Authors: Charles Fort
So then the little nearby moon—and it is populated by Liliputians. However, our experience with agreeing ideas having been what it has been, we suspect that the lunarians are giants. Having reasonably determined that the moon is one hundred miles in diameter, we suppose it is considerably more or less.
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A group of astronomers had been observing extraordinary lights in the lunar crater Plato. The lights had definite arrangement. They were so individualized that Birt and Elger, and the other selenographers, who had combined to study them, had charted and numbered them. They were fixed in position, but rose and fell in intensity.
It does seem to me that we have data of one school of communicationists after another coming into control of efforts upon the moon. At first our data related to single lights. They were extraordinary, and they seem to me to have been signals, but there seemed to be nothing of the organization that now does seem to be creeping into the fragmentary material that is the best that we can find. The grouped lights in Plato were so distinctive, so clear and even brilliant, that if such lights had ever shone before, it seems that they must have been seen by the Schroeters, Gruithuisens, Beers and Madlers, who had studied and charted the features of the moon. For several of Gledhill’s observations, from which I derive my impressions of these lights, see
Rept. B.A.,
1871-80—“I can only liken them to the small discs of stars, seen in the transit-instrument”; “just like small stars in the transit instrument, upon a windy night!”
In August and September, 1869, occurred a notable illumination of the spots in Group I. It was accompanied by a single light upon a distant spot.
February and March, 1870—illumination of another group.
April 17, 1870—another illumination in Plato, but back to the first group.
As to his observations of May 10-12, 1870, Birt gives his opinion that the lights of Plato were not effects of sunlight.
Upon the 13th of May, 1870, there was an “extraordinary display,” according to Birt: twenty-seven lights were seen by Pratt, and twenty-eight by Elger, but only four by Gledhill, in Brighton. Atmospheric conditions may have made this difference, or the lights may have run up or down a scale from four to twenty-eight. As to independence of sunlight, Pratt says
(Rept. B.A.,
1871-88) as to this display, that only the fixed, charted points so shone, and that other parts of the crater were not illuminated, as they would have been to an incidence common throughout. In Pratt’s opinion, and, I think, in the opinion of the other observers, these lights were volcanic. It seems to me that this opinion arose from a feeling that there should be something of an opinion: the idea that the lights might have been signals was not expressed by any of these astronomers that I know of. I note that, though many observers were, at this time, concentrating upon this one crater, there are no records findable by me of such disturbance of detail as might be supposed to accompany volcanic action. The clear little lights seem to me to have been anything but volcanic.
The play of these lights of Plato—their modulations and their combinations—like luminous music—or a composition of signals in a code that even in this late day may be deciphered. It was like orchestration—and that something like a baton gave direction to Light 22, upon Aug. 12, 1870, to shine a leading part—“remarkable increase of brightness.” No. 22 subsided, and the leading part shone out in No. 14. It, too, subsided, and No. 16 brightened.
Perhaps there were definite messages in a Morse-like code. There is a chance for the electricity in somebody’s imagination to start crackling. Up to April, 1871, the selenographers had recorded 1,600 observations upon the fluctuations of the lights of Plato, and had drawn thirty-seven graphs of individual lights. All graphs and other records were deposited by W.R. Birt in the Library of the Royal Astronomical Society, where presumably they are to this day. A Champollion may someday decipher hieroglyphics that may have been flashed from one world to another.
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Our data indicate that the planets are circulating adjacencies. Almost do we now conceive of a difficulty of the future as being not how to reach the planets, but how to dodge them. Especially do we warn aviators away from that rhinoceros of the skies, Mercury. I have a note somewhere upon one of the wickedest-looking horns in existence, sticking out far from Mercury. I think it was Mr. Whitmell who made this observation. I’d like to hear Andrew Barclay’s opinion upon that. I’d like to hear Capt. Noble’s.
If sometimes does the planet Mars almost graze this earth, as is not told by the great telescopes, which are only millionaires’ memorials, or, at least, which reveal but little more than did the little spy glasses used by Burnham and Williams and Beer and Madler—but if periodically the planet Mars comes very close to this earth, and, if Mars, an island with perhaps no more surface area than has England, but likely enough inhabited, like England—
June 19, 1875—opposition of Mars.
Flashes that were seen in the sky upon the 25th of June, 1875, by Charles Gape, of Scole, Norfolk
(Eng. Mec.,
21-488). The Editor of
Symons’ Met. Mag.
