UFO Ark encounter, Parramatta Park, Australia 1868
ETs & UFOs : | 1971 File | Elena Danaan | Events, film and books | F.W. Birmingham, Parramatta Park, Australia 1868 | Flying Saucers over Australia 1950 | Martin Sharp, LSD & UFOs 1960s | Maria Orsic | Mayan Alien & UFO hieroglyphs | MH370 | Mount Zeil, Australia | Mussolini's UFO 1933 | Origins | Shirley UFO 1952 | Space Force | TR-3B | UFOs, Aliens and the Vatican + References | Wilson/Davis transcript 2002 | Zero Point Energy |
In the name of goodness, how can I overcome gravity? (F.W. Birmingham 15 April 1872)
The clock and watch both stopped at 10.30 am, and strange to say they went on again, [and] after half an hour stoppage returned right!! (F. W. Birmingham 7 December 1873)
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| The "zack, zack, zack" movement - typical of Alien spacecraft, in that it is quick, straight and with high angle turns and movements. Copy of original drawing from F.W. Birmingham's Memorandum Book A D. 1873. |
Contents
- Introduction
- Biographical outline
- Chronology
- Acknowledgements
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1. Introduction
On the evening of 26 July 1868, and through to the early morning of the following day, Frederick William Birmingham (1823 - 1893), an experienced Irish-Australian surveying engineer, encountered an Alien spacecraft (UFO) he referred to as an Ark, and an Alien he referred to as a Spirit, at his home in Duck's Lane [Trott Street], Parramatta, and at Parramatta Park, near Sydney, Australia. His 1873 description of the encounter was contained in the manuscript Memorandum Book A.D.1873, a transcript of which was produced during the 1950s, and the content made public in the 1980s (Chalker 1982). Sections of that now-lost (though copied) manuscript, plus additional material by Birmingham, included descriptions of the following:
- July 1868 - Encounter with an Alien referred to as a Spirit and a spacecraft referred to as an Ark [UFO]
- 1868 - professional and health issues
- 27 March 1871 - gate opening and closing poltergeist episode
- 15 April 1872 - revelation / telepathic contact regarding rebuilding the Ark craft [UFO]
- 9 March 1873 - three mysterious clouds and a spacecraft seen in the sky [UFOs]
During 1875 Birmingham published an article in a local Australian newspaper which described in detail the internals of the Ark spacecraft - which he prophetically renamed Rover - along with its construction and means of propulsion. This was based on information received telepathically from the Spirit in 1872, and his original 1868 encounter, wherein the Spirit took him inside the craft. A replica of the Ark was subsequently constructed by Birmingham around 1873-5 at his Parramatta residence, and a precise engineering drawing and description of it survives. He took a model of the Rover to the United States in 1885, hoping to sell the concept. Therein he was unsuccessful and returned to Australia in 1887.
Though a professional, experienced engineer, it seems that the skill, knowledge and technology available to Birmingham at the time, was not sufficient in enabling him to successfully replicate the Ark or "overcome gravity" as he had mentioned in his writing. The process of creating a physical replica was in part straightforward, however the same did not apply to the technological aspects. As a result, his replica was merely a sailing vessel which ran on railway tracks and did not take flight as far was we can gather. His "vacuum chests" - boxes which generated a vacuum which would envelop the craft and provide a facsimile anti-gravitic force - were not workable, or the same as the actual free-energy electromagnetic and electrostatic systems encountered in retrieved UFOs since the 1930s, and as seen since the early 1980s in the United States stealth anti-gravity and warp drive enabled aircraft / spacecraft such as the TR-3B.
Both original descriptions by Birmingham (1873 and 1875) are naturally couched in contemporary terminology, language, and what appears to be a Christian Episcopalian religious context. Therefore, reference to the UFO as an Ark and to the Alien as a Spirit is understandable, if not prophetic. As a result, Birmingham's exposition of the actual encounter and related telepathic visions aligns the Alien and communication therein with God and the Holy Spirit of the Blessed Trinity. This aligns with the contemporary state of knowledge of such things, and of ideas relating to life beyond Earth and across the cosmos in general during 1868 and through to the early 1890s, at a time when the concept of aerial or space travel was barely beyond the realm of hot air balloons. It was not until 1894 - a year after Birmingham's death - that Lawrence Hargrave of Stanwell Park, located approximately 37 miles south of Parramatta, took flight powered solely by box kites, and 1902 before the Wright Brothers undertook the first powered flight.
It should be noted that the description of the spacecraft's internal working provided by Birmingham between 1873-75, aligns closely with that provided during the late 1980s by Bob Lazar, an American scientist who worked on some of the nine captured Alien spacecraft then held at the United States Nevada Area 51 / S4 sites. Lazar's description of the spacecraft he worked on - a typical flying saucer - along with its means of propulsion, is included in the following video. The flying saucer description therein begins at 19.20 minutes in the video.
Bob Lazar - A lesson on interstellar travel, circa 1987, YouTube, posted 21 November 2023, duration: 34.51 minutes.
Lazar's is a circular craft, approximately 40 feet in diameter and 16 feet high, over three levels. Birmingham's is more of a rectangular or cigar shape, 42 feet long, 12 feet wide and 9 feet high. This is typical of the Alien UFOs observed during the early years of the twentieth century, the vast majority of which were reported as either round or cigar shape. Birmingham's reference to an Ark could have been to the Old Testament Noah's Ark-like boat - as illustrated by him in 1873 - or the box-like Ark of the Covenant, as seen in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark and also referenced by Birmingham, though his illustration within the Memorandum Book is clearly to the former. Modern sightings of UFO, where they provide definition, are commonly of circular, triangular or rectangular-shaped craft (i.e. flying saucer, or cigar-shaped), orbs, or even a mixture, as in a luminous globe within a transparent box.
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2. F.W. Birmingham - biographical outline
Who was Frederick William Birmingham? Little is known of him in the present day beyond the spheres of ufology and local history. As an historic figure he is a mere shadow in the public consciousness. From the current research of the present author, built upon that of Australian Bill Chalker and American Chris Aubeck, it is clear he was an intelligent man - a respected professional surveyor and civil engineer, with a long career in those fields, both overseas and in Australia. He apparently never married or had any progeny and notes his living alone at the time of his encounters. For a period in the late 1850s and early 1860s he worked for the New South Wales Surveyor General's Department, but during his working life from the the late 1830s through to the early 1890s he pursued his profession both as employee and employer in England and Ireland, the United States, Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria. For example, he surveyed the site of the Melbourne General Post Office (GPO), produced a detailed town plan of Portland, Tasmania, and worked on the Parramatta water works. Along the way he developed an expertise in the planning and construction of urban water supplies. Birmingham was, as one would expect, quite literate and keen to engage in public debate, publishing in local newspapers during the 1860s and 1870s, and, sometimes anonymously, a number of letters to the editor and an account of his travels. He also appeared to give evidence before two New South Wales government Select Committees. Birmingham was obviously a social, community-minded person, serving two terms on Parramatta Council and unsuccessfully running for a State seat. He was therefore no fool, or someone who could simply be cast off as a loony or, to use the modern day term, a conspiracy theorist, though in the last years of his life friends began to worry about his state of mind, especially following a journey to the United States in 1885 to attempt to sell his Ark replica prototype.
Birmingham appears to have been a very practical, conservative, and God-fearing man of his time. He was also open-minded and inquisitive. For example, his 1864 description of a meteorite passing over Sydney, published in a prominent newspaper, is highly detailed and evidence of his interest in astronomy, as is his later outline of the Rover replica aircraft / spacecraft similarly published in 1875 and reflecting his skills and experience as a civil engineer. To do what he did, and present what he did, in Australia at that period is quiet incredible, and was no doubt greeted with as much skepticism and disbelief as the subject of UFOs and Alien encounters has been during the last century, and most especially since the Magenta, Italy, UFO crash and retrieval of 1933, the WWII Nazi foo fighters and experimental flying saucers, and the Kenneth Arnold and Roswell incidents of 1947. Ridicule and government and industry coverup continues to plaque the subject of UFOs and Aliens, though the numerous, everyday encounters by ordinary citizens reveal those denials for what they are.
For the present writer, a great deal of what Birmingham wrote and did, when stripped of the antiquated language and Christian symbolism, resonates with our current understanding of the Alien / UFO phenomena. This is both revealing and surprising. Birmingham's account of the event at Parramatta during July 1868 was written at a time when the very idea of human flight - beyond hopping in a gaseous balloon basket and drifting up and down, or sideways with the wind - was a dream, let alone the subject of sentient life beyond planet Earth. The associated mechanics was likewise at the concept-only stage. The widespread use and understanding of terms such as flying saucer, UFO, Alien and Extraterrestrial was some eighty years away, though encounters with such objects and beings had appeared in the historic record dating back to Biblical times and beyond. As such, Birmingham's account has been subject to significant interpretation over the years since the 1980s when it was first made public by Australian ufologist Bill Chalker. That author labelled it a UFO vision, following on Birmingham's own reference to its dream-like aspects. Chalker's research was later supplemented by others, most notably Chris Aubeck (Aubeck 2013).
Uncanny similarities have been identified between Birmingham's experiences, or vision, and modern depictions of Alien encounters and so-called close encounters of the fourth kind (CE4), wherein humans are taken aboard Alien spacecraft, either of their own free will or, as in recent times, abducted - though some have suggested that the latter, like cattle mutilations, are not Alien but instigated by humans as part of a program to ward off deeper study of the UFO / Alien phenomena. Birmingham's account includes the full gamut of legitimate Alien close encounters, from initial sighting (CE1), landing of a spacecraft (CE2), encounter with an Alien (CE3), visit to a spacecraft (CE4) and communication between a human and Alien on a telepathic level (CE5). We simply know they took place and include the dream-like quality whereby CE4 and CE5 participants often question the reality of their experiences and/or find difficulty in describing them, especially aspects such as Alien technologies, levitation, teleportation, non-verbal communication (telepathy) and time dilation or time slipping.
The present article seeks to bring together extant material relating to the 1868 event and to the life of Frederick William Birmingham, presenting both original, archival materials, secondary sources, and later interpretations. It should be noted that the current author believes in the veracity of Birmingham's account and subsequent activities. He also understands that a skeptical view can be imposed upon the events of 1868-72, to the extend of classifying it as merely a piece of fantastical fiction, much as Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland of 1865 was a dream within a dream. Even if it was a fiction, then it was an incredibly prophetic one on the part of a lone Parramatta surveyor and civil engineer who, apart from this episode, had lived a relative normal private and professional life. It can be noted that first-hand verification of the activities of Birmingham in relation to the 1868 event and its consequences came with the later reminiscences by two contemporary associates: Frederick Charles Cox, Parramatta lord mayor during 1884-5, around the time Birmingham visited the United States (Cox 1932); and writer and botanist Herbert John Rumsey, who operated a library in Parramatta in the late 1880s and in 1911 provided a description of the replica Ark, including information not elsewhere available (Rumsey 1911). If we therefore treat Birmingham's encounter as a reality, then this opens up a lot of questions as to precisely what was the significance of the events he described. Some of those questions are addressed below, both by the contemporary sources and subsequent commentary.
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3. Chronology of events and references
The following chronological listing of the life and times of F.W. Birmingham focusses on original references to the 1868 event and later related actions His Memorandum Book account - or, at least, of its 1950s transcription - lies at the core of the discussion. Unfortunately the original manuscript has been lost since Australian ufologist Tasman V. Homan, the last owner, died in 1981. This article provides some context and biographical information on Birmingham, along with his description of the Rover vehicle he subsequently constructed between 1873-5. This was based on the Noah's Ark-like Alien spacecraft he encountered in 1868 and was apparently asked to replicate by the Alien Spirit during 1872. It should be noted that the term Alien is used by the present author throughout, though it also equates to Extraterrestrial aka. ET. As mentioned above, much of the material below is based on the original research of Bill Chalker and Chris Aubeck during the 1970s and 1980s. Some original research has also been undertaken by the present author.
c.1821
* Frederick William Birmingham is born in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland, circa 1823, with some references indicating 1821. Frederick’s father was a civil engineer named William Birmingham (1791-1848).
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1838
* Birmingham secures his first job at the age of 17 and enters the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland, working in the west of Ireland during 1838 as a "civil assistant." He then spends the next decade surveying across Ireland and England.
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1850
* June 1850: Birmingham leaves Ireland and boards the Conqueror in June 1850 for New York. He apparently initially planned to settle there.
* August 1850: Birmingham produces a water supply map of Albany, New York, for the firm of W.J. McAlpine, Engineer.
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1852
* Birmingham leaves the United States for Australia. He has become disappointed with the low wages in the US and hopes to gain employment as a surveyor and civil engineer in Australia, at a time when goldrushes are occurring. Throughout the 1850s he works in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. He initially spends about three years (mid' 1852 - mid' 1855) based in Victoria, though also working in nearby Tasmania, before moving to New South Wales on a full-time basis, eventually settling at Parramatta, west of Sydney.
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1853
* circa August 1853: Birmingham travels from Victoria to Tasmania to begin a survey of Portland.
* 21 October 1853, Portland Herald, Tasmania: Brief story on Birmingham's production of a surveyed map / town plan of Portland.
