A GENUINE AERIAL SHIP
So Says the Inventor's Attorney
Its Lights Seen Last Night
Said to be an Oroville Invention
It Was Seen Over Oakland on Saturday
Statement of a San Francisco Lawyer
The Inventor is His Client
Only the Lights Could be Seen Last Night
The mysterious aerial visitor that has been causing so much discussion
and agitation since Tuesday last again gave Sacramento a call last
evening, and the reputation of the whisky dispensed here bids fair to be vindicated.
About 6 o'clock the air-ship (which it now seems to be) passed over this
city, or the southern end of it, and slowly sailed away and disappeared
in the mists and darkness of the southeastern sky. That is, a large and
bright electric light was seen by any number of persons, including those
of the "Record-Union" office. It was not near enough, and the sky was
too black to enable anyone to distinguish anything more than the large
bright light carried by the air-ship, and which is evidently produced by
an electric battery. It is unlike any other light, being clear and sharp.
The light came from the east at an elevation apparently of 500 or 6o0
feet, going in a southeasterly direction. It was in sight for over an
hour, except that for intervals of a few minutes it would suddenly
disappear, as if being obscured by some part of the flying machine to
which it is supposed to be attached.
Ed Carragher of the Saddle Rock Restaurant states that by the aid of a
night glass he was able to make out a dark object above the light, and
the outline of the supposed air-ship.
All sorts of jokes have been made at the expense of Sacramentans since
last Wednesday's publication of the stories of an air-ship passing over
Sacramento, but it now seems the thing has been seen in Alameda and even
in San Francisco. The San Francisco "Chronicle" of yesterday publishes
the following statement made by George D. Collins, a reputable lawyer of
that city, who says it was a flying machine that passed over Sacramento,
that the inventor of it is his client, and that he made the trip last
Tuesday evening from Oroville to a point in Alameda County. Says the "Chronicle":
MR. COLLINS' STORY.
The mystery of the airship which has been amusing the State and puzzling
some worthy citizens of Sacramento has made a change of base, and now
there are plenty of reputable people in and about San Francisco ready to
make oath that they have seen the strange thing in the heavens, and that
in appearance and motion it was identical with the ship lights and
buzzing machinery which menaced a church spire of the capital.
More than that, there is a San Francisco attorney, George D. Collins,
who asserts that the airship exists, that the inventor is his client;
that the strange craft sailed without mishap from Oroville to San
Francisco; that it did pass over Sacramento on its way to the Bay, and
that within a few days this invention, which is the solution of one of
the world's oldest and toughest problems, will be navigated in daylight,
so that all San Francisco may see it, and that it will circle and rise
and sink over the central part of the city.
And yet there are wicked skeptics who chuckle and make rude jests about
an epidemic of humbug, and who poke all manner of fun at the good people
who think they saw an airship in the sky.
Attorney Collins, who occupies offices on the second floor of the
Crocker building, was seen about the matter at his home in Alameda last
night. He said:
"It is perfectly true that there is at last a successful airship in
existence, and that California will have the honor of bringing it before
the world. I have known of this affair for some time and am acting as
attorney for the inventor. He is a very wealthy man, who has been
studying the subject of flying machines for fifteen years, and who came
here seven years ago from the State of Maine in order to be able to
perfect his ideas away from the eyes of other inventors. During the
last five years he has spent at least $100,000 on his work. He has not
yet secured his patent, but his application is now in Washington. I
cannot say much about the machine he has perfected, because he is my
client, and besides he fears that the application will be stolen from
the Patent Office if people come to know that his invention is
practicable.
"I saw the machine one night last week at the inventor's invitation. It
is made of metal, is about 150 feet long and is built to carry fifteen
persons. There is no motive power so far as I could see; certainly no steam.
"It is built on the aeroplane system and has two canvas wings eighteen
feet wide and a rudder shaped like a bird's tail. The inventor climbed
into the machine, and after he had been moving some of the mechanism for
a moment I saw the thing begin to ascend from the earth very gently.
The wings flapped slowly as it rose and then a little faster as it began
to move against the wind. The machine was under perfect control all the time.
"When it got to a height of about ninety feet the inventor shouted to me
that he was going to make a series of circles and then descend. He
immediately did so, beginning by making a circle about 100 yards in
diameter, and gradually narrowing in till the machine got within thirty
feet of the ground. It then fell straight down, very gracefully,
touching the earth as lightly as a falling leaf.
"The reports from Sacramento the other night were true. It was my
client's airship that the people saw. It started from Oroville, in
Butte County, that evening and flew sixty-five miles in a straight line
directly over Sacramento. After running up and down once or twice over
the Capital my friend came right on, a distance of another seventy miles
and landed at a spot on this side of the bay, where the machine now
lies, guarded by three men. The inventor found during this trial trip
that his ship had a wave-like motion that made him seasick. It is this
defect that he is now remedying.
