The late Charles Fort, who wrote "The Book of the Damned" and other interesting collections of extraordinary circumstances, accused scientists of using ridiculous explanations of things and phenomena they know nothing about. While I can't follow Mr. Fort all the way in his skepticism of scientific data, I believe he was justified in his conclusion that a scientist will go thrice around Robin Hood's barn, chanting a strange jargon, rather than admit there is such a thing as a natural wonder that he can't explain.
Take ball lightning. For generations scientists tried to make the world believe that ball lightning is an optical illusion. Because they had no explanation for ball lightning, they said there wasn't any such thing.
Now, I have had many letters from persons who testify to personal experience with ball lightning.
In a recent number of the American Mercury, Charles Fitzhugh Talman, meteorologist, discusses ball lightning, admits that there is no generally accepted explanation for it, and, after repeating the testimony of several persons who have seen the phenomenon close at hand, he drags out the old bogey of optical illusion. The light of an extraordinary flash of lightning, he says, may have been taken for ball lightning by many observers, on account of its being reflected from a pool of water or a windowpane.
I think less of scientists every time I read such childish efforts to dodge the necessary, "I don't know."
The fusing of some wire conductor by a bolt of ordinary lightning also may have caused people to think they saw ball lightning, thinks the learned Mr. Talman.
He should read some of my letters from observers who saw ball lightning and were quite close to it, far from fused fires and pools of water.
Only a scientist would venture to offer such silly explanations of well-observed phenomena. Other persons would be human and say, "Yes, there undoubtedly exists such a strange thing, but I don't know anything about it."
Mrs. H. G. Lewis, Chicago, is one of my correspondents who has seen ball lightning.
"I saw the phenomenon for the first time in October, 1927," she writes me. "It was at my home, on Greenwood avenue. The day had been sultry, and a heavy electrical storm came on between seven and nine p. m. I went to a window and threw up the sash, to watch the storm. It was raining torrents. Suddenly, a blinding flash, a crash, and the air in front of my window was full of whirling balls of various sizes. Some as large as oranges, others as small as robins' eggs. It was over in about two seconds. One other woman in our neighborhood told me a friend of hers had seen the display also."
Of course, the scientists can say that Mrs. Lewis was suffering from an optical illusion. Many of them would rather say that than be natural and say, "How wonderful! No, I've no idea what may have been the cause or nature of the phenomenon you witnessed."
(Copy't 1932, McNaught Syndicate, Inc.)