Map of the Town - Mr. F. W. Birmingham, who came here in the Osmanli a short time back, has completed a minute survey of the town, and returns to Melbourne in a few days to engrave the sheets for an accurate map of Portland.
The map, as published in December 1853, is illustrated. It is a highly detailed work of art.
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1854
* Birmingham works in Victoria, residing in the Melbourne suburb of St. Kilda. At the end of the year he decides to travel north to New South Wales.
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1855
* 27 February 1855 - Birmingham arrives in New South Wales from Victoria.
* 20 April 1855 - Birmingham takes up a position in the New South Wales Surveyor General's Department. He is employed on a contract basis for 2-3 years.
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1858
* 2 February 1858, Empire, Sydney: Birmingham advertises his professional surveying and engineering services in Sydney and Parramatta newspapers through to about 1890, a year or two before his death.
Parramatta - F.W. Birmingham, Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor, Fennel Street; 22 November 1858 - Macquarie Street.
* 18 August 1858 - Birmingham is interviewed by a New South Wales Legislative Assembly Committee concerning his Surveyor General's position. Refer Votes & Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, during the session of 1858-59, Volume II, William Hanson, Government Printer, Sydney, 137 -142.
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1859
* 3 April 1859 - Birmingham travels to Melbourne on the Wonga Wonga. Arrives 5 April. He later returns to Sydney.
* August - December 1859: Birmingham travels overseas, visiting Tahiti, the United States and Canada.
* 31 December 1859, Argus, Melbourne: Letter from F.W. Birmingham in Melbourne to a friend in that city, regarding his visit to the United States and Canada.
VANCOUVER AND BRITISH COLUMBIA.
The following letter, addressed to a resident of this city, has been handed to us for the purpose of publication:
Royal Hotel, Town of Victoria, Vancouver Island, Oct. 11 1859.
My Dear Mr. -----, Prior to my departure from Sydney, I promised to write you a few lines. I now proceed to state I got to San Francisco on September 9 (after visiting the beautiful island of Otaheite). It is difficult to obtain land in the State of California, on account of the great number of Spanish claims that are continually springing to light, insomuch that the Survey Department cannot proceed with that speed which is requisite to meet the present demand, for farms, &c. Business, generally, appeared dull. The town of San Francisco is like Sandridge, but on a larger scale; the most part of the houses are built of wood, the streets do., the wharves are of wood, decayed or decaying and, upon the whole, a most uninviting town to live in. Being desirous of visiting Vancouver Island and British Columbia, I left San Francisco in the steamer Brother Jonathan, for the town Of Victoria, V. I.
The steamer being in the coasting trade visited Crescent City, a town of about 75 houses; then Astoria, which contains, so far as I could count, 70 wooden houses, situated within the bar which crosses the mouth of the Columbia River, up which we steamed some 120 miles to Fort Vancouver, a station of the Hudson's Bay Company, and from which they must soon retire, owing to its situation being considerably south of the 49th parallel of north latitude, this parallel being the boundary-line on the main land between our country and the United States territory of Washington.
The Columbia River is generally from one to two miles wide, admitting vessels drawing fifteen feet of water. We came down some 20 miles, and turned up into the Lamoth River, to the rising town of Portland. This town has good wharf accommodation; the streets are spacious, though unmetalled; the shops are large; and the town may be said to be pleasantly situated. Its main support is the lumber trade; grapes, apples, vegetables, too are shipped from here to the town of Victoria, Vancouver Island, and to San Francisco, in California. I was not favourably impressed in relation to what I saw on the banks of the Columbia River. It appears, and from all I could learn is, sandy and subject to floods. At Portland it is of very fair quality, and near the town of Oregon very good. The country, back from the river, is hilly; the woods are principally for pine, cotton wood, &c. Squattages are to be seen all along the banks, from which many persons retire in the "wet season."
I arrived in Esquimalt harbour on the 24th ult., distance from the only town in Vancouver Island three miles by land and seven by water. The town of Victoria is pleasantly situated. The land is of black mould, from 12 to 30 inches deep. The harbour is small, and the entrance difficult. Two wooden bridges span this harbour - one on the road to Esquimalt, the other connects the Government buildings with the town. These buildings consist of a Legislative Assembly House, a Treasury, Land Office, a printing and other offices They are of frame-work, filled in with brick, and outrageously large for such an insignificant place, as complete out of keeping, in my humble opinion, with anything that may be expected in such a cold, foggy, rainy climate. The other buildings of note are the English and Roman Catholic churches, and a new bank of British North America. The latter is of stone, small with two windows, and one door fronting Bates-street. The English church is of wood, commodious, and pleasantly situated; the Roman Catholic church is a new building, of wood, and looks well, but the site is on low ground. The inns are what may be termed second and fifth rate. The charges are from fifteen dollars to six dollars, 4s. per dollar bore; British money very scarce. The fifth race for allows a person to sleep in his blankets. The streets are of a medium class, metalled in places. There are some wooden side-walks. The houses are wooden, with no pretensions to architectural beauty in any sense. There are a few wooden cottages in the outskirts that appear sufficiently neat for such a young town. The space the town occupies may be described thus: One full block and some eight blocks partially filled with houses, say, from 50 down to 10 or 12 in some blocks.
The wharves are sufficiently commodious to accommodate the present trade. The Hudson's Bay wharf is decidedly the best in construction and largest in surface, the others are not very good, being built hurriedly and by different persons ; also, no two of them are on the same plane, and disconnected, generally, some 5 or 10 to 20 feet. As to food, beef is dear and scarce. mutton costs 1s. 6d. per lb. ; potatoes, 3d. per lb. ; flour is £2 sterling per barrel of 196 lbs., and dearer in smaller quantities ; fish is bought at a reasonable price ; other articles of consumption are dear. The population is of a mixed description, but divisible into two classes whites and Indians. The whites number (as near as I can judge from careful observation) 1,200, and of this number 600 may be classed as strangers, most anxious to leave, but wanting the means to move ; others " are tied by building and land speculations to the place, and would gladly sell out, but money is a scarce commodity, and the " speculation folk" are not so verdant as to purchase property in a place that is now evidently stagnant and trending downward. The Indian class is of two tribes on, the flatheads," situated close to the bridge that forms part of the road to Esquimalt; this tribe are ugly-looking filthy creatures, and about 250 in number. The other tribe are about similar as to number, but better looking ; they will betimes work for small remuneration, and come into contact, in a measure, with white labour. The police force of Victoria, some 20 in number, have not been paid for the last three months no money in the Treasury; and if a little should come, it may be sufficient to pay the salaries of some five clerks there. Esquimalt harbour is a good one but, as to harbours, they are to be found all round the straits of Fuca. The village, if I may so call it, of Esquimalt contains two public-houses and Bomb 38 little straggling wooden houses/ and one wharf. The right place for this little village would have been about one half mile nearer to Victoria (by the present road if the best! she had been chosen, but by inquiry I have learned that this land now "in. private hands." The land from here to Victoria is principally in the hands of American speculators, who have returned to San' Francisco. The road is hilly ; army, in my opinion, a much better road-site could have been selected, avoiding three hills that at present retard conveyances. There is not much valuable land in Vancouver, Island, and the wood is not of good quality. As for farming in this island, it can never be much-it is too hilly and rocky! There are, as near as I can learn, some 500 acres of land actually cultivated. It is supposed there are some 60,000 acres of good land in the island, but the people who could and would at one time settle have now gone away. British Columbia (southern part) is a mass of wild mountains, through which the Frazer River runs with great velocity, emptying into the Gulf of Georgia. The Hudson Bay Company have a few seasons, called "forts," and trade blankets, clothes, trinkets in glass, &c., and flour, for skins and salmon, which they obtain from the Indians, The latter live upon fish and berries; occasionally they purchase a little flour as a delicacy.'
I have anxiously made inquiries as to the amount of white population, and I think I can safely say there are not 1,100 in the whole of British Columbia and this population seems to be divisible thus-a Lieutenant-Governor (Colonel Moody, of the Royal Engineers), with sundry officials; a company of Sappers and Miners, three trail cutting parties (terms-25 per cent) in money. for clothes, and the ' residue to be taken out in land), a few store-keepers, and the residue of population are parties of diggers coming and going, interspersed with an odd bona-fide farmer (principally from Canada The latter invariably go away I disgusted; they state that were they to get the land at a gift they would not settle upon it "As to the diggings - all the digging is into sand in the Fraser River, and the few bars that form these diggings are now worked out. There is a report that one man got out £600 sterling worth after 18 months' labour, but now-a-day this is a rare thing. The fact is, parties go up the river, having some 100, 200, or 300, aye, even 800 dollars, and return to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, to await money remittances to take them away. One-half the people in Victoria would gladly leave if they could; and it will be strange to me if many of them do not ask the Governor for food this winter. Queensberry, on the Frazer River, the capital of British Columbia, is composed of some 20 little wooden and calico houses, and the company of sappers who have surveyed some land about there, and have also been engaged on trail-cutting, as also some marines from the Ganges, and other ships on the station. (The marines were called away from their useful occupation owing to the San Juan Island affair.) The whole of the length of trail, say made road, is something like six miles. The Lieutenant-Governor has offered parties land on these terms :-" If you will go back behind the Indians will promise you that when the land is put up for sale, the upset price will not be higher than 10s. per acre. (From inquiries, I find no person has accepted of this offer.) There are no roads in this part of the world and the dangers of the Frazer River are beyond all imagination; I understood, prior to my leaving Australia (July 1) that engineers were out exploring for a railway to cross Columbia, but there seems to be no such thing up to the present. I cannot see how a railway can be taken to the Frazer River ; but from all I could learn, I am of opinion that the capital of British Columbia must be in latitude some three degrees more north-somewhere about Simpson's River or Observatory Inlet and from thence (as it appears to me) in an easterly direction, along the lakes to the Peace River, which runs through the Rocky Mountains, this portion of Columbia is so level as to give hope that a railway could be made in this direction to Canada. As to the benefit that a North America line from the Atlantic to the Pacific would con....- or upon the British nation, there cannot be two opinions. This portion of British Columbia is, I think, of sufficient importance to warrant an outlay sufficient to cover the expense of an exploration.
P.S. As no mail left Vancouver's Island prior to the Alice Thorndyke ship in which I have returned, I have opened this letter to inform you that the account of a monthly return from Frazer River of gold to the amount of 400,000 dollars, is a false one, and I will, instead of making this letter to you a private one, publish it, as it will no doubt have many poor fellows. from hard-hearted speculators and interested parties, who are now playing a foul game. Others there are, editors, who heard the Frazer River news thus! - "Gold-dust" - so many dollars sent down from the Frazer River, &c. Those persons who go there will soon leave this little artifice includes the money principally brought into the country in their pockets. To sum up British Columbia in a few words, it may be described as at present a large man trip.
I am, my dear G--, yours faithfully, F. W. Birmingham, C.E., Melbourne, December 30.
The Indians cannot live without salmon, which is their very meat for the principal part of the year.
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1860
* Birmingham returns to New South Wales and is most likely employed by the New South Wales Surveyor General's Department for a period.
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1861
* 4 July 1861, Empire, Sydney. Letter to the editor from F.W. Birmingham regarding the Clarence and Richmond River District and various corruption allegations aligned to proposed engineering works.
Such Sir, is the paragraph, and a very business one it appears to be, and all this has been done at the instigation of our worthy member, and the twenty thousand pounds (£20.000)- voted for the general good of the Richmond as well as the Clarence district, and three hundred pounds extra, are to be applied for the chief benefit of Mr. Clark living, as I now propose showing: - Mr. Irving has purcbased on the north bank of the Casino arm of the Richmond River two blocks of land, containing 4734 acres, occupied by bullocks, also, two blocks of land opposite thereto (Southbank), containing 4734 acres, making a total of 9290 acres, known as the Tomki and Tatham stations.
On the western end of this land the navigation of the Casino arm of the Richmond River ceases at what is termed "The Falls," and near here, also, is situated the [river crossing] on the land that Clark Irving has bought). A bridge at these "falls" would connect his above named properties and the £300 improvement it makes the road to Grafton, where, if rumour be not false, he has some other little interests, and he, being the principal shareholder of what is termed "the Clarence and Richmond Rivers Steam Navigation Company," is of course anxious to have as much money as possible expended upon and at the mouth of the Clarence River. Whether such a proceeding as building a breakwater upon the rock bottom that lies between the channel and the south head be wise or unwise it matters not, as the steam company will have the carrying trade, at the least, so this may be a matter of rejoicing for the Company, and the Clarence River people may thereby forget the broken promise of "a good land bill."
And now let us give ear to what the other half of the district - the Richmond River - says, it runs thus: "For the past seventeen years I have been known and used by the ooloniats - the cedar-cutters and squatters - the former are now principally engaged upon my fingers, alis the creeks - the boatable reeks, to wit, Emigrant Creek, Wilson's, Laycaster's, Boat Harbour, Rose Hill, Terania and other creaks, while strange as it may appear, the whole of the land along the navigable waters of my body, arms, and legs, are occupied by cattle, exceptlng a few small places (reserved by that preciously sage institution, the Survey Office) where man may drown but bullocks should not. For seventeen years I have longed to feel the first shipped cargo of cereals, sliding through my channel mouth, but alas! no such thing has as yet been realised, the squatters have it all their own way. Squatter magistrates, squatter's surveyors (in waiting) paid out of tbe public revenues, and squatter land gluttons, &c.; and betimes, it grieves me to hear the imprecations of the sturdy cedar cutter as he plies his oars through the wintry night journeying some seventy miles to procure what? - the loan of a bag of flour, as his family had nothing but salt meat and pumpkins to live upon for five weeks,' - he is thus obliged to try and borrow.
