Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-12-24
Passes Over Augusta Early
Thursday Evening.
Believed to Be Air Ship or
Dirigib|e Balloon.
Moved As II Being Steered Rather
Than Waited by Wind.

That either big balloon or an air
ship visited. circled about and passed
over Augusta in the direction of Lew
lston between 6 and O'Clock Thurs
Gay evening is the belief of a number
of persons who saw strange object
in the sky at that time, which seemed
to be brilliantly lighted, while others
are found who claim that it must
nave been planet of peculiar shape
and one man is found, who AYERS that
he saw it in about the same place in
the sky on the previous night. The air.
ship or balloon theory seems to be the
most reasonable on account of the dis
tance which the object was seen to
traverse. While its course was being.
watched.
One of the first persons to see the
object was Charles F. Flynt, one OF The
proprietors of the Journal He first saw
the strange object in the sky at about
6 O'Clock when leaving the Journal Of
fec. 1t seemed to him to be in shape
like big balloon, although little
could be seen above the light on ac-
count of the distance away. 1t was
apparently a great deal higher than it
was wide. The object when he first saw
it was moving from northeast to south
west. Mr.. Flynt and others whose at
tention was called to the object by him
watched it until it almost disappeared
An hour later he again saw it from a
location near his residence on East
Crescent street where the view was en-
tirely unohstructed. 1t gradually set
tied down over Betsy Howard bill and
a second time disappeared. The height
in the sky of the object could not be
estimated, but.;it seemed all the time
to be moving away from the city and
when last seen seemed to be rs far Off
as Lewiston if not farther. The object
appeared to Mr.. Flynt to be much
larger than star and his attention
was attracted to it by the flashes of
light coming from it. Later it seemed
to swing around in the sky and the
light appeared in different direction.
A member of the Journal staff. who
saw the mysterious object at about the
same time, felt quite sure that he could
discern two wings with a larger OBJ
ject in the middle and a brilliant light
at the rear of the center, while d Sec
Ond light shed it's rays upon the wings
He states that the settling of the OBJ
ject was perceptibe and seen at so
great a distance he thinks that it must
have been moving at a good rate Of
speed to make the settling noticeable.
Half a dozen of the Journal "Noght
Owls" climbed to the top of the Jour
nal building and viewed the object and
its movements until the trees on Grove
street obscured it from view. The
light or lights were seen to move swift
ly both up and down. seemed to circle
and made several long gliding sweeps.
The direction from the Journal office
was in a line bearing over the top of
Rines hill.
Robert Morang, who lives on Western
avenue, and who was able to see the
strange object later than any of the
other observers, watched it for some
time with a field glass after it had
passed over in the direction of Betsey
Howard hill and he is confident that it
was a big balloon of some sort
Horace T.. Bowditch, who saw the
object at about the same time that Mr..
Flynt saw it, stated that it had recu-
liar sparkle and appeared to HIM to
be diamond shaped He is of the opin-
ion that it was d peculiarly shaped
planet and says that friend of his
saw what was apparently the same OBJ
ject on the previous night in nearly
the same position in which he noticed 1t
Thursday evening.
Reports are awaited with interest by
those who saw the strange object IN
the sky of it's appearance in some 9TH
or section. Experiments have
been made in various sections of the
country with airships recently so that
it is quite possible that the object IN
question may have been either an ar
ship or a dirigible balloon. Whatever
it may have been, most of those VINO
saw it say that it moved as If 1t was
being steered in certain direction
rather than waited by the wind.