Records of the strange sighting at Burritt College, pictured above, come courtesy of a letter written to Scientific American by one Professor A.C. Carnes, in which he described what was seen and asked for help explaining it. “The first (object) became visible again,” he wrote, “and increased rapidly in size, while the other diminished, and the two spots kept changing thus for about half an hour. There was considerable wind at the time, and light fleecy clouds passed by, showing the lights to be confined to one place.” Carnes’ best guess for the cause of the phenomenon: “electricity.” Which, you know. Why not?

The representatives of Scientific American, being Americans of science, doubted that electricity could be blamed for what was seen. Instead, they postulated that the whole shebang was the result of “distant clouds of moisture,” which, again, why not? The true cause of the sighting has yet to be uncovered, but at a guess, we’d say it was probably weather balloons. Maybe swamp gas. Say, have you ever seen a neuralizer before?