Alas! this is by no means a solitary case, the cedar cutters are sadly pinched at the present, their faith in the 'Land' or Works' departments is indeed slight. Some say that a station on my sides, and a loan of £6,OOO would tempt many 'a head' to do strange things, if such was offered." People will talk, nevertheless this rich shore oountry is actually shut up for the use of bullooks. The cedar cargoes (16 to 18 at a time) lie in vessels at my "heads" for months, awaiting a ohange in that almost everlastingly fair wind for Sydney, (when outside the bar) but foul for the bar-orossing.
A clergyman was sent amongst us with falsehood upon his lips to induce us to sign for annexation to Queensland; but away with those things! My object is to procure for my inhabitants a fair share of the twenty thousand pounds voted for the Clarence and Richmond River district, and, at the same time, to give the responsible advisers to His Excellency the key which may unlock the surpassingly rich land of tho county of Rous and part of Baller and Richmond counties; that key must be a small steam-tug, place Mr. Pilot E. and his men on board, add an engineer; then towing vessels over the bar (not as now, to get over it as best you can) at a fixed price to cover the extra cost of engineer, &c. A fair share of the voted money can buy the steamer then may come (if you make reserves, and not, as now, towns, to wit, Lismore, etc., without a single acre around them reserved for agricultural settlement! Forster unlocks this land; Robertson shuts it; but more of this anon.) an agricultural population of fifty thousand and upwards, and I can warrant their prosperity, upon some of the world's richest lands." Thus spoke and speaks the Richmond River, and as I have heard, so I repeat it.
I am, Sir, Very truly yours,
F.W. BIRMINGHAM.
Parramatta, June 29thb, 1861.
* October 1861 - A New South Wales Parliamentary Select Committee looks into claims by Birmingham that he was not appropriately paid by the Surveyor General's Department for work done in the Richmond River and Lismore area. The Committee finds in Birmingham's favour and recommends reinstatement, though he is also criticised by it for the tone of the language he used in letters addressing the Department on the matter.
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1862
* 20 May 1862, Empire, Sydney. Letter to the editor from F.W. Birmingham regarding the Post Office.
The Post Office.
To the Editor of the Empire. Sir, — Permit me, through the medium of your valuable journal, to point out that which, in my opinion, requires improvement. The Post-office form of printed letter, No. 8, reads thus :—
"Sir, — In reply to your inquiry, I beg leave to inform you, that the letter advertised as unclaimed, which you suppose to be intended for you, was, previous to your application, returned to the writer in accordance with the provisions of the Postage Act, 15th Victoria, No. 12."
Now, who the writer may be in the puzzle, and this can be easily supplied if the Post office will leave a blank in the printed forms, to be afterwards filled up by them with the writer's name and address. There are some thousands of persons in this colony, adventurers and, as a matter of course, migratory who cannot see the Sydney Post-office lists in time to obtain their letters, and this occurs chiefly in the outlying districts, (the Clarence and Richmond, for instance), where the mail service is irregular. How hard this cutting off of correspondence must be upon persons, who are, as it where, alone in this hemisphere. One's friend's may think their relative in Australia too proud, or too careless, to write a reply. Persons may be written to and requested to return to Europe, America, or some other places upon urgent business; or deaths may have occurred, when no reply is received, and, in all probability, the person written to is supposed to be dead.
I need not dilate upon all the inconvenience that may be saved by the slight, but very important addition requisite, which would enable a person to write to his friends, informing them of the cause that prevented his seeing or knowing the contents of their letters, which, in accordance with the Post-office regulations, are "returned to the writer." Friendship nor business thereby would receive no very serious check: but really, at the present time, one is inclined to believe the officials jesting when they send printed letter No. 8, which literally means thus :—
"Sir, as to the letter you apply for, don't you wish you may get it ? — or even know the writer and his address ?"
Again, it would be as well if country postmasters were ordered to pass on the letters instead of books, newspapers, and parcels — things that can be over for a time — especially when three weeks mails (letters) may be due, as was the case at Lismore, on the 14th of January, 1861, to my ocular knowledge. A person would naturally think that the Post-office authorities ought to make some arrangement with the captains of the trading vessels to the Richmond River, so as to carry a mail to the post office at Ballina, which is only three hundred yards from the anchorage. I have on some occasions received news privately via Ballina, three weeks earlier than by the Clarence River mail. I would invite any colonist interested to look at Proescha's (computation) manual of New South Wales, or other such document, and there see the roundabout mail course — the boomerang course — from the mouth of the Clarence to the mouth of the Richmond River - at present in use by the Post-office, and remember it is easier for a vessel to get into the Richmond River than into the Clarence.
Hoping that the subject matter of his letter may receive attention from all Post-office reformers, I have the honour to be, Sir, Your very obedient servant, F.W. Birmingham. Parramatta, May 17th, 1862.
* 29 September 1862, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney. Birmingham participates in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Select Committee on the Field of Mars Common, Parramatta.
* 20 October 1862 - 1876, Memorandum Notes, 6 pages, manuscript notes in black ink, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney Archives. Items inserted throughout the following chronology according to their respective dates. Transcriptions by Bill Chalker, The OZ Files, plus emendations by the present author.
* 20 October 1862, Memorandum Notes [Extract], 1862-76, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Birmingham notes that he commenced "teetotalism" on this date. Transcript:
Memorandums; F.W.B. ____ 1
On October 20thA.D. 1862, I commenced “teetotalism” and have kept it to the present and D.V. I propose Same to the end of my life.
------------------------
1864
There were a number of meteor sightings in eastern Australia during 1864, including one of a pear shape from an anonymous St. Kilda, Victoria, correspondent. F.W. Birmingham worked in Victoria around this time and it is possible that this report was submitted by him. Whether any of these sightings were of UFOs is mere conjecture. However, they do highlight the fact that members of the public were very much aware of the sky, especially at night, and especially in this period prior to the introduction of street lighting and other artificial lighting which tendered to mask the night sky and movements within it.
* 9 February 1864: A meteor is seen near Sydney:
A very brilliant meteor was observed in the neighbourhood of Ashfield, at 12 45 a.m., leaving a strongly defined track of light, terminating in a discharge of brilliantly coloured stars.
* 10 March 1864, The Argus, Melbourne: Report on a pear-shaped meteor seen near Melbourne, Victoria.
A Meteor. To the Editor of the Argus. Sir,- As I have observed that the appearance of a meteor has been a subject of sufficient interest to lead to correspondence in your paper on a former occasion, it will, perhaps, gratify your astronomical readers who had not the opportunity to observe it if I describe the impression a very large and brilliant one made upon myself on Sunday morning last. At twenty minutes past twelve as I stood with my face towards the south-east, I was startled by its appearance, in much the same way as one would be startled on looking at a clear dark sky to see a bright moon suddenly break out. The meteor appeared to come from overhead, and fell towards the south, describing a gentle curve : as I stood near to a building, I was not able to see it reach the horizon. In size, it gave the impression of bring about half the size of the moon ; in form, that of a very regularly formed pear, the large round end first, and the stem running to a fine point, and turning in the direction of the curved line of its course ; in colour, the centre of it was yellow and the outside red, and sufficiently vivid to give an uncomfortable feeling of flame. As it has not happened to me to observe anything of this kind before, and I am ignorant of the usual appearance of such objects, I should be glad to know if its appearance made a similar impression upon others who may have seen it. Yours obediently, St. Kilda. March 8.
* 4 June 1864, Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser. Report re meteor seen at Camboon in central Queensland.
From a letter received by Mr. Den Taaffe's partner, it seems that the former gentleman, now engaged in surveying the line of telegraph running to Camboon, has witnessed a strange atmospherical phenomenon, which he thus describes :- " On the 10th ultimo, at about half-past eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the day being rather warm, with but very few clouds to be seen and those of a thin white appearance, on a sudden was heard overhead a loud noise, somewhat resembling the buzzing of an enormous fly, followed directly afterwards by three distinct raps, like the beating of a large bass drum ; then succeeded a number of raps which gradually diminished in loudness as they seemed to die away in the distance, the sound, receding in a straight direction from south-west to north-east. Nothing was seen and nothing more was heard of the kind during the remainder of the day. No thunderstorm had been collecting in any visible direction. Other persons some distance off heard the sounds, and at the time imagined them to be caused by persons beating a large tin case." An equally remarkable phenomenon is reported, it may be remembered, by Sir Thomas Mitchell, as having occurred at a spot some degree and a half north of Camboon during his exploration on the Belyando. For the purpose of comparison we quote from Flanagan's History of New South Wales the passage containing the narration:—"On the night of the 24th a remarkable phenomenon was observed. A rushing wind from the west shook the tents, then a whirling mass of red light passed to the southward, accompanied by a low booming sound ; when the meteor reached the horizon a loud report, like that of a cannon, shook the air; so great was the concussion, that the boat vibrated in its carriage for minutes." In all probability Mr. Den Taaffe's phenomenon was accompanied by some form of electric light which the intensity of the solar rays prevented from being visible.
* .....
Received from F.W. Birmingham the sum of ten pounds on a/c of disbursements in case to be presented by him against the Crown.
Norton & Barker
29 June 1864
£10.0.0
* 19 November 1864 - F.W. Birmingham, Extraordinary Phenomenon, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, 19 November 1864 - Letter to the editor describing the sighting of a meteorite over Sydney on 7 November.
[Comment: This letter points to an interest by Birmingham, either developed or developing, in the sky and astronomy. The description therein is quite precise and evidence of his professional observational expertise. It seems that, at the time, he was sitting outside observing the night sky, with a telescope or some other instrument, when the supposed "meteorite" passed over his Parramatta residence. This, to a degree, pre-empts his sighting of a UFO four years later.]
EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENON.
To the Editor of the Herald. Sir, - I was glad to find in your issue of the 12th instant, a letter from Mr. S.H. Pearce, of Randwick, dated 7th instant, describing the course a certain brilliant meteor travelled upon the evening of the 7th instant. I will add a little information, in the hope it may be interesting to Mr. Pearce and others.
Sitting on the west side of the Windsor Road, in Parramatta North, and knowing my "bearings" well, I saw the meteor, in diameter 3½ to 4 inches, and its attitude about 35 degrees, travelling apparently N.N.W., parallel to the earth's surface.
It made its appearance to me about E.S.E., and when to the north of my position it disappeared by "bursting like a rocket." I was west of the meteor's course, and observed it through about 112 degrees; Mr. Pearce was east of its course, observing it through, at least, 125 degrees. From our (ocular) observations, and "Wells' Map of Cumberland," the following approximations may be obtained:-
Mr. Pearce first saw the meteor "over Botany Heads" (to the southward of him), i.e., over a point bearing south 23 degrees East, and distant south-easterly eight miles from the Wattamolla Boat Harbour, and from himself some twenty-two to twenty-three miles, "IT DISAPPEARED, BURSTING LIKE A ROCKET," in the "N.N.W., OVER SYDNEY," but at least nineteen or twenty miles away from his position at Randwick, which I assume to be (see Wells' map of the County of Cumberland) the last letter (k) in the word Randwick, and in fact bursting beyond Parramatta.
The meteor's course was about north, 23 degrees west, and travelled at least 38 miles in a space of time Mr. Pearce describes as about one minute [i.e. approximately 228 miles per hour]. I saw it during some ten miles of its course, and for some 10 or 11 seconds [i.e. travelling at approximately 360 miles per hour]. I think we may safely say the meteor travelled at the rate of about 50 miles per minute of time [i.e. approximately 300 miles per hour].
To those persons who may feel interested, I would say, make a point in the western corner of Sexton's Grant (see Wells's map), near the (L), in the word Castle Hill (north of Parramatta), where "it burst like a rocket;" then draw a straight pencil line from there through Wattamolla Boat Harbour, and you will have approximately the course it took (from seaward to beyond Parramatta); and I am convinced it must have been three-fourths of a mile in height.
It was a splendid meteor, and the first that I have seen taking so parallel and straight a course. It may be easily perceived that eighteen to twenty miles may be added to the course of the meteor seaward if Mr. Pearce first saw it as it were over Cape Banks. "Over Botany Heads" is rather a wide range; but, at all events, one thing is pretty certain, **** not more (rather less) than one mile ****, and its course or path, and altitude we find approximately. If a third person, say at Castle Hill, could give us some information, it might possibly turn out that he found some meteoric iron or some other data whereby to fix the point of termination.
I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, Fredk. Wm. Birmingham, C.E. Parramatta, November 12.
