OK, now that I’ve collected a ton of reports, it seems abundantly clear that the October 22 1896 Meteor sighted in California was indeed a meteor, and not an airship. What seems to have happened is that once the 1896 airship “flap” sightings began (in mid-November 1896), people started misremembering what was seen at Cliff House. However, the original press report (“A Queer Thing in the Sky”, San Francisco Examiner, Oct 23 1896) of what was seen at Cliff House was clearly ‘of a piece’ with all the other reports.
So, my apologies to Loren E. Gross and Daniel Cohen, but it seems that this meteor should be removed from the 1896 California Airship Flap timeline.
Additionally, Stefano Guidoni suggested in a comment here that Professor Lewis Swift’s observation of a comet near the horizon on Sept 20 1896 might well have been of Comet 205P/Giacobini not long after it had split into two. I think this too is very likely: and so, apologies again to Gross and Cohen, but this sighting should probably be removed from the same timeline.
October 22 1896 Reports
(The following includes a brief report from Oakland that appeared in here.)
- Oakland – CDP
- Origin: “a little north of west”
- Height: “rose like a sky-rocket” “parallel to my horizon” “remarkably slow”
- Path: “an arc of ninety degrees or more”
- Split: “into four parts, but not with the usual explosive effect”
- Duration: “about ten seconds”
- Disappeared: 6:09pm PST “behind the Berkeley Hills”
- Napa – Mr D. J. Brown
- Appeared: “about six o’clock”
- Origin: “from the west”
- Height: “quite near the Earth, speed slower than that of any other like body”
- Path: “passing over the valley in the direction of Napa Soda Springs”
- Split: “head divided into three parts”
- Disappeared: “went to pieces like a spent sky-rocket”
- Hunter’s, Tehama – Mr H. F. Stivers
- Appeared: “6:10 p.m. P. S. T.”
- Origin: “in the west” “fifteen or twenty degrees above the […] horizon”
- Path: “directly towards the moon”, “must have described the complete arc of the heavens”
- Split: “separated twice, making plainly visible three pieces”
- Duration: “ten to fifteen seconds”
- Disappeared: “in the moon’s light, not more than ten degrees from that luminary”
- Wheatland
- Origin: “in the west as a star of the magnitude of the evening star and in close proximity to Jupiter”
- Path: “towards the east” “very steadily and slowly”
- Height: “parallel to the horizon”
- Split: “increased in size until it gradually separated first into one comet-shaped meteor, then in two, and finally into three distinct comet-shaped meteors”
- Disappeared: “when five degrees north of east it suddenly disappeared”
- Highland Springs
- Appeared: “6:13 o’clock”
- Path: “from southwest to northeast”
- Split: “three large balls of fire”
- Disappeared: “as if the [fire] balls burst on the mountain north of Clear Lake”
- Nevada [City], California – W. M. Richards
- Appeared: “ten minutes past 6 o’clock this evening”
- Origin: “a few degrees above the western horizon”
- Path: “a direction a little north of east”
- Split: “three balls of fire, all in a row and connected like a train of cars, with a long fiery tail”
- Disappeared: “high in the heavens, apparently somewhere over the Great Dipper and North Star”
- Oakland
- “The same phenomenon was witnessed in this city, and noted as a remarkable sight”
- Between Gold Flat and Grass Valley – Capt. Henry Richards and son (was this “W. M.”?)
- Origin: “West”
- Path: “from west to east”
- Height: “on a horizontal line”
- Split: “in three parts and the line of fire, resembling the tail of a comet, […]”
- Disappeared: “did not fall to the earth, but passed into space”
- Stockton – Dr Foreman, John Ahern, Rodney the dog
- Appeared: “ten minutes past six o’clock”
- Origin: “a little north of west”
- Path: “a bit north of east” “The Aurora mill obstructed our view of a portion of it”
- Height: “appeared […] to traverse space on a level”
- Split: “three large balls of fire […], the first largest. From the third a rail of fire extended”
- Disappeared: “gradually faded from our view, going beyond the range of our vision, I suppose”
- San Jose
- Origin: “out of the west”
- Path: “easterly across the city”
- Height: “apparently quite close to the earth” “on a horizontal line”
- Split: “divided into two parallel lines of light, each with several balls of fire at regular intervals”
- Disappeared: (while traveling)
- Cliff House, San Francisco – Mayor Sutro’s staff
- Appeared: “shortly after 6 o’clock” “6:15 o’clock”
- Origin: “about 10 miles out at sea” [west]
- Path: “eastward, as if it had important business on the other coast”
- Height: “a straight line horizontally”
- Split: “seemed to have a head” “a long trail of fire extended behind”
- Duration: “a few minutes”