Kentucky Meat Shower
The Kentucky Meat Shower (meat showers of Kentucky) was an event that took place against 14:00 on March 3, 1876th For several minutes, red meat rained from the sky in an area of 100 by 50 yards near Rankin, Bath County . The meat pieces were approximately 5 x 5 centimeters in size, with at least one 10 x 10 centimeter piece reported. The New York Times reported the incident at Allen Crouch's farm on March 10, 1876.
Witnesses examined the chunks of meat and even tried them. The meat was fresh, the witnesses guessed it was sheep or game. Samples were analyzed in different laboratories. A wide variety of theories on the cause of the rain of meat appeared in magazines.
In the Scientific American Supplement, Leopold Brandeis suspected that it was the bacterium Nostoc , which swells into a gelatinous mass when water is added. However, the rain of flesh had occurred under a blue sky.
In the American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science, J. Lawrence Smith suspected that it was frog spawn carried away by the wind . However, the spawning seasons in question had not yet started.
In the Louisville Medical News, Professor LD Kastenbine guessed vultures that had vomited at high altitude. This theory is still the most plausible today. Kentucky is home to both black vultures and turkey vultures .
There were also humorous interpretations. William Livingston Alden wrote in the New York Times that the meat came from meat meteorites orbiting the sun. Predictive methods have to be developed so that the rain of meat can be used for culinary purposes.
Fantastic theories were also making the rounds, for example of the brothers fighting with knives, which a whirlwind caught and carried away to drop the remains elsewhere.
In 2004, the art professor Kurt Gohde found an original sample of the rain of meat from 1876 at Transylvania University in Lexington. However, it could no longer be determined what exactly it was. Nevertheless, Gohde had the taste of the sample analyzed and jelly beans (jelly candies) made with this flavor.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Sofia Glasl: Shreds from Heaven . Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 29, 2020
- ↑ a b c d Bec Crew: The Great Kentucky Meat Shower mystery unwound by projectile vulture vomit on blogs.scientificamerican.com, December 1, 2014 (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f Cheyenne Miller: The day it rained meat on a Kentucky farm on kentucky.com, August 15, 2015 (English)