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"...we should pass over all biographies of 'the good and the great,' while we search carefully the slight records of wretches who died in prison, in Bedlam, or upon the gallows."
~Edgar Allan Poe
Showing posts with label Weird weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weird weather. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Newspaper Clipping of the Day




Bring on the flying laundry!  The “London Times,” July 5, 1842 (via Newspapers.com):

Wednesday forenoon a phenomenon of most rare and extraordinary character was observed in the immediate neighbourhood of Cupar. About half-past 12 o'clock, whilst the sky was clear, and the air, as it had been throughout the morning, perfectly calm, a girl employed in tramping clothes in a tub in the piece of ground above the town, called the common, heard a loud and sharp report over her head, succeeded by a gust of wind of most extraordinary vehemence, and of only a few moments’ duration. On looking round she observed the whole of the clothing, sheets, etc., lying within a line of a certain breadth, stretching across the green, driven almost perpendicularly into the air.

Some heavy wet sheets, blankets, and other of like nature, after being carried to a great height, fell, some in the adjoining gardens, and some on the high road, at several hundred yards' distance; another portion of the articles, however, consisting of a quantity of curtains, and a number of smaller articles, were carried upwards to an immense height, so as to be almost lost to the eye, and gradually disappeared altogether from sight in a south-eastern direction, and have not yet been heard of.  At the moment of the report which preceded the wind, the cattle in the neighbouring meadow were observed roaming about in an affrighted state, and for some time after they continued cowering together in evident terror. The violence of the wind was such that a woman, who at the time was holding a blanket, found herself unable to keep hold, and relinquished it in the fear of being carried along with it! 

It is remarkable that, while even the heaviest articles were stripped off a belt, as it were, running across the green, and while the loops of several sheets which were pinned down were snapped, light articles lying loose on both sides of the belt were never moved from their position.

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com



This account of a curious…meteorological phenomenon? appeared in the “Public Advertiser,” September 14, 1767:

Extract of a Letter from Edinburgh, Sept, 7. "From the North we have an Account of a very uncommon Phenomenon, which made its Appearance, a few Days ago in Perthshire, to the inconceivable Surprize of all who beheld it. It first was observed on the Water of Ifla, near Cupar Angus, where it was preceded by a thick dark Smoke, which soon dispelled, and discovered a large luminous Body, which at first Sight appeared like a House on fire, but which presently after took a Form something pyramidal, and rolled forwards with Impetuosity till it came to the Water of Erick, which empties itself into lfla, up which River it took its Direction, likewise with great Rapidity, and disappeared a little above Blairgowrie. The Effects  were as extraordinary as the Appearance. In its Passage, it carried a large Cart many Yards over a Field of Grass, a Man riding along the high Road was carried from his Horse, and so stunned with the Fall, as to remain senseless a considerable Time.

It destroyed one half of a House, or rather carried it off, and left the other behind, as the Part carried off was a good many Yards from the other. It undermined and destroyed an Arch of the new Bridge Building at Blairgowrie, immediately after which it disappeared. As few Appearances of this kind ever were attended with like Consequences, various Conjectures have been formed concerning it.

The Country People call it foul Air but it is expected the Public will be yet favoured with a more particular Account, as several Gentlemen of Learning and Inquiry were Witnesses both to its Appearance and Effects."