[Comment: Birmingham notes that the meteorite was present at a height of approximately 4,000 feet, and travelled at about 300 mph. This is, in the present context, relatively low and relatively slow, but the opposite for 1868. The precision of the data suggests that Birmingham made readings with instruments such as a telescope and theodolite. The meteorite's flat trajectory across the sky - "parallel to the earth's surface" - from Botany Bay west-north-westerly to Parramatta, and disappearance when it "burst like a rocket", suggests to the present author that it may have been something other than a meteorite. For example, UFOs often travel in a straight, horizontal line, and there can be a burst of light before they disappear, due to the operation of their trans-light propulsion system. If so, this may have been for Birmingham a close encounter of the first kind, and perhaps explains the title of the letter - Extraordinary Phenomena - rather than a mere shooting star / meteor entering the earth's atmosphere.]
* 22 November 1864, Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser: News item re meteor seen at Goulburn, New South Wales.
A meteor of very large size was observed at Goulburn last Sunday evening [20th], between eight and nine o'clock, passing along the zenith from east to west. It emitted sparks during its passage, and at length broke like a rocket into numerous spangles. Its apparent size is described as about one-fourth that of the moon, and the light was sufficiently brilliant to cause objects to cast a distant shadow.
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1865
* F.W. Birmingham is elected an Alderman on the Parramatta Borough Council. This is the first of his two terms.
* .....
Solicitor's Receipt for £12.2.0 held on acct of Birmingham vs The Queen Richmond River Contract
* .....
Parramatta 10th April 1865
Birmingham vs Attorney General
Received from Mr Birmingham the sum of 10 pounds which with two pounds ten shillings already received ... together twelve pounds ... accrued on a/c of costs herein
Recd. this 10th day of April 1865
Maurice Reynolds
* .....
AD 1865 Parramatta
May 2 Gave Mr. Reynolds five pounds part of Barrister's fee
May 11th Gave Mr. Reynolds five pounds for Barrister's fee
Recd. the above ten pounds an a/c of Cass Bingham & Mr ... .... Reynolds
------------------------
1866
* 6 April 1866, Empire, Sydney: F.W. Birmingham was declared insolvent on 13 March 1866, and solvent the following month. The following is a brief note on the proceedings. A number of other such notices appeared in newspapers around this time relating to his insolvency.
In the insolvent estate of F.W. Birmingham. Single meeting. Insolvent attended. One debt proved. The official assignee lodged his report - Insolvent amended his Schedule. The agent representing creditors, directed the debts to be allowed to insolvent on his paying the insolvency fees.
* 12 April 1866 .....
Memo
Recd. on the 12th April '66 from Mr. Birmingham the sum of five pounds of cash in his Estld.
R.H. Fernhill
by J. Harrison
£2.5/-
------------------------
1867
* F.W. Birmingham elected an Alderman on the Parramatta Borough Council for a second term.
1868
* 11 January 1868, Sydney Morning Herald: Notice of resignation as councillor.
Parramatta - Resignation of Alderman - Mr. F.W. Birmingham, one of the Parramatta aldermen, has sent in his resignation.
* 25 July to 26 July 1868 - During the evening of the 25th and into the following morning, Frederick William Birmingham of Duck's Lane, Parramatta, has an encounter with an Ark-like aircraft / spacecraft and Spirit sentient being, near and in his home and in Parramatta Park, west of Sydney, Australia. He subsequent writes a number of accounts of the event and its follow up. The most comprehensive account is contained within his Memorandum Book A.D. 1873 reproduced below. It is supplemented by his Memorandum Notes 1862-76.
 |
| 1 Duck's Lane [Trott Street], Parramatta, built circa 1860. The residence of F.W. Birmingham during 1868. |
* 25 to 26 July 1868, Memorandum Notes, 1862-76 [Extract], Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
On or about 25 & 26th July 1868, the vision of the vision of the heads in the air (Right rev.d Bishop Barker, “Metropolitan Bishop – and divining and showing Sir Jas. Martin’s and again the Bishop’s head, neck, & ties. Then on looking up again for the Head – the “Ark” was visible (and not the Head) I said ‘That’s a beautiful vessel’. The holy spirit on my right hand said “That’s a machine to go through the air”. I replied – ‘It appears to me more like a vessel for going on the water’ but, ‘At all events, it’s the lovliest thing I ever saw. F.W.
The Spirit replied, “Have you a wish to Enter upon it?” I said “Yes” – “Then Come” - said the Spirit, it had now rested on the grass – and both of Us were lifted through the air onto the deck. The Spirit as I stood moved towards the bow – the deck sounded hollow - , an air Cylinder was shown me and its use, by two signs. Then the hatch, the Spirit going partly down, then returned bade me “Step in” or “down” 3 steps into the Steering room, the wooden walls or Sides, & End were very thick i.e. strong looking. There seemed only a table ^ (or box shape) and Space for walking round it (the Sp[iri]t. passed on deck to the Stern: I stood at the near End of the table with my fore fingers & thumbs on the Edge of the table, downcast and repenting like ‘why did I say yes? for I Know nothing about it.’
In this mood I remained for some time when I was addressed by the Spirit (on my right hand and on the side of the table) saying “Here are some papers for your guidance” – I looked and thought the figures and formulas hard or difficult. So I replied ‘Oh will I want them?’ answering thus, “It is absolutely necessary that you “Should Know these things.” – “but”, “you “Can study them as you go on.”----
After looking well to the top paper (printed paper as they appeared) I cast my eyes downward and upon looking up for another view of the papers I found I was alone in the machine! – N.B. the figures I saw in this (machine) came some 12 months afterwards into my possession!!. F.W. Birmingham.
In Birmingham's manuscript Memorandum Book 1873 he frames the encounter in terms of "a wonderful dream - a vision", though the precise details, lucidity, and subsequent events point to its actuality, or a mixture of actuality and lucid dreaming.
1869
* 5 March 1869 - Letter from Birmingham to Parramatta Council offering his services in regards to the construction of a waterworks.
* 9 March 1869, New South Wales Government Gazette. Frederick William Birmingham appointed Town Surveyor, Parramatta. This is apparently a part-time position.
-----------------------
1870
* February 1870 - F.W. Birmingham writes to Grafton Council tendering for contour surveying work.
* 23 April 1870, Sydney Morning Herald. Letter to the editor from F.W. Birmingham regarding The Municipalities Act and the Parramatta Water Question. Addenda 29 April 1870.
!!!!to be corrected!!!
THE MUNICIPALITIES ACT AND THE PARRAMATTA WATER QUESTION.
To the Editor of the Herald.
Sir - This being a question which presents many phases of interest concerning the Municipalities Act and Councils acting thereunder, respectfully solicit the favour of a publication of the following matter Ever since I reported professionally to the Parramatta Municipal Council on the subject of supplying the town with water, I have given my ei most attention to the subject of " ways and moans ' - that most difficult subject, and although the Act is hazy, particularly in this matter, and knotty in the extreme, yet, it appears- that by a sensible mode and rigid economy, it cm be made legal Hy workable, notwithstanding time by some thirty miles of street way within the borough, and although i proposed ninepenny water rate has just now, been re medical OR preta Mare and illegal li Ia, m scatheless, gratifying to learn, the Water Committee picture for the economical work (" based on my report '), if, as they say, the Act may be worked to suit the Parramatta water question.
Clause 165 gives power (when the work becomes "a fait accept ") to raise a general rate over a municipality, so high in one shilling, but, as the mains cannot be laid, at present, over more than one-teacher the street's length - nine-tenths of the street mileage being sparsely occupied by only one-half of the ratepayers I propose only a six penny general rate over the whole borough, as the scattered half must pay water carriers, this rate would equal three halfpence per week on, say, a cottage rated at 15 per annum.;
Clause 166 goes, to my mind, further than clause lOo, because it provides for a special rate where the mains are laid down, and this is the only special rate I would pro pi se, And unfortunately this, to avoid the limitation clause (No 1 C8) cannot be more than Bupenee (retarding the extension of a waterworks, and preventing a whole string of things which the Act says a council may do, but actually cannot do) 'The matter would then stand thus Where the mains were laid, the two tales proposed would be equal to a shilling rate, and where the mines are not to be laid (nine tenths) in the streets, only the sixpenny rate should be levied. Clause 104 states that the present common rate may be applied to the making of wharfs, 4-c , and to any other expenses passing in, as it sayS, carrying into effect the provisions of this Act " No, under the clause, a waterworks being declared necessary, I would work far. the repayment of the " necessary loan.
Clause No 190 gives power to borrow money, and states the Government may lend, etc
Clause No 191 provides for payment of principal and interest; and, moreover, States if a council will not pay the law will make it pay, to, put in a bailiff to take up rates, etc.
Public bodies in England include within a loan part of itself the necessary engineering and law expenses, and including therein the interest necessary to cover the loan during the formation of the particular work for instance, the Bristol Water Works Company did so I now propose that £6500 be borrowed, which, if used as I will shew, may be made to cover the cost of the works and the fist years interest. This sum (£0500) should be paid off by yearly instalments of £325, extending over twenty years, and as the debt diminished the interest each year would be less, and the profits of the water scheme would grow larger, and thereafter produce a flow of wealth to the Council causing less need mr other taxation, and giving at all times to the people. and in various ways, good value for this vote money. Be it remembered that the husbandman BOWS m hope, and so, I submit, a Council should do, obtaining its seed in this case by clause 164.
The revenue to be derived from the two sixpenny rates through the thoroughfares, from Dunlop-street to the wharf and the market-place is (as shewn in the rate books) £394, the sixpenny rate through nine-tenths the streets would no at least £197, and although it does not follow that the scattered ratepayers generally, will pay a water carrier sixpence to bring them The dirt river water, which is no better than bad wells, yet, it is a fact that some five water carriers now draw principally for those who have no water at all " good nor bad." When pure (filtered) water IIUV Ayr obtained, tins fruit" in Wttiir will increase. The loss of hard labour by introducing the new process of supply, will be quite worth a shilling per day, and fortbepurp«stof very low estimation, J property six licensed water carriers attempt '. shilling per day, each, which will amount to £93 12s per annum, fee from those three simple items only a yearly revenue and stones be obtained equal to £681 125.
How, out of the borough population of 70)0 minis, five thousand four hundred are under the control of the Municipal Council in the matter of rates for water purposes, and allowing 25 gallons j- or head (renieuibsringthat the pipes compass a supply for over 12,000 people. then such is needed the daily supply neceWuy will to 135,000 . gallons; end this daily quantity yearly would cost as follows slater pumping (cost deduced from more than two hundred examples), same ratio as in my water report, £102 13s. 11d. ; engine-man £120, boy attendant £20 equal to £140 and largest year's interest at 6 percent, equal to £390: making a total of £632 13s. 11d. This sum subtracted from the income as stated (viz, £684 1924 ), leaVES a baluDre at the end of the first year of water supply of £51 18a. lOJtl., less, day, some £10 or so for incidentals.
In reference to the loan: there is no impediment to the Government lending, if willing, the money at 6 per cent. The honorable the late Colonial Secretary and the present Minister for Works now officially, told the ex-Mayor of Parramatta (Mr. Good) that the Government wanted water for the public buildings here, and would take it if the Council showed how they would bring it in. Even the Minister for Works urged for speed on the part of the Municipal Council, giving as a reason "the Estimates would soon be brought on." It will be from bad policy if we should ever see two public bodies waste money and squabble over a water-dam. I could certainly hope that the Council of Parramatta would send a deputation of Aldermen to the Government on the water matter, and if the Government would join and lighten the fuel outlay-, and pay a yearly sum for the water they want, including therewith something towards wear and tear of the works, and the present cost of the extra pipes to be laid to their buildings, such a union would be a boon to both parties concerned. I have herein, as I think, pointed out a legal way in which the waterworks may be established; if not, why then the Municipalities Act can be no more than a pompous wide-spreading of worse than waste paper.
I am, Sir, yours respectfully.
F.W. BIRMINGHAM,
Ratepayer. Parramatta, April 18.
* 20 April 1870, Sydney Morning Herald. Letter to the editor from F.W. Birmingham regarding The Sydney Water Supply.
* 8 October 1870, Sydney Morning Herald. Letter to the editor from F.W. Birmingham regarding The Parramatta Waterworks Dam.
-----------------------
1871
* 27 March 1871, Memorandum Notes, 1862-73, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
On the 27th of March 1871 in the forenoon the verandah gate’s latch rose thrice!! ‘Now you cannot ‘rise’ said I after seeing well to it (for the third time) but rise it did!!! (See full acct. in other - March -diary. F.W.B.
[NB: These notes confirm the genuine nature of the "other diary", as in the Memorandum Book of 1873.]
* 27 March 1871 - Front gate latch incident, Memorandum Book 1873:
After depositing the water… I shut it [i.e. the front gate latch] again, carefully, looking at it as I retired into the room. But, to my great surprise the latch rose this second time! I thought it strange so I went out again and latched the gate, struck the posts, and the front of the gate, jumped on the veranda, watched it for some 15 seconds, went backward into the room and round the table, looked out the window and keeping my eyes fixed toward the latch said aloud in a triumphant voice – ‘Now you cannot rise’ – I had no sooner said the sentence than the same (iron) latch rose up! And the gate opened!
...but, I did not repeat the challenge. The thing has sunk deeply into my mind even to my very soul, and I now know that the power of God never sleeps. The latch for years before and years after this occurrence never did rise without hands to it or hand and cane.
This clear, concise recording of a paranormal event reveals the straightforward manner in which Birmingham notes such events in his life, no matter how strange. There is no hyperbole or conjecture as to origin. Rather, it is an un-emotive account.