"In another six days the trouble will be done away with and it is then
his intention to immediately give the people of San Francisco a chance
to see his machine. He will fly right over the city and cross Market
street a dozen times. I cannot tell you where he is housing the ship or
what his name is, as I am under a pledge of secrecy, but it is a fact
that the machine does its work perfectly and will astound the world and
revolutionize travel when it has been displayed before the public. The
inventor can fly with it to New York to-morrow if he wants to.
"He has forsaken the ideas of Maxim and Langley entirely in building the
machine, and has constructed it on an absolutely new theory."
OVER OAKLAND
The Strange Visitor Seen There on Saturday Evening.
Yesterday's San Francisco "Call" has the following account of the
airship having been seen over Oakland on Saturday evening:
Last night a little after 5 o'clock, as a crowded car was going out
toward Piedmont, the attention of the passengers was attracted to a
peculiar looking contrivance high up in the sky. The most peculiar
feature of it was a powerful headlight and another light which seemed to
be in the bottom of the machine and to shine directly on the earth. It
came into view from the direction of East Oakland, passed over Piedmont
and according to the story of the passengers seemed to descend in such a
manner as to indicate that it would land somewhere in San Francisco.
Many of the passengers took up their morning newspapers today expecting
to see a full description of the peculiar object that had been seen so
plainly, and were surprised and disappointed to find no report whatever in it.
They were so convinced that it must have landed across the bay that some
of them telephoned to San Francisco last night and made inquiries
regarding it. As nothing was known of it it is presumed that it must
have changed its course and landed somewhere else, for nothing can
persuade those who saw it that it was not a genuine airship under full control.
All those who saw this strange object agree in its description and
declare that it closely resembles the illustration that appeared in the
"Call" last Thursday of the airship that scores of people witnessed as
it passed over Sacramento last Wednesday night. Some of them distinctly
saw the propelling arms and declare that they were in motion, but all
are positive that the machine was brilliantly lighted, and that the
lower light shed a large arc on the earth as it passed over, while the
headlight could be seen for a great distance ahead of the machine.
One of the most mystified observers of the airship was Charles H. Ellis,
the armorer of Companies A and F. Mr. Ellis is a middle aged man and
very deliberate in his manner of expression, and one not likely to be
easily deceived. He declared this evening that he was as skeptical as a
man could be when he first read about the Sacramento airship. He also
declares that he had no alternative but to believe his own eyesight
"I was going home to my dinner about half-past 5 last night," he said,
"and was in the neighborhood of Twenty-fourth street and New Broadway,
when I saw a strange-looking thing in the sky. It was coming from the
eastward and at first I could see nothing but a bright light. When I
first saw it the two lights appeared to be one, and I thought it was a
brilliant meteor. It was getting dusk, but the sky was clouded and just
dark enough to permit any one to see plainly. The sky was sufficiently
dark to make a background which would render any such object visible.
"As it came nearer I could see that there was, some dark object along
with the light. When it was nearly overhead I could clearly distinguish
that it somewhat resembled a balloon traveling end on, with a bright
light ahead, another beneath it, and with what appeared to be wings both
before and behind the light. It was at a great height above the earth
probably a thousand feet, but not so high as to make it impossible to
distinguish what it was. I did not want to believe that it was an
airship, as I had regarded the previous report of one in the light of a
Joke. This time, however, I had no alternative. I had to believe what I saw.
"As soon as it passed over St. Mary's College it appeared to descend
gradually, but regularly, as though under perfect control, and it
disappeared in the direction of San Francisco. Of course it was too
dark and the machine was too far away to distinguish anything like
people or to hear any sounds such as were heard in Sacramento. But
there is no doubt in my mind that it was an airship supplied with
electric lights and well-manned."
Another witness to the visit of the airship is Selby Yost, a motorman of
the Piedmont road and a member of the Oakland Guard. He was a little
behind time and was taking his car toward Piedmont, trying to recover
the few minutes he was behind. As he passed Thirtieth street a little
boy stood in the road and cried: "Jee, whiz, what's that?" The
passengers heard it and immediately looked at the direction in the sky
toward which the boy was pointing. They had no difficulty in seeing the airship.
"When I looked ahead," said Mr. Yost to-day, "I was mystified and I may
as well confess I was. I didn't like to admit to myself that I had
suddenly gone crazy, but really for a moment I did wonder if my senses
had deserted me. The passengers all reached out to look overhead, and
those inside wanted to see what those outside were gazing at; so when
they requested me to stop the car that they might all look. I was
practically forced to oblige them. They got out in the road and looked
up at the airship, the most surprised crowd I ever saw in my life.
There it was, sure enough, right overhead, and traveling on at a good
rate, with its light blazing away, and the most uncanny looking thing I ever saw.
