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Fort, Charles - The Book of the Damned - Falls of Pebbles and Pebble storms
Identifier
028674
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Book of the Damned - Charles Fort
La Sci. Pour Tous, 5-264
Wolverhampton, England, June, 1860--violent storm--fall of so many little black pebbles that they were cleared away by shoveling; great number of small black stones that fell at Birmingham, England, August, 1858--violent storm--said to be similar to some basalt a few leagues from Birmingham (Rept. Brit. Assoc., 1864-37);
W.H. Perry, Sergeant, Signal Corps,_Monthly Weather Review, July, 1888
pebbles described as "common water-worn pebbles" that fell at Palestine, Texas, July 6, 1888--"of a formation not found near Palestine"
Am. J. Sci., 1-26-161
round, smooth pebbles at Kandahor, 1834
Monthly Weather Review, May, 1883.
"a number of stones of peculiar formation and shapes, unknown in this neighborhood, fell in a tornado at Hillsboro, Ill., May 18, 1883."
Monthly Weather Review, May, 1884-134:
Report from the Signal Service observer, at Bismarck, Dakota:
That, at 9 o'clock, in the evening of May 22, 1884, sharp sounds were heard throughout the city, caused by a fall of flinty stones striking against windows. Fifteen hours later another fall of flinty stones occurred at Bismarck. There is no report of stones having fallen anywhere else.
September, 1898, New York newspaper
In September, 1898, there was a story in a New York newspaper, of lightning--or an appearance of luminosity?--in Jamaica--something had struck a tree: near the tree were found some small pebbles. It was said that the pebbles had fallen from the sky, with the lightning. But they were not angular fragments such as might have been broken from a stony meteorite: they were "water-worn pebbles."
Monthly Weather Review, August, 1898-363:
That the government meteorologist had investigated: had reported that a tree had been struck by lightning, and that small water-worn pebbles had been found near the tree: but that similar pebbles could be found all over Jamaica.
Monthly Weather Review, September, 1915-446:
Prof. Fassig gives an account of a fall of hail that occurred in Maryland, June 22, 1915: hailstones the size of baseballs "not at all uncommon." "An interesting, but unconfirmed, account stated that small pebbles were found at the center of some of the larger hail gathered at Annapolis. The young man who related the story offered to produce the pebbles, but has not done so." A footnote: "Since writing this, the author states that he has received some of the pebbles."
We correlate it with a datum reported by a Weather Bureau observer, signifying that, whether the pebbles had been somewhere aloft a long time or not, some of the hailstones that fell with them, had been. The datum is that some of these hailstones were composed of from twenty to twenty-five layers alternately of clear ice and snow-ice.
The Maryland hailstones are unusual, but a dozen strata have often been counted. Ferrel gives an instance of thirteen strata. Such considerations led Prof. Schwedoff to argue that some hailstones are not, and cannot, be generated in this earth's atmosphere--that they come from somewhere else. Prof. Schwedoff's paper was read before the British Association (Rept. of 1882_, p. 453).
The source of the experience
Fort, CharlesConcepts, symbols and science items
Symbols
Science Items
Geomagnetic hot spotsGeomagnetic storms and space weather
Sun
Sun spot activity [high]