------------------------
1872
* February 1872 - F.W. Birmingham runs for a seat in the State parliament, County of Cumberland. He is unsuccessful.
* 15 April 1872, Memorandum Notes [Extract], 1862-73, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
On the 15th April 1872, first insight ‘In the name of goodness how can I overcome gravity? said I. Then I felt a slight rub on my left Ear and the same voice I heard in the “Ark” or “Machine to go through the air” said “Are not the sides greater than a third?” ‘Yes’ said I – If I can get the sides to help I can get up!’ F.W.B
* 15 April 1872 - Birmingham's personal revelation - a second vision - relating to the Aerial Machine he had encountered back in July 1868 and other "wonderful dreams". This telepathic vision presented him with specific information concerning the building of a flying machine similar to the Ark and addressing the task of anti-gravity. He recorded the following in his Memorandum Book 1873:
Day by day and at night in my wakeful moments I have often rehearsed the wonderful dreams I have had, and coupling them one day with the vision of the Lord Bishop's head and the latch rising, I came down from the hill in the Parramatta Park firmly convinced that the vision was gradually unfolding itself and 'the machine to go through the air' was a thing (through God's mercy) to be accomplished. I sat down at the same end of the table where from I saw the latch rise, calculating pressures etc., and taking a match box in my hand and letting it drop on the table I said aloud,
'But, how in the name of goodness can I overcome gravity?'
I instantly felt in my left ear a sound like that produced by pressing a large sea shell close to one's ear, and the words,
'Are not the sides greater than a third?'
Becoming excited and in great joy I said aloud,
'Yes, and the sides and bottom working together can overcome the top'.
This was the first practical clue as to forming the interior parts of the machine I saw in the vision of the aforenamed night.
[Comment: It is often the case that communication between Alien lifeforms and humans is on a telepathic basis, and that such communication can continue over extended periods of time. At present such contact, which is referred to as close encounter of the fifth kind, or CE5, is being actively practiced throughout the world as part of the Dr. Steven Greer led Sirius Disclosure Project. The details received by Birmingham in regard to overcoming gravity are intriguing, though vague. They perhaps reflect the information telepathically given to the Austrian psychic Maria Orsic in 1917 which, from 1924, lead to the construction of flying saucers in Germany up until the end of World War II.]
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1873
* F.W. Birmingham's Memorandum Book A.D. 1873 [copy], 1955, 14 pages. Contents: title page (1), text (10) + drawings (3 plus 1 on page 10). A transcript of the surviving 1955 typed copy of the now missing or lost Memorandum Book A.D. 1873 is presented below. It covers the period 1868-73. Some small typographical emendations have been made to aid in comprehension, along with the addition of illustrations from the copy and elsewhere, and some comments from the present author:
MEMORANDUM BOOK
A.D. 1873.
Fred. Wm. Birmingham,
C.E. & Lic. Surveyor,
Parramatta,
Australia.
AERIAL MACHINE.
On the night of the 25th - 26th July Anno Domino 1868, I had a wonderful dream - a vision. I was standing as it were under the verandah of my rented cottage in Duck's Lane Parramatta, N.S. Wales, at the place marked thus [circle with 1 dot] and on looking up to the sky on the aforesaid night, to the N.E. at the point marked thus [ellipse with 3 dots] I saw the Lord Bishop of Sydney’s head in the air looking intently upon me in a frowning half laughing mood with large neck cloth as used by the Episcopalian Church. I watched it intently and when it had travelled to the East it dimmed – just as one loses his focus by quickly drawing in or out the slide of a telescope - and the Premier’s head (Sir James Martin Attorney General) twice appeared and twice dimmed having a frowning appearance and looking direct at me.
This dimmed and again the Lord Bishop’s head shone forth as it were looking intently and impeachingly upon me, and travelling southerly to about S.S. East [south-south-east]. I then dropped my head and my eyes toward the ground and said [2.] as it were, aloud - 'Well that is a strange thing the Lord Bishop's head in the air and Sir James Martin's taking its place, and laughing at me' -
After some considerable time I determined to look at the head or heads again, so I cast my eyes upward to the S.S. East but, the head neck and cloth were gone!
I retraced the course the head had taken and just in the spot [ellipse with 3 dots] where I first saw the head, I saw an ‘ARK’ and while looking at it – moving along the same track as the head had taken – I said to myself aloud, ‘Well that is a beautiful vessel.’
[Comment: This statement and feeling of ecstasy on the part of Birmingham would have been a welcoming sign to the telepathic pilot of the Ark. As a result, there was an almost instantaneous encounter between the two conscious beings - Birmingham and what he called the Spirit.]
I had no sooner ended the sentence than I was made aware that I was not alone, for, to my right hand and a little to the rear of my frontage a distinct voice said, slowly, -
'That's a machine to go through the air.' -
In a little time I replied, -
'It appears to me more like a vessel for going upon the water, but, at all events, it's the loveliest thing I ever saw.' -
During this part of the conversation the machine made three courses: the first a level, the second a rapid 2 3 4 backward descent, and the third left descent, but with a forward and curved easterly movement thus - to the place marked D
 |
| 1955 copy of a drawing from Birmingham's Memorandum Book 1873. |
I then felt that somehow or another the spirit and I were, as it may have been spiritually on the highest part of the 'Parramatta Park' M.
The machine then, quite, stopped, the forward motion and descended some twenty feet or so as gently as a [3.] feather on to the grass at P.P. [Parramatta Park] -
When it was coming near to the point D the machine, though a brown colour (rubber!) all over at a distance, showed its bottom partially, its side fully, and a half front section or view. Its peculiar shapings are well impressed upon my mind and the colour seemed to blend with faint, flitting shades of steel blue, below, and appearing tremulous and like what one might term magnified scales on a large fish, the latter being as it were Flying in the air. (The machine has not the shape of anything that has life.)
Shortly after my declaring it was the loveliest thing I ever saw - - the spirit said to me,
'Have you a desire, or do you wish, to enter upon it?'
I replied 'Yes.' -
'Then come,' said the spirit.
Thereupon we were lifted off the grass and gently carried through the air and onto the upper part of the machine, which was about 20 yards distant from where we were standing.
(The spirit appeared like a neutral tint shade and the shape of man in his usual frock dress.)
While I stood on the machine at the point marked thus [circle with 1 dot] the spirit moved to the point B to a cylinder pointing and indicating its purposes by downward motion of hand, then made sign (that another and similar, was beyond and back of the Pilot house - as I term a part of the machine - ) which former I could not from my position see. -
The spirit then went further to the right two steps or so and went down in the machine to his waist, returned to me, and while passing on one side [4.] going to the rear of the machine (but I being all the while stationary), the spirit - en passant - and making a sign, pointing, said 'Step in' and I partly turned in the direction indicated to me.
I saw steps (3, I think) - steep ones. I stepped down into the - let me call it - 'Pilot house' which had a floor about three and one half feet lower than the first or upper floor. It was enclosed at the sides, end, and top, and only open in front, and nothing was in the Pilot house that I could discern but a table with passage all around it, and this table, or bench, seemed covered all round its sides and top alike - a solid or at all events a thing about five feet long or so, and 3 1/2 broad and 2 1/2 feet high - covered like with oil skin or something of that sort, or perhaps iron covered with rubber cloth tightly. The side spaces round it were about 2 feet wide and everything appeared very strong. The sides I noticed (when about 'stepping in') were extremely thick, about six inches - and I wondered why they were so strong in 'a machine to go through the air.'
I was now alone in the machine at the rear end of the tablet or table, resting my fore fingers and thumbs on its edge, looking vacantly with downcast eyes upon the table and repenting like at my saying 'Yes', when the spirit previous to my entering upon it had spoken to me.
I felt miserably queer - just like one undertaking a billet or post he knows nothing of. So I remained for some considerable time, when I was aroused as it were from my reverie by the [5.] voice of the spirit on my right hand (and his hand resting upon the table with several printed paper within it) who said,
'Here are some papers for your guidance.' -
The first printed paper covered fully two-thirds of he lot and upon this paper I saw the following figures and formulæ close to the spirit's thumb. *
* V = 550 + (500 [square root sign] H.
(I may hear remark that 1868 being a most miserable year to me in many ways I went about downhearted and with the remains of low fever - rheumatism, lombago and the like - I went by sea to Melbourne thinking I might improve my health and drop into some work, but after seeing Mr. Vickers architect, I, in January 1869, returned in a fortnight or so disappointed to my cottage back again. Some of the aldermen of Parramatta wished me to take the town surveyorship, (but I being twice elected alderman of Parramatta) said, 'No, I will not give up my small survey practice. But I will, if the Council like, give you the time I can well spare, viz., 10 days per month i.e. 20 days for £100.' It was proposed and settled so on both sides. Well, the Corporation desiring a report from me upon the water works schemes for supplying Parramatta with water, I hastily went in the matter and as man years survey had made me quite rusty as to the little I knew some 16 or 18 years before, I scraped up such useful information as I could speedily get or pay for, among the rest I bought and saw for the first time 'Molesworth's on page 137, of the year 1868, were and are the figures I saw in the vision! and the thumb of the spirit covered, so possibly the sketch of the centrifugal pump.But be that what it may, at all events there are the figures and the formulae I saw in that vision of the night, namely 'July A.D. 1868')
'Here are some papers etc' drew my eyes to the hand of the spirit and thinking the formulæ and figures of other kinds might be too intricate for my comprehension, I said to the spirit,
‘Oh! Will I want them?’
The spirit replied slowly, but with marked emphasis,
‘It is absolutely necessary that you should know these things, but, you can study them as you go on’.
I again cast down my eyes between my hands, as it were, on to the table, considering silently the words of the holy spirit and, when I looked about, I found I was alone in the Ark! So I fell, I suppose, into my usual sleeping state, and waking next morning deeply impressed with that vision of the night..........
[Comment: In recounting this tale, Birmingham is revealing the religious context in which he has place the experience, as in attaching the word 'holy' to 'spirit', which brings to mind the Catholic concept of the Blessed Trinity, as in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. Over time, and especially the last 200 years, when Aliens and extraterrestrial beings have been encountered, they have often been referred to as Angels. Birmingham went on to make further comment in this regard.]
From time to time I studied the vision and began gradually to understand the first portion, which reminded me that I must serve God by conforming to the Christian doctrine and laws of His Church (Christian Bride).
As to the second portion of the vision I could not conclude what it meant – at least in any satisfactory way, so I, every now and then, took the whole matter into consideration and thought over it, but could not then see that it really meant - ‘a machine to go through the [7.] air’ – or, in other words, the Ark mentioned in the Book of Revelations!
[Comment: This is a reference to the section of the Bible, Revelation 11:19 - Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and roared, and there was an earthquake and a terrible hailstorm. The Ark of the Covenant is very different to the sailing vessel that was Noah's ark, both in size, shape and purpose.]
Time rolled on (2 years and 9 months). I still lived alone in the cottage cooking etc. and on the 27th March 1871, I was crossing the lane from my neighbour Bartlett's well with a can full of water. My old spirit rose in me and I said aloud 'Am I to be always a hewer of wood and drawer of water!'
Lifting the can with considerable force to the level of my shoulder, in opening the verandah gate my left hand slipped away from the latch a little and the water and my body being on the move - the immediate gate opening checked - the can struck the verandah post and some of the water sprinkled over me.
I opened the gate and shut it after entering, but on my way to the kitchen I heard it open. After depositing the water there I passed through the sitting room to the verandah thinking the shock must have opened it. So I shut it again, carefully looking at it as I retired into the room. But, to my great surprise, the latch rose this second time!
I thought it strange, so I went out again and latched the gate, struck the posts, and the front of the gate, jumped on the verandah, watched it for some 15 seconds, went back into the room and round the table, looked out the window, and keeping my eyes fixed toward the latch, said aloud in a triumphant voice - 'Now you cannot rise!' I had no sooner said the sentence than the same (iron) latch rose up! and the gate opened! I need hardly say I was astounded [8.] for a time. Well, I went out and shut it, but I did not repeat the challenge.
The thing has sunk deeply into my mind, even to my very soul, and I now know that the power of God never sleeps. (The latch for years before this and years after this occurrence never did rise without hands to it or hands and cane,)
Day by day and at night in my wakeful moments I have often rehearsed the wonderful dreams I have had, and coupling them one day with the vision of the Lord Bishop's head and the latch rising, I came down from the hill in the Parramatta Park firmly convinced that the vision was gradually unfolding itself and 'the machine to go through the air' was a think (through God's mercy) to be accomplished.
[Comment: It is common with Alien visitations and encounters, either physically or telepathically, for a large amount of information to be 'downloaded' by a human, and for that information to slowly be revealed to the person over time. This appears to be the case with Birmingham.]
I sat down at the same end of the table wherefrom I saw the latch rise, calculating pressures etc. and taking a match box in my hand and letting it drop on the table I said aloud, 'But, how in the name of goodness can I overcome gravity!'
I instantly felt in my left ear a sound like that produced by pressing a large sea shell close to one's ear, and the words 'Are not the sides greater than a third!'
Becoming excited and in great joy I said aloud, 'Yes, and the sides and bottom working together can overcome the top. This was the first practical clue as to forming the interior parts of the machine I saw in the vision of the aforenamed night 25th - 26th July 1868.