(see vol. 10-116) was interested, and sent Mr. Gape some questions, receiving answers that nothing had appeared in the local newspapers upon the subject, and that nothing could be learned of a display of fireworks, at the time. To Mr. Gape the appearances seemed to be meteoric.
The year 1877—climacteric opposition of Mars.
There were some discoveries.
We have at times wondered how astronomers spend their nights. Of course, according to many of his writings upon the subject, Richard Proctor had an excellent knowledge of whist. But in the year 1877, two astronomers looked up at the sky, and one of them discovered the moons of Mars, and the other called attention to lines on Mars—and, if for centuries, the moons of Mars could so remain unknown to all inhabitants of this earth except, as it were, Dean Swift—why, it is no wonder that we so respectfully heed some of the Dean’s other intuitions, and think that there may be Liliputians, or Brobdingnagians, and other forms not conventionally supposed to be. As to our own fields of data, I have a striking number of notes upon signal-like appearances upon the moon, in the year 1877, but have notes upon only one occurrence that, in our interests, may relate to Mars. The occurrence is like that of July 31, 1813, and June 19, 1875.
Sept. 5, 1877—opposition of Mars.
Sept. 7, 1877—lights appeared in the sky of Bloomington, Indiana. They were supposed to be meteoric. They appeared and disappeared, at intervals of three or four seconds; darkness for several minutes; then a final flash of light. See
Sci. Amer.,
37-193.
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That all luminous objects that are seen in the sky when the planet Venus is nearest may not be Venus; may not be fire-balloons.
In the
Dundee Advertiser,
Dec. 22, 1882, it is said that, between ten and 11 a.m., December 21, at Broughty Ferry, Scotland, a correspondent had seen an unknown luminous body near and a little above the sun. In the
Advertiser,
December 25, is published a letter from someone who says that this object had been seen at Dundee, also; that quite certainly it was the planet Venus and “no other.” In
Knowledge,
2-489, this story is told by a writer who says that undoubtedly the object was Venus. But, in
Knowledge,
3-13, the astronomer J.E. Gore writes that the object could not have been Venus, which upon this date was one h. 33 m., R.A., west of the sun. The observation is reviewed in
L’Astronomie,
1883-109. Here it is said that the position of Mercury accorded better. Reasonably this object could not have been Mercury: several objections are comprehended in the statement that superior conjunction of Mercury had occurred upon December 16.
Upon Feb. 3, 1884, M. Staevert, of the Brussels Observatory, saw, upon the disc of Venus, an extremely brilliant point
(Ciel et Terre,
5-127). Nine days later, Niesten saw just such a point of light as this, but at a distance from the planet. If no one had ever heard that such things cannot be, one might think that these two observations were upon something that had been seen leaving Venus and had then been seen farther along. Upon the 3rd of July, 1884, a luminous object was seen moving slowly in the sky of Norwood, N.Y. It had features that suggest the structural: a globe the size of the moon, surrounded by a ring; two dark lines crossing the nucleus
(Science Monthly,
2-136). Upon the 26th of July, a luminous globe, size of the moon, was seen at Cologne; it seemed to be moving upward from this earth, then was stationary “some minutes,” and then continued upward until it disappeared
(Nature,
30-360). And in the
English Mechanic,
40-130, it is not said that a luminous vessel that had sailed out from Venus, in February, visiting this earth, where it was seen in several places, was seen upon its return to the planet, but it is said that an observer in Rochester, N.Y., had, upon August 17, seen a brilliant point upon Venus.
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Explosions over the towns of Barisal, Bengal, if they were aerial explosions, were continuing. As to some of these detonations that were heard in May, 1874, a writer in
Nature,
53-197, says that they did seem to come from overhead. For a report upon” the Barisal Guns, heard between April 28, 1888, and March 1, 1889, see
Proc. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal,
1889-199.
Phenomena at Comrie were continuing. The latest date in Roper’s
List of Earthquakes
is April 8, 1886, but this list goes on only a few years later. See
Knowledge,
n.s., 6-145—shock and a rumbling sound at Comrie, July 12, 1894—a repetition upon the corresponding date, the next year. In the
English Mechanic,
74-155, David Packer says that, upon Sept. 17, 1901, ribbon-like flashes of lightning, which were not ordinary lightning, were seen in the sky (I think of Birmingham) one hour before a shock in Scotland. According to other accounts, this shock was in Comrie and surrounding regions (London
Times,
Sept. 19, 1901).
