In the twilight of the nineteenth century, there was something unusual across the sky over the United States. A long time before the brother’s brother, Wright, invaded the air, a strange craft appeared in the form of a lit cigarette by strong transportation tools in hundreds of reports throughout the country. From California to New York, what has become called “PHANTOM AIRSHIPS” is a confusing belief – witnessed thousands.
California, November 1896: The first scenes
I started on Sacramento. On November 17, 1896, hundreds saw a wonderful light crossing the cloudy sky. Among them, George Scott, Assistant Foreign Minister, ascended to the Capitol Dome to take a closer look. Witnesses describe a huge dark body with lights and fans. A man claimed to hear voices screaming from the sky.
Five days later, the lights returned – this TiI am on both Sacramento and San Francisco simultaneously. In San Francisco, the seals made of panic escaped from the bright lights that were said to be hundreds of feet away. Reports flooded cities throughout California, including Los Angeles and San Diego. Then, by mid -December, the lights disappeared. 
Spring 1897: ARSHIP flap goes
The second wave began in Nebraska on February 2, 1897 and washed away. The scenes rose via Kansas, Texas, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. By April, reports arrived in New York. All, more than a thousand separate accounts appeared, dating in the newspapers from the coast to the coast.
These were not short flashes of light. Witnesses describe huge vessels, sometimes with multiple lights, move quickly and often against the wind. In Milwoki, a policeman saw four luminous things dancing in the sky before he disappeared at night. Other scenes included descriptions of the giant crafts in the form of a cigarette with multiple fans, bright lighting lights, and-from the most important-seen through the glass compartments.
Not foreigners, but people: strange human confrontations
Unlike the modern UFO traditions, the assumptions of the assumed human beings were human. In hot springs, Arkansas, John Sombter’s Connectulators told a bearded man who is allegedly traveling to the country in the balloon. The ship, which was about 60 feet long, was based while the Companions fill the water bags. The pilot presented the ride. They refused.
Another story, from Michigan, tells about the pilots who ask for coffee and egg sandwiches. They pushed into Canadian quarters and used a cargo scolder. In Texas, one of the passengers in Arship presented himself “Smith” and asked for tools and lubrication materials – he excelled in giving a full name.
In Rolland, Texas, the interaction was similarly worldly. The crew asked BlueSTONE, mines, oil, and politely refused any attempt to inspect the craft. He generously paid and left quickly as it arrived. In Pine Lake, Michigan, a man woke up by clicking on his window. External numbers requesting a kettle of coffee and winning it – it recites it for joking they must be from Milwoki.
The most famous case came from the Kansas Alexander Hamilton farm. He claimed that the balloon resulted in one of it and carried it away. The next day, the animal residue was found 10 miles away. Hamilton produced written certificates to support his story, but later appeared that he was part of the local stories narration club.
However, not all meetings were deceived. In many reports, witnesses described mechanical details that exceeded any contemporary invention. The reactions, no matter how strange, were based on the daily language and actions, which gives strange originality to the calculations.
Flying before the flight: technological variations
In 1897, energy flying was not present. Wright Prades’ penetration was still six years away. However, the witnesses described the ships hundreds of feet, as they travel at a speed of more than 100 miles per hour, with the lights and clear control of the wind. At that time, no balloon or a mirror remotely approached these exploits.
Some believe that the craft was integrated initial models. Names such as Thomas Edison were often put forward, as he issued a statement refusing to participate. However, the skeptics asked: What is the secret inventor who will show their masterpiece in the dark, unidentified, and disappear without credit?
Others blamed the collective hysteria. The late nineteenth century was the golden age of the yellow press. With closed newspapers in fierce competition, excitement is sold. Aitships stories offered an irresistible version. The viewer is often closely in line with the place where stories appeared in printing.
However, these interpretations are limited when it comes to the consistency of reports and the credibility of some witnesses. Some regions accounts included specific mechanical details, such as exotic rotating systems and gondolas that were suspended by metal bars – exceeding what any contemporary inventor publicly revealed.
Media, memory and mystery
Although exaggeration in the media undoubtedly played a role, not all stories were manufacturing. Some witnesses were men, judges or government employees. Their accounts, although they were strange, were consistent and detailed. The flap of the balloon has become not just a curiosity, but a national debate – a reflection of America’s growing mania with technology and mystery.
The balloon was, to some extent, the first public scenes in American history. But unlike subsequent incidents that involve confidentiality and government intervention, this was a popular mystery. Farmers, writers and perfection were the narrators of the stories, and the sky over them appears to be open to wonders.
This open, democratic nature of confrontations also means that this belief – and disbelief – has been formed locally. In some societies, the viewer has become a matter of civil pride; In other cases, a cause of ridicule. But in both cases, the stories of the American folklore fuller entered.
Phantom fleet inheritance
By the summer of 1897, the balloon suddenly disappeared as they arrived. No debris was found at all, no pilot moved forward, and no confirmed photos were taken. Most historians conclude that it was a complex mix of wrong task, deception and social expectation – and a media scene that yearns for the scene.
After something more permanent. The wave of 1896-1897 helped put the pattern for everything that would follow it in the traditions of the strange body: comprehensive waves of scenes, unconfirmed origins, skeptical media, and permanent cultural magic with the sky as a cloth for mystery.
What is the most prominent is how the story faded from the prevailing memory. Unlike Roswell or District 51, the air flap left any institution or plot in its wake – only newspapers, tales, and questions that were not resolved. For this reason, it is still a purer puzzle, not preserved with modern legend.
Whatever the regions – or not – it seized a moment at a time when the border between science and the story, between hope and trick, was very thin.
Sources and referrals
Pollard, Thomas E Balloon wave from 1896-1897. Impossible Archives, Rice University, 2006.
Bossby, Michael. Solving the my balloon puzzle 1897. Pelican publication, 2004.
Clark, Jerome. UFO Encyclopedia: The apparent from the beginning. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1998.
Cohen, Daniel. Great Balks of Bald: A mysterious body of the nineteenth century. New York: Dodd, Med and Co., 1981.
Daniel, c. now. The Great Baller. Adventures Unlimited Press, 2009.
Selected articles from: Sacramento beeand San Francisco calland Dallas Morning News (1896-1897 newspaper archive).
