1896 SKY SHOW

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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.
        -------------------------------------------------------------------
             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
                               (715) 677-3420

              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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         If you  have comments or other information relating to such topics
         as  this paper covers,  please   upload to KeelyNet or send to the
           Vangard  Sciences  address  as  listed  on the  first  page.
              Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.

           Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
                             Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet

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                     If we can be of service, you may contact
                 Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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