Adventures in independent publishing
The New York Sun of Dec. 13, 1909, said that reports had come in throughout the autumn of 1908 of “a mysterious light that moved rapidly in the sky,” seen in various locations in Connecticut.
–Charles Fort, New Lands, p508 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
On the night of Dec. 7, 1900, a “fountain of light” was seen on the planet Mars. A Professor Pickering, writing in Sci. Amer., 84-179, called it ‘absolutely inexplicable.’ Lowell (Popular Astronomy, 10-187) published several of the values in a possible code of long and short flashes, recorded for seventy minutes. “Tesla announced that he had received, upon his wireless apparatus, vibrations that he attributed to the Martians. They were series of triplets.”
–Charles Fort, New Lands, p494 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
An earthquake apparently occurred on Dec. 17, 1896, centered around Worcester and Hereford, called by Fort the London Triangle. This area had experienced quakes as far back as 1661, accompanied by lights in the sky. The English Mechanic, 74-155, reports a ‘strange meteoric light’ that was seen in the sky at Worcester during the 1896 quake. It was considered the severest earthquake felt in the British Isles in the 19th century, with the exception of one in April 22, 1884. A book on the subject, The Hereford Earthquake of 1896, reports a luminous object in the sky that ‘traversed a large part of the disturbed area,’ a meteor that “lighted up the ground so that one could have picked up a pin.”
–Charles Fort, New Lands, p475-477 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
On Dec. 10, 1881, three men left from Bath in the balloon Saladin. The balloon descended at Bridport on the coast of the English channel and two of the men got out. The balloon shot up into the air with one man, Walter Powell, still on board, and was apparently lost. However, reports came in about a luminous object seen on the evening of the 13th, according to the London Times, near Cherbourg, and on the 16th at Laredo and Bilbao, Spain. It was said in the Morning Post to have shot out sparks. A steamship off the coast of Scotland, 25 miles from Montrose, reported something seen in the sky in the morning of Dec. 15 (Standard, Dec. 16, 1881). Through glasses it seemed to be “a light attached to something thought to be the car of a balloon, increasing and decreasing in size–a large light–‘as large as the light at Girdleness.’” It moved opposite to the wind.
–Charles Fort, New Lands, p461-462 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
In December 1882, a discussion commenced in the Dundee Advertiser and later in Knowledge, 2-489, about an unknown luminous body near and a little above the sun. It was initially reported on Dec. 22, 1882. The sighting occurred between 10 and 11 a.m. by a correspondent at Broughty Ferry, Scotland. Another letter was published on Dec. 25 from someone who had also seen it, and said it was Venus. One writer in Knowledge also says it was Venus. But in a later issue, 3-13, an astronomer wrote that it could not be Venus, saying that Venus was at that time to the west of the sun.
–Charles Fort, New Lands, 435-436 (The Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover, c1974).
