Wonders in the Sky (60 page)

1752, Kazan, Russia: Abducted in a flying cauldron

A man named “Yashka” reportedly met a stranger dressed in white who took him to a flying cauldron. He believed he visited another world, and then returned to the Earth.

 

Source: Vadim Chernobrov,
Synodic Archives
(Kazan University, 1909), No. 635:135, V.XXV.

338.

15 April 1752, Stavanger, Norway: Flying octagon

“An octagonal luminosity in the sky emitted fireballs from its angles.”

 

Source: Alexis Perey,
Sur les tremblements de terre de la péninsule scandinave
(Paris, 1842), 17. Perey draws from
La Gazette
, June 10th, 1752.

339.

1 June 1752, Angermannland, Sweden
Bright streak emits balls of light

Between 4 and 5 A.M., luminous “balls of fire” emerged from a bright streak in the sky extending from the northeast to the southwest, for 12 to 13 miles along the coast.

 

Source: Robert Mallet and John William Mallet,
The Earthquake Catalogue of the British Association
(British Association for the Advancement of Science, London: Taylor & Francis, 1858).

340.

15 August 1754, Amsterdam and Chiswick, England
Sphere at ground level

After sunset a strange sphere, with an apparent diameter equal to that of the full moon, was observed shooting blinding bright beams, and descending close to ground level.

 

Source:
The Gentleman's Magazine
25 (1755): 461-462.

341.

29 December 1758, Colchester, Essex, England
Wandering oval object

At 8.00 P.M., an object described by contemporary eyewitnesses as looking like a huge football seemed to descend from the sky. It then “vanished like a squib without a report.”

 

Source:
London Magazine
27 (1758): 685.

342.

20 May 1759, unknown location
Unexplained satellite of Venus

Astronomer Andreas Mayer reported an observation of a planetoid object seemingly orbiting Venus.

 

Source: Mayer's observation first appeared as a very brief footnote in his book,
Observationes veneris gryphiswaldenses
(1762), 16-17. The full report was first published by Johann-Heinrich Lambert in 1776 in
Astronomisches Jahrbuch oder Ephemeriden für das Jahr 1778
(Berlin, 1776), 186.

343.

16 September 1759, Lönmora, Sweden
Abducted for four days

The following handwritten text is recorded in the parish book of Ramsberg, Sweden:

“In the evening of 16 September 1759, the crofter Jacob Jacobsson's eldest son Jacob, 22 years old, had crossed the lake, Vastra Kiolsjon, to the crofter Anders Nilson at Lönmora, to deliver the food packet for him and his father for the following day's work in the Woods. Coming back across the lake, as he pulled the boat upon the shore, something strange happened to him.

“A large and broad road appeared before him. He followed it and soon reached a large red mansion, in his own words, ‘with grander buildings than Gamlebo.' Soon he found himself seated on a bench by the door in a big chamber. He saw a chubby little man with a red cap on his head, sitting at the end of a table, and crowds of little people running back and forth. They were in every way like ordinary men, but of short stature. A bit taller than the rest was a fine-looking maiden, who offered him food and drink. He said, ‘No, thank you.' The Little people asked him whether he wanted to stay with them, and he answered, ‘God, help me back home to my father and mother!' Then the man with the red cap said, ‘Throw him out, he has such an ugly mouth!'

Fig. 32: Lönmora manuscript

“In the next instant he was back by the lake shore, and from there he returned home. His parents greeted him with pleasure. They had been very worried; together with the neighbors they had searched the woods and the lake for him. Four days and nights had passed without a trace of him. When he finally came back on Thursday evening he had not eaten or slept for four days, yet he had no desire for food or drink. He thought he had been away only for a little while. The following day everything was normal except for an uneasy feeling in his body and mind.