Ask Jerome Clark: A New Slant on 1897 Airship Mystery, the "Original" UFO Wave

[Gene Steinberg]

Veteran UFO researcher Jerome Clark will discuss his Fortean Times article entitled, “Mr. Wilson and the Aeronauts of 1897.”

Jerry tells me, "I have some novel thoughts about their occurrence and meaning."

He'll also talk about an upcoming project in which you'll be really interested.

The episode will be recorded Thursday, February 15 from 2 PM until 4 PM Arizona time.

 

[pigfarmer]

I’d like to ask Jerome if he’s ever heard of Wallace Tillinghast and “The Great New England Airship Hoax of 1909” The Great New England Airship Hoax of 1909 on JSTOR

Basically this is a person who claimed to have an advanced flying machine (for the era) that he was testing at night. This resulted in a number of people ‘witnessing’ it and reporting as such.

Should the stories of the 1897 airships be taken literally or were they meant as entertainment at the time? Has that been lost in the intervening decades?

Do you think something very similar to the effects as described in 1909 is at work here?


Thanks

 

[Angel of Ioren]

How can we plot the changes over time of what people have seen in the skies - we went from airships, to saucers, to eggs, to cigars, and most recently triangles. What can we gather from this change of what people are seeing? Has the tech of whatever they are seeing changed, or (more likely in my opinion) is it only because humans are projecting their own understanding of what should be in the sky and what they are misidentifying in the sky?

 

[Wade]

This question may seem rather broad and vague but it seems to me that after a 100 years plus this subject has brought on renewed interst to which i question, why?

It would be one thing if anyone thought they had evidence of superior aeronautical engineering at play or a secret space program but they were just balloons, apparently in use during the previous century.

 

[Ron Away]

How can we plot the changes over time of what people have seen in the skies - we went from airships, to saucers, to eggs, to cigars, and most recently triangles. What can we gather from this change of what people are seeing? Has the tech of whatever they are seeing changed, or (more likely in my opinion) is it only because humans are projecting their own understanding of what should be in the sky and what they are misidentifying in the sky?

Interdimensional giant babies learning shapes?

 

[Randall]

Question: Your opinion on the TTSA ( To The Stars Academy ) venture.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

And — Curt and Jerry will be back for this weekend's After The Paracast, during which Jerry will talk more about his latest book gig.