"Airship or anything else, it was the most remarkable looking object,
and I am at a loss now to convince myself that I actually saw it. It
was altogether a wonderful sight, and nobody could have ever made me
believe that I would ever see such a thing. It was perfectly clear, and
not only I, but all, the passengers saw it and watched it till it
disappeared. I thought it must have landed across the bay, and I was
somewhat surprised this morning to see that no mention was made of it in
the papers. I would really like to have that thing found so that I
could satisfy myself as to how it worked, for a more interesting thing I
have never seen."
Miss Hagstrom, who resides on Telegraph avenue, saw the same object
about six weeks ago. The feature that impressed her most was the bright
light which she distinctly saw. On returning home she told her brother
of what she had seen, but nothing more was thought of it until she read
recently that a similar object had been seen in another part of the State.
Charles Hagstrom, the brother of the young lady who witnessed this queer
object in the sky, is also in the employ of the Piedmont and Mountain View Railways.
"When my sister first told me what she had seen I treated it as a joke,"
he said this evening, "and placed little credence in her story,
believing that she had seen nothing more mysterious than a falling star
or meteor. When I heard the same thing had been seen elsewhere, last
week, and heard again last night of what was seen in this part of town,
I am now convinced that my sister saw the same thing. I have talked to
several people to-day who witnessed the object last night, and they are
all confident that it was nothing more nor less than a genuine airship."
W. J. Rodda and his wife, who reside at a grocery store at 2042
Broadway, were also witnesses to the strange aerial visitor.
"When we first saw it," said Mrs. Rodda to-night, "we thought it was a
balloon, and if it were not for the bright light I should still be
inclined to think it was a peculiarly shaped balloon, but I never knew
of a balloon to carry bright lights and travel at nighttime the way that
did. I could not see any fans myself, but others say that they most
undoubtedly saw the propellers which sent the thing along. As it passed
over it angled downward, and if it kept on in the same direction it
should have landed somewhere across the bay. I at once concluded that
it was the same machine that had been seen in Sacramento. I believe
that airships will be brought to perfection, and I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised to hear that some one had already built a practical
machine of that kind and was operating with it in this neighborhood."
Many of the passengers on Yost's car live out at Piedmont, and all are
of the opinion that they saw a real airship.
An Oakland artist who crosses to San Francisco every day said this
evening that the airship was seen from Golden Gate Park yesterday
afternoon. "I was coming home last night," he said, "in company with a
friend who had been out to Golden Gate Park. He told me that he and
others had seen an airship during the evening and that it closely
resembled the picture of the one published in the 'Call.' He said that
they tried to explain it by all kinds of means, but they came to the
conclusion that it was the same machine. It was dusk when they saw it
and the remarkable brilliancy on it attracted their attention. I
shouldn't have thought any more of it, but today in this city I heard
several people discussing it."
It is the prevalent opinion that some one in Alameda or neighboring
counties has solved the problem of flying in the air, and has been for
some weeks putting his experiment to a practical test.
SAILED HIGH OVERHEAD
Some kind of Air Craft Seen by a Man near Tulare
TULARE, Cal., Nov 21.
-- That airship is cavorting through the atmosphere
that overhangs this vicinity. D.H. Risdon, who was working in an orchard
near Tagus, four miles north of this place, sighted a mysterious object passing over at a considerable
elevation yesterday afternoon.
A tramp was near at the time, and remarked that he never saw a balloon
sail against the wind. But while the object overhead seemed to be
sailing into the teeth of the wind, it may have found an opposite
current in an upper stratum.
It was passing to the northwest and Risdon declares it was like an
immense sheet spread out in the air. It soon passed out of sight.
Risdon had not previously read or heard of the strange visitor said to
have been seen at Sacramento, and as his reputation for veracity is
excellent, his story is generally believed.
AT FOLSOM ALSO
The Aerial Tourists Took a Shy at the Big Dam
A telephone message from Folsom last evening stated that the air-ship
also passed near that town between 6 and 7 o'clock, going in a southerly
direction. Afterward it tacked to the southeast and disappeared in a
dense cloud.
When seen at Folsom it seemed to be only a few hundred feet above the
earth, but the night was so dark that the body of the ship could not be
distinguished - nothing but one bright light.
AGAIN OVER OAKLAND
It Passed There About 9 O'clock Last Night.
It was long after 7 o'clock last night when the air-ship became lost to
view here, but a message from Oakland said it passed over there a few
minutes after 9 o'clock. The people there plainly saw the headlight and
several smaller ones behind it.
The air-ship seemed to those who saw it at Oakland to go gently down
across the bay in San Francisco, but it probably passed behind the hills
of that city, as the inventor is not yet, apparently, prepared to let
the public view his machine.
Heading for Mount Hamilton
Late last night the last report from the air-ship was that it passed
over San Jose at 11:30 o'clock, and was going in the direction of the
Lick Observatory.
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