That, Oct. 10, 1864, M. Leverrier had sent to the Academy three letters
from witnesses of a long luminous body, tapering at both ends, that had
been seen in the sky.
In _Thunder and Lightning_, p. 87, Flammarion says that on Aug. 20,
1880, during a rather violent storm, M.A. Trecul, of the French Academy,
saw a very brilliant yellowish-white body, apparently 35 to 40
centimeters long, and about 25 centimeters wide. Torpedo-shaped. Or a
cylindrical body, "with slightly conical ends." It dropped something,
and disappeared in the clouds. Whatever it may have been that was
dropped, it fell vertically, like a heavy object, and left a luminous
train. The scene of this occurrence may have been far from the observer.
No sound was heard. For M. Trecul's account, see _Comptes Rendus_,
103-849.
_Monthly Weather Review_, 1907-310:
That, July 2, 1907, in the town of Burlington, Vermont, a terrific
explosion had been heard throughout the city. A ball of light, or a
luminous object, had been seen to fall from the sky--or from a
torpedo-shaped thing, or construction, in the sky. No one had seen this
thing that had exploded fall from a larger body that was in the sky--but
if we accept that at the same time there was a larger body in the sky--
My own acceptance is that a dirigible in the sky, or a construction that
showed every sign of disrupting, had barely time to drop--whatever it
did drop--and to speed away to safety above.
The following story is told, in the _Review_, by Bishop John S. Michaud:
"I was standing on the corner of Church and College Streets, just in
front of the Howard Bank, and facing east, engaged in conversation with
Ex-Governor Woodbury and Mr. A.A. Buell, when, without the slightest
indication, or warning, we were startled by what sounded like a most
unusual and terrific explosion, evidently very nearby. Raising my eyes,
and looking eastward along College Street, I observed a torpedo-shaped
body, some 300 feet away, stationary in appearance, and suspended in the
air, about 50 feet above the tops of the buildings. In size it was about
6 feet long by 8 inches in diameter, the shell, or covering, having a
dark appearance, with here and there tongues of fire issuing from spots
on the surface, resembling red-hot, unburnished copper. Although
stationary when first noticed, this object soon began to move, rather
slowly, and disappeared over Dolan Brothers' store, southward. As it
moved, the covering seemed rupturing in places, and through these the
intensely red flames issued."
Bishop Michaud attempts to correlate it with meteorological
observations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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