Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1883 — Was It a Balloon? [ARTICLE]

Was It a Balloon?

A few minutes before 8 o’clock, last Monday evening, the peopleof Rensselaer, and especially those on Washington street at that time, were much surprised and excited by the appearance of a large red light, moving across the southern sky at a height in degrees of about 30, and, apparently, of one mile lineal measure. Its consequent distance would have been about three miles. Granting the correctness of the above estimates, the light must have been moving at a rate exceeding 60 miles an hour to have passed across the field of vision in the time occupied. “Speculation was rife” of course, as to what might be the explanation of the strange phenomenon, but the general drift of opinion seemed to agree with that of Dr. Loughridge, our greatest authority on Celestial phenomena, which was that it was a large light hanging from the bottom of a passing balloon of probable great dimensions. The fact that a second light, much resembling the first in appearance, but at a lower elevation, followed the track of the other about 15 or 20 minutes later; ’and the bold assertions made by numerous parties on the streets the next morning, that a couple of paper fireballoons had been sent up from the west side of town, the evening before, seemed to cast some doubt upon the big balloon hypothesis, but we give the facts for what they are worth.

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