[9.] About three years and nine months had passed away viz. to the 15th of April 1872).My thoughts have been continually send on unravelling and learning the matter, and the little monies I could spare went towards experimenting and each experiment learnt me something but, on the last of three physical occasions, I was disappointed and felt unhappy and laid on my back on my 'couch' for a long time (some hours) thinking and when I had finished all my thinking I said aloud to myself - 'Well, I don't care, I believe it firmly and try I will if I should fail a thousand times, to the day of my death I will believe in it.'
So saying, I threw myself on my feet and went out to the kitchen (at 7 p.m.) and slowly took my evening meal. The sun was, or had, just set. My door was open and my eyes were toward the sky which was quite clear, excepting three small clouds of vandyke brown colour, in the southwest, a little separate. The middle one being the largest, drew my attention and was without doubt, the most extraordinary cloud in its wonderful movements that I ever saw. I made a sketch of it which I keep because it is evidence that we are taught betimes by the great and good spirit.
The shape of the three clouds is as herein shown, - the smaller clouds seemed to be companions to the middle one. [10.] On Sunday, I think it was March 9th A.D. 1873.
First view -
[#1 drawing of three clouds]
The movements as I saw them were - First change of shape thus -
[#2 drawing of three clouds, with 2 extensions on the bottom of the middle cloud]
Second shape with like two flat necks on a turtle shaped body. How it came there was puzzling to me. -
[#3 drawing of three clouds, with a craft suddenly appearing below the middle cloud]
Third movement or shape, neck bent up as the 'screw' rotated about 7 times or more.
[#4 drawing of three clouds, with the wings of the craft bent up below the middle cloud]
And as the screws reversed the neck came down gradually to the horizontal position and after a few minutes (2 or 3 m,) the screw part rotated the second time and reversed as before. After this double operation the 'turtle' disappeared, I then knew not where to.
After a few minutes lapse of time I was astonished (and said aloud) 'Well I declare! The turtle is forming again', and sure enough, in the same shape and place it remained for a pause of a few minutes, and to my surprise the movements were exactly the same as the previous series, namely twice screwed and twice reversed all the same forms as before. After a couple of minutes the 'turtle' began to fade away and the last shred of it [11.] I saw winding around and going upwards to the middle cloud and to my surprise the two big three-threaded screws folded up like the arms of a bear and lost their shape in the middle cloud!
Just after this the whole three clouds which had remained stationary in the sky for, as truly as I can reckon, (without a clock or watch) twenty to twenty five minutes or so - moved quickly south-easterly, formed into one cloud and in about three minutes melted out of sight. This going away of the clouds was so quickly done that I had to rise quickly and step out of doors to watch them! There may be a meaning in all this.
I thought silently over the thing that was shown one, and said I to myself 'How could these things be done!' So I concluded that the cloud material was worked upon by positive and negative electricity - for wind there was none seemingly -
After some lapse of time I said to myself 'There may be a meaning in all this' - doubled over and twice each time. I then thought of Pharaoh's 'dream' of the fat and the lean kine - but said I (inwardly) 'Pharaoh's was a dream but this just now seen by me was in daylight!'
It sunk, as it were, deep into my soul and I concluded that the thing was shown one by God, but I could not on that day unravel it - but my fixed belief then (and ever since) was that there was a meaning - a teaching for me in it.
[Comment: It would appear that once again Birmingham was being shown information, but was not able to interpret it fully, though he continued in his work to do as best he could in understanding and developing practical applications. This is seen in a letter to the editor published two years later.]
* 19 January 1873, Memorandum Notes [Extract], 1862-76, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
Sunday about January 19th 1873. In answer to my enquiring when the machine wd. be done or discovered by me? instantly three loud knocks on the iron roof and three lesser ones –
Ergo – 3 years and three months (or 33 years) and by April this year A.D. 1876 or 3 + 3 = 6 years (told …) F.W. or 3 x 3 – 9 years.
* 9 March 1873, Memorandum Notes [Extract], 1862-76, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
On or about Sunday Evg (abt. 7 pm) March 9th A.D. 1873 – the three small clouds the Centre one showing me the rotating rods etc. plainer than ever.
Pharaoh’s dream twice – but this, of a mine, was by daylight and in immediate reply to my thoughts etc – See diary for acct. of this wonder.
* 9 March 1873 - F.W. Birmingham has a daylight sighting of a series of bizarre clouds in the sky with screw-shaped appendages. These are described and illustrated in his Memorandum Book 1873:
* November 1873, Memorandum Notes [Extract], 1862-76, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
On or about the month of November Anno Domino. 1873. The same Spirit (of 1868 who explained the Ark etc) revealed to me thus (vision etc)
“The British Government – have decided – after considering the circumstances of your case – that as you have discovered their Secret you ought to suffer death.”!!!
This revelation I believe firmly to be true and many small signs since all trend as circumstantial evidences but this voice I Knew, and true it is. F.W.B.
* 4 December 1873, Memorandum Notes [Extract], 1862-76, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
Dec.4th. 1873 (vision) The yellow hair (i.e.’Saxon’) and Miss L’s long black single hair with a noose upon it!
I expected a Call out in 3 hours or so in came the Father – Langly. J.P. wanting me to tell the Governor what I knew about my new machinery etc.
“The Govr. told him he was very much like Gladstone the British premier" etc. etc.
I sent or requested Him to inform the Governor about the Assassinating decision of the British Govt. and I doubt not, He has done so.
N.B. Many a ........... family ..........
Langly has come to me during the last dozen years or so (as a “bush telegraph” messenger) –
The invitation to Port Hacking in Parkes’s premier ship in A.D. 1874 Came from the Red Dragon alias the Secret Assassins – the Gladstone Ministry!
(See Subsequent Entries. F.W. Birmingham.
* 7 December 1873, Memorandum Notes [Extract], 1862-76, Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney. Transcript:
Decr. 7th (Sunday) 1873. The clock and watch both stopped at 10.30 am and strange to say they went on again after half an hour stoppage returned right!!
-----------------------
1874
* 24 January 1874, Letter to the editor, Cumberland Mercury, Parramatta. Republished 22 May 1875, The Albury Banner and Wadonga Express. Describes in detail the construction and operation of the replica Ark aerial machine which Birmingham had subsequently named Rover. This replica of an Alien anti-gravity spacecraft was not powered by any combustible or other material, but merely by what Birmingham perceived at the time was the negation of surrounding air pressure, but what, in this evolving era of quantum mechanics / physics may have been a folding of spacetime. The letter initially addresses the then revolutionary concept of flight by a heavier-than-air craft.
TO LONDON IN FOUR DAYS!
Aeronautics - (Shown in a Vision A.D. 1868.)
(To the Editor of the Cumberland Mercury.)
SIR,—Permit me, through the medium of your valuable journal, to draw public attention to this most important subject - navigation through the air. Why should it be thought a thing impossible to navigate the air? We, at times, see iron and other material carried away oven higher than the place they were taken from, and until the density and elasticity of the air above and below them become equalised, they fall not. Again, three currents of air meeting form a rotatory or " whirl-wind" motion, and by centrifugal tendency a central vacuum, or partial vacuum, in which a quantity of heavy material or water may ascend. Now, without a disturbance of atmospheric pressure these things could not ascend; but of course, they are exceptions to our school lesson, which states that "bulk for bulk, a thing must be lighter than the air or it cannot ascend." Now, exceptions to this rule have been produced by a pressure of fifty or sixty pounds per superficial foot; but we can draw two thousand pounds per foot of air pressure on a surface by forming nearly a vacuum; yet, for the purpose I have in view nothing like this pressure is necessary (for ship and other propulsion it may).
We know also that the outside air against a hollow cube presses equally in every direction, and you can move it about just the same as before the air was withdrawn. Again, if the vacuum be ten or eleven feet long, nine deep, and three wide, it is just the same; in this way, you can move it as before stated - for three feet wide at top balances three feet wide at the bottom, also the pressure of one side balances the opposite side, and end versus end; but, observe, I do not intend to waste the deep sided pressures I can obtain. I use them. We know that the strain caused by a load on the centre of an arch is transferred to the buttresses - (the air is also a mighty buttress, with its base resting on land and water) - and by reversing in a measure this principle, the rising in air can be accomplished.
This rising and balancing power can be obtained by four deep chests framed of angle-iron, covered with a skin of one-sixteenth inch steel, the framing, &c., made strong enough to resist a five or six pound pressure, or so, per inch; the sides of these chests are divided, or, rather, bend in squares or "panes," (of fifteen or eighteen inches square); within and to the sides of the chests at the centre of these squares must be riveted flat steel arches or jointed rods, crossing over or spanning the chest, with a hole in the top centre of each, through which an iron threaded lifting rod may move freely (connected at either the top or bottom of the chest to a powerful short spring) on this rod, and every such rod, are discs, according with the number of springs - these are screwed down and fixed, just touching the tops of the springs on their greatest radius; the kicking ends are turned upward by a smaller radius, perhaps five to one rod. Now, within and all along these four rising chests - fore and aft - we have these vertical rods, say nine in each of the front chests, and eight in each of the "aft" ones. When I pump out part of the air from the chests, the "panes" of each side bend inward, these strains bend up the spring-arches, these latter move up the discs and their rods, and the final strain is upon the short strong springs before named, all within the chests, of course, but giant air outside continually.
Now as to driving. Two chests, one on the "port," another on the "starboard'? side, between, adjoining, and in lines with the four rising chests, and being ten feet or so long, thirty inches wide, and about fifty inches high, and differing but a little from the chests before described, have their reds, springs, &c., placed horizontally, and the final strains are pulls on the ends, a "towing power" these six chests form the starboard and port sides of the machine, and a part of its bottom and deck, if the tops are not to be cut off, as will be presently described. There is another very important matter in reference to the rising or elevating chests.
Suppose, for explanation, I take the forward pair, eleven feet long, nine feet deep, and three feet broad. Now, I cut off, as it were, the tops by slanting surfaces (from the junction of the deck with the sides), inwardly, shortening the perpendicular height of the inner sides to, say, five feet; from these one sided "roofs" project fixed angle iron props, &c., to the outside framing and sides of the machine, and what was before, say, the hypotenuse (i.e., the slanting inner top surfaces), each becomes, as it were, the base and the outside - in nautical parlance, "the topsides become respectively the hypotenuse, or the longer sides under consideration; these two powers or strains are in opposition and neutralize each other, and the bottom of each chest becomes (as I view it) a rising power, say for all four, about one hundred and twenty-seven superficial feet.
The machine is of the ark shape, about seven and one half tons weight; (a fourteen tons cargo or so may be carried, partly within the "vacuum" chests, not touching the bottom springs or the sides, the residue under the floors of the "rooms" between the two risers); it is flat bottomed, has rather a broad shallow keel (wood and India rubber projecting partly from between two angle irons to act as a buffer), the stem and stern-posts are of ditto; high bow and stern; broad, deep, mid "wall-sided" to the ends of the risers (so as the steel skin of the sides can bend and unbend freely), lightly decked all over, with a short brass open cylinder, one foot or so in diameter, forward, and a like one aft of the pilot house, to let the air in or out; to or from the rooms under the deck, especially so as to prevent it bursting the deck in or out when changing altitude, and to maintain as even a pressure as possible on the inside and outside faces of the four risers or chests; the drivers are also to be considered.
The pilot house, centre, is situated a little aft of the centre of the deck length of the machine; its floor is sunk three feet and three-fourths foot below the deck - you descend into it by three "steps" in the front, which is open, but closed on the sides and end, and roofed in the usual plain shape, all of wood, but strongly fastened with iron, to resist "a proof" strain of say seventy pounds per superficial foot; this must in no wise be neglected, as the pressure when running might carry away the house and its occupants — the machine would go on without them.
The only regular deck entrance into the machine will be by a small hatch in the bow. This must be securely closed when travelling. The hull is to be built of light angle iron, and one-sixteenth inch steel skin, all covered with India rubber nearly one-eighth of an inch thick, and every vacuum ditto. The deck of angle iron about thirty inches apart, or corresponding with every second rib of the sides, covered with light thin wood, just sufficient to support a man's weight properly. The width or room between the vacuums is six feet; the flooring is about thirty inches above the bottom of the machine, and this must be light of course.
Under the pilot house is the kitchen, with a stove in the centre, and necessarily a very low floor. From here you ascend through the floor or inner side of the pilot house when relieving watch, and such like things, because when travelling at a rate of from one hundred to one hundred and forty miles per hour, walking on the deck is not to be thought of, even at an altitude of two or three miles. The rubber covering for the vacuums, &c., cannot safely be dispensed with, because there would be leakage, and some rivet heads or part of heads might drop off, or be wrenched off, and the ingress of air into the vacuums would be probably more than the exhaust pipe and fans could check, so no safety need be expected if the rubber covering is dispensed with. It also prevents corrosion, and wards off electricity.
