Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-02-16
FIRE-sIGNs IN THE sky.
Record ofEarIy Sun-GiIows.


From Science Gossip.1
The remarkable sun-glows of last and the
present year having attracted considerable
amount OF attention among scientists, and
being believed by many to be wholly unpre-
cedented in the history of the earth, it may
be of interest and value to give an account
of the occasions which similar phenome-
na have been observed in North Europe, ac-
cording to the most reliable Scandinavian
historians. Such purple glows as we have
recently admired have been observed in the
earliest times, when people believed that
they were warnings from heaven of great
coming disasters, as, for instance, war,
plague, or famine. There appears, however
to be no reliable record of such phenomena
until the middle of the sixteenth century.
Thus, in the summer of 1868, such glow, or
as it was then called, fire signs, was observed
all over Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and
strangely enough terrible plague visited
these countries in the same year. In Copen-
hagen its ravages were so great that the aca-
demical lectures at the university had to be
diourned for several months, and the stu
dents left the capital. The next glow
seen in the year 1916, when sailors, returning
to Copenhagen from voyages in the Baltic
and North sea, reported that for weeks the
sky seemed to be on fire after sunset, and
of Sweden and Denmark. By these coinci-
dences popular superstition was further
strengthened, although it subsequently
proved that the purple glow even in 1646
was caused by terrible eruption of Hekla,
the great Iceland volcano. On the night of
January 4, 1861, frightful storm broke
over North Europe. One whirlwind after
the other unroofed houses and unrooted trees
in hundreds, while the tide rose so high on
the coast of Jutland that large districts were
flooded. For several days the sky seemed a
bath of lurid fire and great terror was
caused among the population, most of whom
believed the day of judgment had come,
The celebrated Danish historian, Bishop Jens
Birkerod, writes in his diary ''that the sky
was terrible to behold; it looked as though on
/ fire." while his father, Jacob Birkerod asserts
that he felt shocks of earthquake in the
| island of Funon. The same authority records
| that evil prophets predicted the last day,
| and, as the phenomenon passed without dis
aster, they stated that it had only been post
poned for period of three years to give sin
ners time for repentance. When August &,
l 1864, arrived, great terror prevailed in Den
| mark, and all churches were thronged to suf-
| location. The next phenomenon of this
| nature was seen throughout Denmark, accord
| ing to the first named authority, on May %,
$780, at sunrise. Long before the sun rose
! the entire heavens were filed with a blood
4 red light, and when the sunbeams shot forth
l liquid nre seemed TO rain from Gn6 SKY.
| Again people became terribly alarmed, which
/ was further increased by the report of a
| great comet approaching the earth; when il
/ finally became visible in the following De
| cember, the popular mind was in a state of
l perfect madness Another serial phenome-
/ non occurred in Denmark on Shrove Tuesday,
| 1907. About seven O'Clock two enormous
| beams of light were running from w.
| N. w. to N. N. E, which made night for
several hours as light as day. Some, how
| borealis, but it is strange that it should not
have been more widely recognized as such in
| that country But the most recent true sun
/ glow was observed in 17S3-abeut hundred
| years ago-throughout Scandinavia. 1t frs
| became visible in Copenhagen on Nav 20
and lasted until the end of September Thi
glow is stated also to have been in the who'll
of Europe, as well as Asia and Africa, in that
year. The sky was red as blood at sunse
| and sunrise, but there was one great differ
ence between this phenomenon and the las
| one, viz, that the suns disk was semi-ob
scured during the day. and almost complete
ly so when rising and setting. In other re
| spects, as, for instance, temperature, heat an
| cold, moisture and drought, the phenomen
| of 1888 were identical with the last one wit
| messed. This glow, too, caused great con
sternation in North Europe, the last da
| being believed to be at hand. 1t should
| mentioned as point of weighty Importance
that in the spring of the same year (the exae
) date is unknown) frightful eruption of tn
Skapta Jokul. in Iceland, took place. Thi
> glow seemed in many respects to have RI
} | sembled that of 1886, when Hekla was in tel
%rible activity.