly.   One of
         these men asked Ligon for a bucket of water,  Ligon let these
         men have it, and then the man gave his name as Mr. Wilson.

        "He then told Ligon that he and his friends were travelling in
         a flying  machine,  that  they  had  taken a trip 'out of the
         gulf', and they were returning to the 'quiet Iowa town' where
         the airship AND FOUR OTHERS LIKE IT had been constructed.

        "When asked, Wilson explained  that  ELECTRICITY  POWERED  THE
         PROPELLERS AND WINGS OF THE AIRSHIP, then he  and his friends
         got into the airship and Ligon watched it ascending.

        "The next  day, April 20, Sheriff H. W. Baylor of Uvalde, also
         in Texas, went to investigate  a  strange light and voices in
         back of his house.  He encountered an airship  and  three men
         -and one of the men gave his name as Wilson, from Goshen, New
         York.


                                Page 5
        "Wilson then inquired about one C. C. Akers, former sheriff of
         Zavalia County,  saying  that he had met him in Fort Worth in
         1877 and  now  wanted to  see  him  again.   Sheriff  Baylor,
         surprised, replied that Captain Akers was now  at Eagle Pass,
         and Wilson,  reportedly  disappointed, asked to be remembered
         to him the next time Sheriff Baylor visited him.

        "Baylor reported that the  men  from  the airship wanted water
         and that  Wilson requested that their visit  BE  KEPT  SECRET
         FROM THE TOWNSPEOPLE.  Then he and the other men climbed back
         into the  airship  and, quote, "its great wings and fans were
         set in motion and it sped  away northward in the direction of
         San Angelo.' The county clerk also saw the airship as it left
         the area.

        "Two days  later,  in  Josserand,  Texas,  a   whirring  sound
         awakened farmer  Frank  Nichols, who looked out of his window
         and saw 'brilliant lights  streaming  from a ponderous vessel
         of strange  proportions'  in  his  cornfield.   Nichols  went
         outside to investigate, but before he reached the object, two
         men walked  up to him and asked if they could have water from
         the well.

        "Nichols agreed to this - as farmers in those days usually did
         - and the men then invited  him to visit the airship where he
         noticed that there were six or eight crew  members.   One  of
         these men  told  him that the ship's motive power was 'HIGHLY
         CONDENSED ELECTRICITY' and  that  it was ONE OF FIVE THAT HAD
         BEEN CONSTRUCTED in 'a small town in Iowa'  with  the backing
         of a  large  stock company IN NEW YORK (close to Philadelphia
         where Keely had his laboratory!!....Vangard).

        "The next day, on April 23, witnesses described by the HOUSTON
         POST as 'two responsible  men'  reported  that an airship had
         descended where they lived in Kountze, Texas, and that two of
         the occupants had given their names as Wilson and Jackson.

        "Four days  after  this incident, on April 27,  the  GALVESTON
         DAILY NEWS  printed  a  letter  from C. C. Akers, who claimed
         that he had indeed known  a  man  in Fort Worth named Wilson,
         that Wilson  was  from New York, that he was  in  his  middle
         twenties, and  that  he was 'OF A MECHANICAL TURN OF MIND AND
         WAS THEN  WORKING ON AERIAL  NAVIGATION  AND  SOMETHING  THAT
         WOULD ASTONISH THE WORLD.'

        "Finally, early  in  the  evening  of April 30,  in  Deadwood,
         Texas, a  farmer named H. C. Lagrone heard his horses bucking
         as if in stampede.  Going  outside,  he  saw  a  bright white
         light circling around the fields nearby and  illuminating the
         entire area  before  descending  and  landing  in  one of the
         fields.

        "Walking to the landing spot,  Lagrone  found  a  crew of five
         men, three of whom talked to him while the  others  collected
         water in  rubber  bags.   The man informed Lagrone that their
         ship was ONE OF FIVE that  had been flying around the country
         recently, that  theirs  was  in fact the SAME  ONE  that  had
         landed in  Beaumont a few days before, that all the ships had
         been constructed  in  an interior  town  in  Illinois  -which
         borders Iowa -and that they were reluctant to say anything

                                Page 6
         else because  they had NOT YET TAKEN OUT ANY PATENTS.  By May
         of that same year, the sightings ended...."


       (Don't forget to include the  Aurora  Hoax  perpertrated  by  a
        reporter for a local (Ft. Worth) newspaper at that same time)

           ****************************************************

    Notes from Vangard...

    We also have heard of a group which existed in California during
    this period.  They were said to have some form of  flying machine,
    not based on lighter-than-air technology.  The flying machine they
    built was supposed  to  have  been taken out for an "unauthorized"
    joy ride by a member of the group  and  crashed.  Nothing is known
    after this point.

    To our knowledge, there is no record of the nature  of  propulsion
    or lift for the groups' flying machine.

    As a final  note,  a  friend  tells  us  that  in the 60's, he was
    visiting the headquarters of an old organization in Chicago.

    While wandering through the building, he chanced upon a vault door
    which was partially open.  Peeking inside, he saw what he believes
    to be the original Keely Airship as shown in the picture we have.

    An officer of the organization came  in, closed the vault door and
    ushered him out of the area.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    We are currently working on scanning a picture file  of  the Keely
    Airship to be included in our future Images section.

    The equipment for  such  projects  takes  money  which  comes from
    personal funds, so it might be a  while before we can do this.  It
    would surely be  nice  if we could have such equipment  to  spread
    this stuff around more easily.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    Thanks for your support and contributions.  We hope you have found
    this file of interest...

              Jerry W. Decker, Ron Barker and Chuck Henderson













                                FINIS
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