Within the pilot house is one iron table, about five feet long, three feet four inches broad, and thirty inches high, having sides and ends also of sheet iron, but no bottom (because it forms part of the kitchen, giving lamp room &c.); around this table is a clear space of flooring; upon this table must be placed two peculiar fans (one being in reserve, but both ever ready for air pumping), the exhausting, assimilating, and weakening pipes, and a vacuum gauging apparatus centre here; levels, &c., are on this table; two barometers may be placed one on each side-wall within the house, or perhaps outside, and to be seen from within. Some small panes of plate-glass in the gable end and sides are necessary. The inner breadth of the house is six feet by about nine and one-half feet long. There cannot, and must not be, a draught through this house, as the air possibly may be condensed here a little, and must be rather of service to the fans and the pilot. The house, open in front, serves another purpose - it tends to prevent the bow dipping, and this and sharp turning must be avoided when in rapid motion. The necessary superior length of the forward coupled risers can only be determined by practice and according to the velocity required. I make the ratio now, eleven and one-fourth feet forward, versus ten feet aft. The pumping fan may be worked by a peculiar vacuum wheel so as the pumping, rising and driving powers may be all one, viz., the air!
It is scarcely necessary now to describe the way in which the machine can be manoeuvred in every direction, nor the resistance to travelling at various altitudes and rates, and the driving power for same. All these things can be found elsewhere, or inferred from what I have written and may be confirmed I hope by future practice; yet I may state that "at three and one-half miles high the atmospheric pressure is reduced to about seven pounds per inch," the resistance at this altitude to a speed of one hundred and twenty miles per hour is about eighteen pounds per direct superficial foot of frontage to be driven; there are also some modifications to this, and which I need not now enter into, but, merely say I would adopt lower altitudes in almost every case, and on, say - about a twelve thousand feet level with a barometric standard number of, say eighteen inches, a quicker speed than I have mentioned can be obtained with (as I believe) safety and ease, although the resistance would be greater than that named; but, lest this view should frighten those who may not feel inclined to study the matter, I end as I began by stating "to London in four days," over land and water, by a speed of about one hundred geographical miles per hour (adding difference in time), starting, say from Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane.
This proposed machine has nothing of the balloon principle, or the "flying nonsense" in or about it. It is, say forty-two feet long, nine feet deep, and twelve feet broad; weight, about seven and one half tons; cost of construction in Melbourne or Sydney, about two thousand pounds, more or less.
Nota Bene: Meat frozen while travelling. Fruit or other things can be conveyed and delivered fresh in any town in the world, within six days, from any other town!
The compass works as well at two or three miles above the earth's mean level as upon sea, so Guy Lussac and others observe! The elevations and situation of the different tablelands and mountains are now generally determined, and the latter would become as it were, both direction and mile-posts! The range of view, when not obscured by clouding or land, would be very great. For instance, approaching Otahiti at an altitude of, say, ten thousand feet you have one hundred and fourteen miles for this altitude, of say seven thousand feet (land elevation) ninety-six miles, therefore the Island could be seen when two hundred and ten geographical miles distant, or in round numbers, say - 200 miles.
Now, as to manoeuvring, &c., - when ascending or running, the four risers are connected; the drivers generally are connected, but the side you wish to turn to is accomplished thus - you break the connection by a cock and opening another on a small pipe you admit sufficient air to weaken this driver. When your direction is gained (or rather before this) you shut it, then by opening the former cock the pressure becomes equal in both, and you carry on your course bringing up, by fan, your drivers to your standard strength. By a somewhat similar process you can depress the machine fore or aft, because the risers can be shut off in couples and weakened in couples.
When a journey is ending and the driving power is very much reduced, but not all destroyed, you select and pass beyond a suitable landing place, to starboard or port, always descending by first weakening a little the after pair of risers - the lowering angle should not be more than about twenty-five degrees of depression or dip. You are now sliding down, and carefully watching, in two or three seconds you turn a cock your hand must be upon, and the four risers are almost instantly equalised. The machine level weakens the risers a little, and proceeding slowly to your selection you dip by the bow, not over ten degrees, manoeuvering by the drivers, and when within some ten feet of the ground you destroy the driving power and the dip. If well done you descend gently like a feather, the rubber of the keel coming into play a little.
I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, F.W. Birmingham, Civil Engineer.
[22 January 1874]
[This amazing, and unique description of an Alien spacecraft presents a three-level aerial machine which possesses anti-gravity propulsion through a system of vacuum boxes which negate the ambient air pressure. It must be realised that this system did not work / could not work, as the resources available to Birmingham at that time negated any truly accurate interpretation of the telepathic information he received from the spirit Alien. The structure of the craft is nevertheless very similar to those retrieved and studied following the end of World War II.]
* 19 February 1874, Aeronautics, Cumberland Mercury, Parramatta. Letter to the editor from F.W. Birmingham responding to queries from a Mr. N.W. Thomas. Source: Rumsey Papers, University of Sydney.
Aeronautics
(To the Editor of the Cumberland Mercury.)
Sir - As Mr. N. W. Thomas, in his letter which appeared in your issue of the 11th inst., is desirous I should answer some questions there set forth, and several persons having requested a desire for further and plainer information, I may as well open the matter by saying some plain things.
Aeronautics.
(To the Editor of the Cumberland Mercury)
Sir.- As Mr. N. W. Thomas, in his letter which appeared in your issue of the 14th, inst., is desirous I should answer some questions there set forth, and several persons having expressed a desire for further and plainer information I may as well open the matter by saying some plain things.
"The air is composed of two gases, oxygen and nitrogen, in the proportion of one to four, and also a little carbonic acid gas" and many great and small things and wonderful things are ignorant of: nevertheless, science describes it it as containing properties of expansion, contraction, weight, impenetrability, elasticity, power of motion in every direction within its own domain, the changing of its temperature and various pressures, the latter being at the sea level 14 3/4 lbs. to the inch; at 3 1/2 miles high only half this pressure, diminishing upward; charged with both positive and negative electricity, vapour, &c., and being in fact a MATERIAL BODY, having certain defined and undefined inexhaustible properties and relatives. Mankind and myriads of living things are saturated and encompassed by this WONDERFUL AGENT, no muscle moves or decays without him; if "Oxygen is life," what in him is death? he at times tosses the vapory clouds hurling destructive fire and molten fluid from his watery bosom.
Again, he rises lightly at the equatorial regions and condensing determines to come down, but, being "bowled out" of the thick equatorial motion he strikes through his warmer parts (between the 30th and 60th degrees of latitude) at, say Parramatta, co-mingling and bearing downward at a slanting (angle of incidence) pace with a pressure, say of 50lbs. pounds to the foot - he goes by the name of wind now. - slap against the earth, which "pulls him up," as it does a marble, so to a handball or any other round elastic substance thrown against it; the giant gives way a little (i.e.) becoming more condensed at this place of retardation, shows wonderful elasticity, "blows the retreat," and "slopes away," upward at an angle (of "reflection,") carrying on his back my neighbour's iron roof - from the centre of Forrest Ward to the middle of Gore Ward.
The shape helped him, of course, yet iron is iron, being a load of between six and seven thousand times heavier than himself! (water is more than 800 times heavier than the air and iron galvanized, about seven times heavier than water) thus far or nearly so the giant carried it, but "his back got weak," - the previous extra density, rocks and spreads - melting away - and with it the extra elasticity: so down came the iron zincy and all." ("Oh! But how can you rise without a fulcrum?")
Again, we find him sweeping with hurricane force (100lbs to the foot, superficial) casting down the trees and structures of the West India Islands or some low-lying locality, blowing down houses wrecking ships, etc. If all this can be done by a pressure less than 100lbs; what may be done if man can profitably use two thirds of the full pressure obtained by vacuum, giving a power of 2,000 pounds per foot? The following - you can obtain a greater power bulk for bulk to drive your screw boats or railway cars, then now used! and as cheap nearly as the mere cost of lubricating the nuts, etc. - Everything they can float upon the waters of the world. Can be driven by it. Flaring karting and all loads placed upon Wheels. It's cetera, Etc. The same engine may be almost extinguished. By various ways saving and increasing hundreds of millions of monies worth every year. Reducing wonderfully, the present labor working in cleanliness and quiet know bursting out scalding and knocking places to ruin opening and protecting. Vast fields for agriculture and settlement. Even settling the North Pole question in a few days, And in many ways, benefiting mankind. These are the things, the fruit that may. And as I believe will spring from the idea under consideration For B, it will remembered that. If we can rise and Drive by The Machine, I described for aerial navigation, all that. I have hinted. All that I have above hinted will follow or perhaps in part preceded because some machines are less costly than others. This is a hint for wealthy fishermen in the rank of science. Many persons cannot understand how the springs and rods Etc can Elevate the machine. I somehow forgot to explain it clearly and in a better way. With your permission Mr. Editor, I will do so, now the powerful Short Springs mentioned in connection with the vertical rods, 2 of the latter ending in said Springs will in future be called The Turtles. Or the turtle with 2 flat necks. The day may come, when I will explain the first rotation of the rods and the lifting of the 2. Next of the turtle seen on the 9th of March of last year about 6:30 to 6:50 p.m. Well, each Turtle spring, under an increasing strain must at least bend Upward at each end. 3 inches full, this being satisfactory of toy determined in the building yard.
And now, Mr. Editor, apologising for this long letter, I am, your obedient servant,
Fredw. Wm. Birmingham,
Civil Engineer.
Parramatta, N.S.W., February 19th, 1874.
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1876
* 15 January 1876, Cumberland Mercury, Parramatta. Letter to the editor - No.2 Waterworks. Correction published 29 January 1876.
WATERWORKS.— No. 3. (Editor of the Cumberland Mercury.)
Permit me, through the medium of your valuable journal, to resume the Water question for beyond doubt it is a matter of great importance; and now that "Waterlily" has called me out, I must candidly confess that I cannot see that blame can attach to any individual, or to any body of persons; for this reason, that : the Water question has never been clearly placed before them; therefore there can be no honest reason to hide any of its past defects, f' liet piWi by and remedy it; and for fei^,parti Ibeseech you, Mr. Editor, td ; permit me " to strike," - as it were, " the iron while it is hot." And now as tothe Government establishments. In my-letter of the 14th ultimo, the undesiraHehefis 'of a Waterworks within a Waterworks ,>was—mentioned, and such an unfortunate thingmust occur if thfe Government, will not follow tlie English usage, and revive the' water from the Cor- poration Waterworks. The Queen's palaces —Buckingham and St. James's, and in fact the aristocratio portion of London is supplied by the Chelsea Waterworks* Company. If the Government should decide to buy only some water from the Parramatta Corporation, it will be, in 60 far as the Government establishments are' concerned,'a vital error, for two of the grandest points, of a Water supply would be destroyed, namely, constant pressure and constant supply. Dead water loads, drawn into the buildings, . would be a terrible mistake; and owing to the scanty number of houses along the routes to the Protestant Orphan School, Gaol, Lunatic Asylum, and R. C. Orphan. Sohool, the Corporation scheme could not afford to bear the whole expense. I may as well say at once, the only way to solve the Parramatta Water question to the greatest benefit for. all concerned, is for the Corporation to bbrrow six thousand pounds; the Government to supplement it with three thousand pounds, and pay one shilling per head yearly for each individual in their establishments. This would be an honest and wise bargain. The interest on the three thousand pounds, and the "polltax" of one shilling per head, would amount to two hundred and twenty pounds on the Government yearly. This is the key to unlock the Parramatta Water difficulty, and deny it who can! Now for the other side of the pioture. Suppose a member of the Legislature moves a motion to the effect, " that it is desirablethat the Government establishments 'at ^Pairamatta be as,well and sufficiently supplied with water as the workhouses ana poor-houses of England, and that proper, provision be made for so doing." The Teller will say "the ayes have it!" n This motion would represent twenty gallons per head for some two thousand or so persons, or ayearlyquantity of fifteen million gallons. Now, sho'uld there be a draught for half a year, where is your' storage capacity - for seven and one-half, millions of gallons, or, say, one million and Wo hundred and two thousand cubic feet of ,iank room? Of course, the most will be made of a well of -poor water '•' at theProtestant Orphan School, and a.little pumpingat tie Lunatic Asylum (this latter ' cost could : bi' dispensed with, if my view . previously expressed be adopted). But this won't do- 1 -* engine, and a duplicate engine, and'one engineer placed at the Lunatic Asylim to supply it and the gaol and Roman Catholic. Orphan School, would be requiredf and another engine at the Protestant Orphan School; and an engine at the Pooijkouse. Now, I-cji upon all concerned to count the cost ^-fihe thousands this will entail for engine! tanks, engineers, 1 &c. And after all, wlat would the most of it l>e but brackish 'rater to ' three' of the establishments so ioon) as the Parramatta Waterworks res rvoir ceases to " sweeten" the mad-housi and town dam, as it now does occasional ^"byaii outpour of forty or sixty million ge ons at a tune. Is it i t:\-trae,; thait for the last twentyyears son t^eyenjiundrod orphan -children have bee ' left to . pump up their tank water, wi li the only aid given, " one man power," Jr ' an'liour, or an hour-aud-half per day 3>iMTliecliildren pump for about ' an hourf.Bind-half before they go into % school:'! " they wash their bodies all over only twke a-weeh;" and it can be shown. that thekverage 'quantity of water per day is not pore than three gallons per head.' It i8%teiedt>hat fifteen or sixteen children wash intone and the same small quantity' of watei I Let the Government call upon their officials, of, say, the Works, the Colonial Architects and the Engineer for Harbours' office, and in half a dozen hours the Ministry can have the Parramatta Water question laid before them in a clear light. I am, Mr. Editor, veiy respectfully your obedient servant, F. W. BIRMINGHAM. Parramatta, Dec. 20,1875. P.O.— The inmates of the Government buildings, generally, are from all parts of the colony; therefore — come from what source water may - the general revenue could still bear on their accbunt, so fair an expense as the Parliament may deem necessary to secure an ample and effective supply. P.W.B.
