Sky Mysteries

The Leech Barometer “The Leech Barometer,” a unique (and slimy) way to tell the weather.

The White House Shadowgraphs: The Fortean White House Part 2 In 1901, Washington DC was excited by mysterious shadows on the columns of the east and west porticoes of the White House. Prophetic images or pareidolia?

Some vintage blather from opera singer Madame Helen Alberti on the possibility of human flight, the cosmic laws of the ancient Greeks, levitation, and the engines of the human body. Top-flight stuff.

Birds of Mystery and Legend: Mysterious Beasts, Part 3 Monstrous birds, mystery birds, birds that seem to be made up out of bits of many creatures, killer eagles, spectral birds, belled buzzards and the proverbial white crow: A look at birds of mystery and legend.

John Van Valkenburg and his mysterious 1917 Wonderplane In 1917 John Van Valkenburg, a Salt Lake City inventor, announced that he had conquered the laws of gravity with his Wonderplane.

What was roaming the skies between 1896 and 1915? Were they airships created by some mad and secretive inventor? Mysteriously technologically-advanced airplanes? Ghost blimps from past conflicts? On this 80th anniversary of the crash of the USS Akron, we look at some mysterious flying machines.

In honor of the 150th birthday anniversary for Welsh horror and fantasy author Arthur Machen, we look at a 1915 article discussing the evidence for the Angels of Mons visions. Machen’s story, “The Bowmen,” may have inadvertently helped to create this legend of the Great War. Despite Machen’s protests that the story was fictional, the stories of angels on the battlefield took on a life of their own and became hoplessly tangled in false memories, hoaxes, and a twisted kind of ostension.

They Came From Outer Space – Killer Meteors Killer Meteors and aerolites in the 19th century press. The 19th-century papers revelled in stories about falling stars and meteors. Interesting as these are, I am more interested in the human-aerolite interactions reported. There was a silly-season popularity for stories of houses set on fire by meteors or people killed by them. Here are some choice specimens of vintage sky-falls and murderous meteors.

A small collection of possible cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) from 1829-1884.