Smithson. Miscell. Cols.,
37-Appendix, p. 71:
According to L. Tennyson, Quartermaster’s Clerk, at Fort Klamath, Oregon, at daylight, Jan. 8, 1867, the garrison was startled from sleep by what he supposed to be an earthquake and a sound like thunder. Then came darkness, and the sky was covered with black smoke or clouds. Then ashes, of a brownish color, fell—“as fast as I ever saw it snow.” Half an hour later there was another shock, described as “frightful.” No one was injured, but the sutler’s store was thrown a distance of ninety feet, and the vibrations lasted several minutes. Mr. Tennyson thought that somewhere near Fort Klamath, a volcano had broken loose, because, in the direction of the Klamath Marsh, a dark column of smoke was seen. I can find record of no such volcanic eruption. In a list of quakes, in Oregon, from 1846, to 1916, published in the
Bull. Seis. Soc. Amer.,
September, 1919, not one is attributed to volcanic eruptions. Mr. W.D. Smith, compiler of the list, says, as to the occurrence at Fort Klamath—“If there was an eruption, where was it?” He asks whether possibly it could have been in Lassen Peak. But Lassen Peak is in California, and the explosion upon Jan. 8, 1867, was so close to Fort Klamath that almost immediately ashes fell from the sky.
The following is of the type of phenomena that might be considered evidence of signaling from some unknown world nearby:
La Nature,
17-126—that, upon June 17, 1881, sounds like cannonading were heard at Gabes, Tunis, and that quaking of the earth was felt, at intervals of thirty-two seconds, lasting about six minutes.
July 30, 1883—a somewhat startling experience—steamship
Resolute
alone in the Arctic Ocean—six reports like gunfire—
Nature,
53-295.
In
Nature,
30-19, a correspondent writes that, upon the third of January, 1869, a policeman in Harlton, Cambridgeshire, heard six or seven reports, as if of heavy guns far away. There is no findable record of an earthquake in England upon this date. In the London
Times,
Jan. 12, 15, 16, 1869, several correspondents write that upon the 9th of January a loud report had been heard and a shock felt at places near Colchester, Essex, about thirty miles from Harlton. One of the correspondents writes that he had heard the sound but had felt no shock. In the London
Standard,
January 12, the Rev. J.F. Bateman, of South Lopham, Norfolk, writes as to the occurrence upon the 9th—“An extraordinary vibration (described variously by my parishioners as being ‘like a gun-powder explosion,’ ‘a big thunder clap,’ and ‘a little earthquake’) was noticed here this morning about 11:20.” In the
Morning Post,
January 14, it is said that at places about twenty miles from Colchester it was thought that an explosion had occurred, upon the 9th, but, inasmuch as no explosion had been heard of, the disturbance was attributed to an earthquake. Night of January 13—an explosion in the sky, at Brighton
(Rept. B.A.,
1869-307). In the
Standard,
January 22, a correspondent writes from Swaffham, Norfolk, that about 8 p.m., January 15, something of an unknown nature had frightened flocks of sheep, which had burst from their bounds in various places. All these occurrences were in adjoining counties in southeastern England. Something was seen in the sky upon the 13th, and, according to the
Chudleigh Weekly Express,
Jan. 13, 1869, something was seen in the sky, night of the 10th, at Westonsuper-Mare, near Bristol, in southwestern England. It was seen between nine and ten o’clock, and is said to have been an extraordinary meteor. Five hours later were felt three shocks said to have been earthquakes.
