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Fort, Charles - New Lands - Fall of a fiery, red ball which became a small bristling mass of black fibers
Identifier
028723
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
New Lands – Charles Fort
Nov. 16, 1857
It is said that, according to investigations by Prof. Shepard, a luminous substance was seen falling slowly, by Sparkman R. Striven, a young man of seventeen, at his home, in Charleston, S. C., Nov. 16, 1857. It is said that the young man saw a fiery, red ball, the size and shape of an orange, strike a fence, breaking, and disappearing. Where this object had struck the fence, was found "a small bristling mass of black fibers." According to Prof. Shepard, it was "a confused aggregate of short clippings of the finest black hair, varying in length from one tenth to one third of an inch." Prof. Shepard says that ….. when he analyzed these hairs they burned away, leaving grayish skeletons, and that they were "composed in part of carbon," and burned with an odor "most nearly bituminous."