Wonders in the Sky (56 page)

Often called “The Century of Enlightenment,” the eighteenth century is characterized by intense interest for the rational study of nature, systematic investigation of “meteors,” the rise of an international community of scientists and “natural philosophers,” experiments with electricity, Benjamin Franklin's demonstrations of the nature of lightning, the wide development of navigation, the worldwide recognition and imitation of the Royal Society, and early attempts to fly culminating in the first manned balloons.

The search for new planets gave rise to numerous observations of unknown bodies by competent astronomers, both professionals and amateurs, eagerly reported in considerable detail in the pages of the new scientific journals and publications dedicated to an enlightened elite.

The eighteenth century belonged to Newton and Lavoisier, to the triumph of Reason. Unlike modern “rationalists,” however, intellectuals who considered themselves enlightened were dedicated to careful observation of nature and did not recoil before its more mysterious aspects. On the contrary, unusual aerial phenomena were carefully documented, published and commented upon with an openness of mind that is sorely lacking in our “modern” era of institutionalized science.

312.

August 1700, Sahalahti, Eastern Finland
Abducted by a disk

An old man, a smith named Tiittu, is said by a local story to have disappeared shortly after a flying disk hovered over the village. His son went to search for him, and met a being he perceived as a “bear” who said he had flown off.

“After Tiittu had gone to the forest, the same day villagers saw a huge disc hovering above the village. It stayed without moving for a moment, then started to fly out to the direction where Tiittu had gone to. Villagers believed that it was a mark of the end of the world. They were horrified.

“For two days they stayed inside praying, singing religious songs and confessing their sins. Only in the third day they were calm enough to go back to their normal work. When Tiittu didn't return, the villagers started to look for him. In the forest Tiittús son suddenly met a big being looking like a bear. The being started to speak in Finnish: ‘Don't be afraid. I can tell you that you are looking for your father in vain. You saw that ‘sky ship' like a rainbow—it took your father up to the heights, to another, better world, where lives a race much higher than your people. Your father feels good there and doesn't miss his home.' The bear disappeared, and they stopped looking for Tiittu.

“All the people of Sahalahti were talking about the mysterious case. Then they got a new priest, who announced in the church: “This story speaks of sinful witchcraft, and it represents the imagination of drunken and mad people, so yoúd better forget it.”

 

Source: Finnish researcher, Tapani Kuningas, published this story in the Finnish magazine
Vimana
(No. 3-4, 1967) and later in his book
Ufoja Suomen taivaalla
(Kirjayhtymä, Helsinki, 1970). He claimed the story was a local tradition in Sahalahti, in East Finland. However, no confirmation for this exists except for a single letter, which is now lost.

313.

1701, Cape Passaro, Sicily, Italy: Hovering light

Witness C. De Corbin reports observing a very bright light in the sky, hovering for two hours in spite of a strong wind.

 

Source: Abbé J. Richard,
Histoire Naturelle de l'Air et des Météores
(1771).

314.

September 1702, Japan, exact location unknown
Red residue from a sun-like object

An object like a red sun was seen in the sky, dropping cotton-like filaments.

 

Source:
Brothers Magazine
I,1.

315.

1704, Hamburg, Germany: Sparkling flying boats

People saw the sky “crisscrossed with sparkling boat-like objects” chasing one another, blending and separating, multiplying in plain view. We have too little information to conclude they saw an aurora borealis.

 

Source: Yves Naud,
UFOs and Extraterrestrials in History
(Geneva: Ferni, 1978), vol. II, 176.

316.

28 October 1707, Hidaka County, Wakayama, Japan
White light

During a tsunami that struck the coast, a luminous object like a white ball appeared in the waves.