Upon the night of March 17, 1871, there was a series of events in France, and a series in England. A “meteor” was seen at Tours, at 8 p.m.—at 10:45, a “meteor” that left a luminous cloud over Saintes (Charante-Inferieure)—another at Paris, 11:15, leaving a mark in the sky, of fifteen minutes’ duration—another at Tours, at 11:45 p.m. See
Les Mondes,
24-190, and
Comptes Rendus,
72-789. There were “earthquakes” this night affecting virtually all England north of the Mersey and the Trent, and also southern parts of Scotland. As has often been the case, the phenomena were thought to have been explosions and were then said to have been earthquakes when no terrestrial explosions could be heard of
(Symons’ Met. Mag.,
6-39). There were six shocks near Manchester, between 6 and 7 p.m., and others about 11 p.m.; and in Lancashire about 11 p.m., and continuing in places as far apart as Liverpool and Newcastle, until 11:30. The shocks felt about eleven o’clock correspond, in time, with the luminous phenomena in the sky of France, but our way of expressing that these so-called earthquakes in England may have been concussions from repeating explosions in the sky, is to record that, according to correspondence in the London
Times,
there were, upon the 20th, aerial phenomena in the region of Lancashire that had been affected upon the 17th—“sounds that seemed to come from a number of guns at a distance” and “pale flashes of lightning in the sky.”
Whether these series of phenomena be relatable to Mars or Martians or not, we note that in 1871 opposition of Mars was upon March 19; and, in 1869, upon February 13; and in 1867 two days after the explosions at Fort Klamath. In our records in this book, similar coincidences can be found up to the year 1879. I have other such records not here published, and others that will be here investigated.
There is a triangular region in England, three points of which appear so often in our data that the region should be specially known to us, and I know it myself as the London Triangle. It is pointed in the north by Worcester and Hereford, in the south by Reading, Berkshire, and in the east by Colchester, Essex. The line between Colchester and Reading runs through London.
Upon Feb. 18, 1884, at West Mersea, near Colchester, a loud report was heard
(Nature,
53-4). Upon the 22nd of April, 1884, centering around Colchester, occurred the severest earthquake in England in the 19th century. For several columns of description, see the London
Times,
April 23. There is a long list of towns in which there was great damage: in twenty-four parishes near Colchester, 1,250 buildings were damaged. One of the places that suffered most was West Mersea
(Daily Chronicle,
April 28).
There was something in the sky. According to G.P. Yeats
(Observations upon the Earthquake of Dec. 17, 1896,
p. 6) there was a red appearance in the sky over Colchester, at the time of the shock of April 22, 1884. The next day, according to a writer in
Knowledge,
5-336, a stone fell from the sky, breaking glass in his greenhouse, in Essex. It was a quartz stone, and unlike anything usually known as meteoritic.
The indications, according to my reading of the data, and my impressions of such repeating occurrences as those at Fort Klamath, are that perhaps an explosion occurred in the sky, near Colchester, upon Feb. 18, 1884; that a great explosion did occur over Colchester, upon the 22nd of April, and that a great volume of débris spread over England, in a northwesterly direction, passing over Worcestershire and Shropshire, and continuing on toward Liverpool, nucleating moisture and falling in blackest of rain. From the Stonyhurst Observatory, near Liverpool, was reported, occurring at 11 a.m., April 26, “the most extraordinary darkness remembered”; forty minutes later fell rain “as black as ink,” and then black snow and black hail
(Nature,
30-6). Black hail fell at Chaigley, several miles from Liverpool
(Stonyhurst Magazine,
1-267). Five hours later, black substance fell at Crowle, near Worcester
(Nature,
30-32). Upon the 28th, at Church Stretton and Much Wenlock, Shropshire, fell torrents of liquid like ink and water in equal proportions
(The Field,
May 3, 1884). In the
Jour. Roy. Met. Soc.,
11-7, it is said that, upon the 28th, half a mile from Lilleshall, Shropshire, an unknown pink substance was brought down by a storm. Upon the 3rd of May, black substance fell again at Crowle
(Nature,
30-32).
In
Nature,
30-216, a correspondent writes that, upon June 22, 1884, at Fletching, Sussex, southwest of Colchester, there was intense darkness, and that rain then brought down flakes of soot in such abundance that it seemed to be “snowing black.” This was several months after the shock at Colchester, but my datum for thinking that another explosion, or disturbance of some kind, had occurred in the same local sky, is that, as reported by the inmates of one house, a slight shock was felt, upon the 24th of June, at Colchester, showing that the phenomena were continuing. See Roper’s
List of Earthquakes.
Was not the loud report heard upon February 18 probably an explosion in the sky, inasmuch as the sound was great and the quake little? Were not succeeding phenomena sounds and concussions and the fall of débris from explosions in the sky, acceptably upon April 22, and perhaps continuing until the 24th of June? Then what are the circumstances by which one small part of this earth’s surface could continue in relation with something somewhere else in space? Comrie, Irkutsk, and Birmingham.