Source: Evening Capital and Maryland Gazette. August 21, 1918, page 1.
Strange Lights Seen Last Night in the Heavens Puzzle the Populace
Various Theories Made
A few people in Annapolis and more in the county near the city witnessed in the northeastern and eastern sky last night about 9:30 o’clock strange lights that were more or less uncanny. The lights were of a bluish-white and seemed to be great stars. They appeared to hover very near to the earth. They could be distinctly seen at Arundel-on-the-Bay, and everybody was asking everybody else what they could be. At intervals they would disappear only to shine again with new brilliance and occasionally fade to a mellow orange and then grow red.
The lights, which were circular, appearing to be about an eighth the size of the moon, seemed to be stationary from Walbrook, Baltimore, and surrounding territory, where they were also seen, but from East Baltimore, Fort Howard and the Bethlehem Steel Company’s plant, where thousands of workmen watched them, they seemed to move very slowly.
The first appearance of one of the strange luminaries was noticed at 9:30 P.M. Its disappearance and ostensible reappearance impressed many persons that it was the same light, while, as a matter of fact, there were several. When the one was first sighted it brought visions of Zeppelins and the long-expected air raid, but when these did not materialize naturally a scientific explanation was sought.
Application was made by Baltimoreans first to the weather man there and then to several star-gazers, but all remarked calmly that no celestial body was due for a visit at this time and nothing of any phenomenal value might be anticipated.
After this disappointment the newspapers were appealed to and received scores of calls, each one of them presenting a new theory. Then finally a man called up and said: “We have been blaming everything else on the war, so why don’t we find a reason to trace the lights to the same?”
This suggestion was followed out, and the only possible solution seemed to be inquiry at Aberdeen, the most warlike place hereabouts.
It is little advertised, of course, but, as a matter of fact, Aberdeen folks are doing many queer things up there at night. The one thing that they have in their repertoire, which might have caused the strange sights of last night is this:
In making tests with heavy caliber mortars such things as star bombs are utilized. These funny little things are equipped with silk parachutes and fired into the air. The firing ignites a preparation in them and the “stars” burn steadily, while the parachute keeps them somewhat stationary. Then the large guns are fired and the course of the shells and speed are marked by the light of the artificial star. These stars then float about until they are finally extinguished and then descend. Their average height level is about 2,300 feet.
Another similar device is a parachute arrangement which is sent up by a rocket and which is a signal for the artillery from the infantry. These lights are also varicolored.
In the absence of scientific explanation, this theory may be accepted, especially since the boys now at Fort Howard see them very often floating their way from the Aberdeen grounds.
