Necrofuturism pt.2: Airships over America

[jack_babalon]

"Citizens of the United States, the conquest of the air is made; but it shall not be given into your hands until the proper time. I leave, and I carry my secret with me. It will not be lost to humanity, but shall be entrusted to them when they have learned not to abuse it. Farewell, Citizens of the United States!"
-Robur le Conquerant (Robur the Conqueror, 1887)
Jules Verne, Master of the World




The Great Airship wave of 1896-1897
In 1896 America was about to experience it's first brush with strange visitors from the skies. Like most of the high weirdness that infests the back pages of American history it began in California:
"...the object was huge and cigar-shaped and had four large wings attached to an aluminum body."
-The Sacramento Bee, November 18, 1896

"It appeared first in Sacramento, California, on the night of November 17, 1896 — a strange light in the rainy night sky. On that first night it was seen by dozens of people. Most saw only a light. Others made out a dark cigar shape behind the light. The most detailed description came from a streetcar motorman named Lowery, who said he saw a flying machine propelled by two men working bicycle pedals."
-The Amazing Airship of 1896, James L. Cambias

The initial reaction wasn't one of invading ET's or hostile anal probing UFO's. Rather they were viewed as experimental vehicles taking a test run across the turn-of-the-century big sky country. Witnesses spoke of meeting the crew of these ships. "In at least three of these sightings, the occupants are described as a young woman, a young man, and an older man with a long beard." If you think about that image that is usually the template of characters in most of the early sci-fi serials of the early next century. The strapping young man ready to jump head first into danger guns blazing , the female companion who gets into trouble and prompts even more adventuring and finally the science patriarch whose creations usually are the robot, the ray gun or in this case the "Air ship". I have dubbed this trinity as "Science Angels" - interactive archetypes created by the growing intrest in science, air travel, a growing sense of the vastness of the world and the universe it floats in all filtered through the works of Frank Reade, Jules Verne, and H G Wells. Steven Mitrach in his "UFO phenomena in History" writes:
An amazing series of sightings, stretching from the East to the West coast of the U.S., occurred in 1896 and 1897. Many newspapers carried sightings of "airships" seen travelling through the air. These mechanical contraptions often shone spotlights on the ground and made lots of clanking and other noises as they moved through the sky. Speculation about the "airships" focused on a series of "inventors" who were testing these new craft and would soon be making them commercially available for the public. Some people claimed that the airships landed and that they met these "inventors." Some airship pilots claimed to be from Mars; others insisted they were "from a place where it never rains." Yet others claimed the airships were being built in rather mundane workshops on the East coast. Some witnesses protested that the airships were dropping ballast or cargo on them. (*H.G. Wells wrote a short story about this time, Master of the Air , about a man named Robert L'Conqueror, who conquers the world through his secret lighter-than-air airship technology and various weapons.) Not surprisingly, shortly after the airship "wave," the first terrestrial zeppelins and dirigibles began being built and used commercially, as if the UFO was always one step ahead of our own technology. There would be some repeat airship encounters during the so-called "Christmas Wave" of 1909-10, when airships with 'searchlights' were seen over New England.
*- I believe he means Jules Vernes Master of the World(Jack B.)

Things started to get a little crazy. On March 26th in Sioux City, Iowa a man was caught on a falling anchor dropped by one of the "Airships" which led to him being dragged 30 some odd feet by the Science Angels-
"God Damn it Ma! Them thar sky-anchors got bobby again"
"Best Fetch yer Pa!"

A month later in Aurora,Texas the Martians entered the picture.


"During what was later to be dubbed the Great Airship Wave of 1897, a farmer Alexander Hamilton of LeRoy, Kansas encountered a strange vehicle on the evening of April 19th:
"It was chiefly composed of a part in the form of a cigar, about one hundred meters long, I guess, with a chariot underneath. This chariot was of glass, or some other transparent material, and had bands of an opaque matte. It was brilliantly lit on the inside and everything was perfectly visible. It was occupied by six of the strangest looking beings I had ever seen. They were jabbering with each other, but I couldn't catch a word they said."
Hamilton and his farmhands soon discovered one of the cows was in distress:
"We went toward her and found a cable about half an inch thick, made out of a red material, fastened around the neck of the animal with a slip knot. The other end of the cord went up and was connected to the vessel. We tried to get the animal loose of the slip knot, but when we did not succeed, we cut the wire of the fence, and saw the ship and the heifer rise up slowly and disappear to the northwest."
- Andrew Gaze, "Hallucinogenic Hypno-Vision and the Plasmatic Cells of Gaia"

"Ma a flying ship hit the windmill. Smashed 'er to bits,scared the cows something fierce and there's a little green man moaning in pain in the fields."
"Best fetch yer Pa and the Remington, son. Sounds like dem der foriegners are at it again."




In the 1890's the world watched the skies, scanning the clouds for the steam powered air armadas that would soon sail above them. Waiting for the fleets of Lighter than air ships to glide out of the banks of clouds, soaring like brass plated dragons or flocking in maneuvers like mechanical birds. In 1897 emmisarys from the future next door arrived. The science angels were landing across the deserts and plains of America fifty years ahead of the Aliens & ultraterrestials. They had escaped from the fictions of Verne & Wells to show us the wonders of the coming years. To offer glimpses of a new age filled with Daedalus risks and the threat of warfare not seen since the Angels battled across the heavens of Milton. They plotted a course for the next century, the American Century. They pointed the finger to a new horizon of wonder & horror. A horizon that still waits behind the veil of the air pollution and
skylines. A horizon perpetually forward of the American eye.
"Keep Watching the skies"




Recommended sites.
http://bigredhair.com/airships/ - Really great articles about Victorian Robots, airships and other oddities

http://www.geocities.com/jessnevins/vicintro.html - And more of the same. If you were a fan of "The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen" this is the site for you.

http://ufos.about.com/library/weekly/aa052797.htm
http://www.balloonlife.com/publications/balloon_life/9607/airship.htm
http://www.elfis.net/elfol7/e7hhvpcgag.htm

"The Great Airships of 1897". Yes this really did happen. By which I mean people believed that this really did happen.
Mass hysteria, ultraterrestials, scienctists from a paralell parked universe? Who knows and to be honest who cares... a strange American dream forgotten in the annals of the 19th century.