* 1 April 1876, John Giles on Babylon, Elijah, &c., Protestant Standard. Anonymous letter by "A Protestant" who is self-identified in the Rumsey Papers as F.W. Birmingham.
JOHN GILES on "BABYLON, ELIJAH, &c."
(To the Editors of the Protestant Standard.)
Sirs,— Christ, the Saviour, entreated the; Jewish people to search the Scriptures saying: — "In them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of Me," and beyond doubt we find a large amount of prophecy concerning Him, and "a new covenant." But, Christ and His messenger, in the scaled eyes of the Jews, was invisible; He came suddenly upon them; ejected the money-changers from the temple, &c., and in the hardness of their hearts - pre-ordained by God, they rejected Him; He of whom the prophets wrote.
Now, if we should search the New Testament from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, not one tittle of evidence can be produced to build up an "Elijah yet to come," but, on the contrary we find as an aggregate truth that Christ's messenger "Elias" came and they did unto him (John the Baptist) whatsoever they listed, vide Matthew xi., 9-15 ; xvii., 10-13 inclusive. Luke vii. , 19-35 inclusive. In Mark ix., 12, we find Christ is quoting from Jewish scripture, for be it well remembered that the New Testament was not then written ; and in those old writings the wheat had to be culled out from the husks of Judahism ; and the latter rejected, as the prophets foretold, a 'restoration of all things,' under a new covenant.
Now, again reverting to the Testaments, we may discern from Malachi, last of the old prophets, a lapse of some four hundred and thirty years, during which lapse the prophets were silenced: the "whited sepulchre" had ripened into full perfidy, nothing to stop its wickedness but the 'milk and water' charity of Pagan Rome. It was then that the will of God was manifested, the 'new covenant,' the promised testament was then built upon a rock, "a sure foundation;" "a tried corner-stone;" on 'Christ the Son of the Blessed' — (vide Luke, chapter the first complete). In the course of a little time the Devil was allowed to tempt Him into an exceeding high mountain of vanity, promising Him all the kingdoms of the earth (his own in fact) if He would only bow down and worship him! Our Saviour thrice repulsed him, thereby giving us a lesson to hold fast to our Christian faith against all the snares of anti-christ.
Subsequently, 'that certain Scripture should be fulfilled, our Saviour was forcibly placed before the haughty Jewish high priest and questioned: "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Oh yes, He denied it not. There was no surrender. He knew the will of His Father and took up His cross.
Now, it follows from both Testaments — the old and new — that Elisha was to come before Christ and so he came, this is Christianity. But, Sirs, Mr. Giles would give us 'lots of things,' variations upon the seven seals and trumpets, and 'what not;' if we would only worship and dance he would pipe us through his 'castles in Spain' and via Rome and Palestine into Egyptian darkness, there to take up shares and welter umbrageously under the 'golden calf' and bodily "restore all things!"
Ah, yes, and then some such Papal tool as he who was baptized in gunpowder at Saar-brucken, a sham "man child," taking "a tooth for a tooth," "to restore all things," especially those things lost by a SHAM CHURCH.
Finally, to believe the myth of "Elisha yet to come" would open the door for any Mahomet like blood-hound whom Satan might introduce to the world. And let it be understood that such a belief would be an attempt to make Christ an impostor and liar; and this thing no Christian may do, nor will do ; no, not for all the threats and means that the powers of darkness may use. Because the Holy Ghost teaches us that in Christ's Light our souls shall yet see the fulfilment of that most gracious promise — eternal life.
I am. Sirs.
Yours respectfully,
A PROTESTANT.
[Note at bottom in ink: written by F.W. Birmingham, Parramatta]
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1879
* 22 November 1879, The Cumberland Mercury, Parramatta. Parramatta Borough Council - report on discussion, which includes a proposal by Birmingham regarding the water supply.
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1881
* 28 December 1881 - Birmingham arrives in Sydney from Victoria (Portland and Warnambool) on the S.S. Dawn.
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1882
* 30 September 1882, Echo, Sydney; republished in the Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser, 21 October 1882. News clipping from the Rumsey Collection, with an annotation in ink by F.W. Birmingham.
England and Australia.
The confederation of the English-speaking race for the preservation of the peace of the world and the
advancement of its civilisation is (says the Melbourne Daily Telegraph) a notion so remote from the area of party politics that it is liable to be smiled at by our practical statesmen, and then dismissed as the product of fanaticism. And yet, if the world is governed by ideas, and if Parliaments and armies are only powerful and useful as they represent thought and purpose, it would be difficult to show that an alliance between England and America for the maintenance of peace and the prevention of war would be either impracticable or unreasonable.
At the commencement of our era, wise men from the East were guided to the cradle of the world's future King by a star that shone out for them in the firmament; and a new idea is like a new star in our sky, and they are the wise of our times who have eyes to see it,
and the intelligence to guide their footsteps by the light which it sheds on the intricate pathways of life. The causes of war in these modern times of ours are not so much the love of conquest or of adventure - influences which operated powerfully amongst ancient races and nations - but misgovernment and injustice. War, as conducted by Alexander the Great, or by Julius Caesar, is hardly possible in our day, and although the case of Napoleon I may be cited as an example to the contrary, the resemblance between the wars of the First Empire, in so far as they were the outcome of personal ambition and love of conquest, only served to show how impossible it was to carry on; warfare on such historic lines, and in the face of the growth and strength of modern ideas, and the general recognition of the rights of man. If modern wars, therefore, as a matter of fact, are mainly the product of misgovernment and injustice, the' existence of a great moral power, like the united voice of England and America, speaking with clear intelligence, and with courage enough to point out the wrong and to insist upon the right; could not fail to exercise a very powerful influence upon the counsels of nations and the course of history. It is not necessary that such a confederation should insist at the point of the sword, on its recommendations being adopted to all cases, for then it would cease to be a moral power. Still, every one knows that moral influence is all the more efficacious when the ability to enforce it is potent and prominent. An alliance between England and America, for international legislation, the rational enforcement of treaties, and the maintenance of peace amongst the nations, would certainly mark an era in the history of the world. Nor is such a thing impossible if we look only at the conditions required for the creation of such a confederacy, not to speak of the strong moral reasons that seem to demand its existence. Both, by their resemblances and by their points of dissimilarity, England and America are the very nations that ought to combine for common purposes; for no combination that could be formed between any other powers would be so full of strength and hopefulness to humanity as that which contains within it the wisdom and the civilisation of the 'whole English speaking race.
Both in England and America there is a strong unconquerable love of liberty flowing in the national veins; their industry and commercial enterprise are about equal, having the same healthy throbs and promise of prolonged existence. They read the same books, and drink at the streams of a common literature. They sing the same songs and hymns, and worship at the same shrine. And notwithstanding appearances to the contrary occasionally presenting themselves, there is, deep down at the roots of both nations, a vigorous moral life: a love of public justice and hatred of meanness and wrongdoing, corruption and crime. And the very differences that are beginning more and more to show themselves are also favourable to the existence and growth of a strong international sentiment. The traditions of England are all in the direction of an open sturdy foreign policy. Non-intervention carried to the point of isolation and utter indifference to the welfare of other nations, has never been popular with English statesmen or with the English people. During the Commonwealth even, the foreign policy of Cromwell raised England from the degradation of being a pensioner of France to the proud position of being the dictator of Europe. In our own day English Liberals cannot understand the secret of the late Earl of Beaconsfield's popularity in these colonies, for at home, and when almost at the height of his fame, he was regarded by them as the embodiment of hollowness and incapacity. The explanation is, however, not far off. We know little, comparatively, of the home policy of any British Ministry; but their foreign policy touches us keenly at every point, and it was because we saw, or thought we saw, in Beaconsfield the revival of the vigorous policy of Palmerston, and the more liberal Whigs, that we shouted his praises, and felt satisfied when the interests of the nation abroad were in his hands. The foreign policy of the United States up till the present time can hardly be said to have any existence at all. Questions of boundary have occasionally cropped up, and international disputes involving the discussion of international rights; but these do not, properly speaking, constitute a foreign policy.
America is not directly interested in the national affairs of the Old World. European quarrels do not disturb her. The wars of the Old World neither excite her ambition nor magnify her fears. For the last hundred years she has had a wonderful internal development, and her manifest destiny is to work out the problem of free institutions and a constitutional government on the largest scale ever before attempted in the history of mankind. And who will say, looking to the proud position occupied by America to-day, that she has failed, or that there is any likelihood of her failing, in the high mission with which she has been entrusted? Her population has spread from the St. Lawrence and the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the bleak shores of the East, on which the Atlantic mists hang, to the golden gates of the West, and the sunny coasts of the Pacific. She has bound together the most distant parts of the Republic by a network of railways and telegraphic wires, and the report of her industry and enterprise has gone out into all the world. She has received into her bosom the surplus population of every nation, and transmuted them all into free citizens of a free state, whose idea of weapon is the plough, and whose hope for the future is the schoolmaster and the Bible. It is not too much to say that the hopes of oppressed nationalities in the old world are largely bound up in the great democratic experiment now being carried on in the United States of America.
These two nations, England and America alike in their common interest and sentiment, and complementary rather than antagonistic differences which characterise them, seem admirably fitted to unite for the prevention of war and the general welfare of mankind. What power could stand against the united forces of England and America? But the advantages of such a confederation would not be in their united war power, but in their moral influence; in the fact that these two great Christian nations had bound themselves by treaty to help the weak, and to press upon all nations the duty of a peaceful solution of difficulties and the promotion of universal peace. Nor are the difficulties in the way of such internationalism so many as at first sight appear. London and Washington are nearer to-day than London and Dublin were 50 yours ago; and internationalism is as great a necessity of our age as a united England to our Saxon forefathers. This idea of confederation, like an acorn fallen upon good ground, has too much vitality about it to perish. It may for a time be neglected, and trampled under men's feet; but it shall spring up in due time and become a great tree, under whose wide-spreading branches the wisest of mankind may yet gather to discuss the rights of men to redress the wrongs of nations, and to lay deep and strong the foundations of that world-wide internationalism under whose peaceful sway the inhabitants of the earth shall beat their swords into ploughshares, hang the trumpet in the hall, and learn the art of war no more.
[Note in ink by FWB] N.B. But not "the upper tenth" - i.e. the "Mysterious Babylon." - The "House full of Blasphemy."
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 |
| E. Morieu, [Flying machines], engraving, circa 1885. Note #34 - a spinning top / flying saucer like craft. |
1885
* 9-11 April 1885, Sydney Morning Herald. Birmingham announces his departure from Australia for the United States.
I, Fredk. Wm. Birmingham, C.E. and Licensed Surveyor, now leaving these colonies, return my farewell thanks to those whom I have dealt with during the last 33 years.
Birmingham travelled to the United States to promote and sell his Rover flying machine, it being a reconstruction of the Alien spacecraft he encountered in 1868. He was not successful and had returned home by July 1887, somewhat destitute after failure there to gain interest in the project.
* 13 July 1885, Brooklyn, New York. Envelope. Source: Rumsey Collection, University of New South Wales Archives.
My Declaration
Made July 13th A.D. 1885, in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Frederick William Birmingham.
* circa July 1885, Brooklyn, New York. Map of Washington. Source: Rumsey Collection, University of New South Wales Archives. A number of items are marked on the map:
#460 Metropolitan Hotel, Pennsylvania Avenue, between 6th and 7th streets.
# 491 National Hotel, Corner of 6th St West and Pennsylvania Avenue.
#475 United States Botanic Garden, between 1st and 3rd streets.
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1887
* 30 May 1887 - Washington DC tourist map, with the following annotation (Source: Rumsey Papers, University of Sydney):
I left (Washington DC) (30 May 1887) by rail. Got to N York and sailed for Fanamar & San Francisco on June 1st and land for ..... 4 days quarantine on 4th of July. Left Frisco on the ... of July for Sydney and Parramatta.
* 26 August 1887, Evening News, Sydney. Notice of Birmingham's return to Australia following a subscription fund got up by his friends to help him:
Mr .F. Birmingham, a very old resident of Parramatta, who went to 'Frisco some time ago to show the model of a flying machine he had invented, returned to the historic borough this week.
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1890
* 29 January 1890, Cumberland Mercury. Advertisement for F.W. Birmingham C.E. and LD Surveyor, Ross Street, Parramatta.
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1891
* 8 May 1891, Cumberland Mercury. Parramatta District Court - Birmingham vs. Varenkamp, seeking payment for work done.
* 19 August 1891, A Flying Machine, Sydney Morning Herald. Newspaper clipping from the Birmingham Papers in the Rumsey Collection.
A Flying Machine
London, Aug. 17.
It is claimed for Maxim's proposed flying-machine that it will carry a weight of two toms at a speed of ninety miles an hour.
[Mr. Maxim's experimental flying machine (says the London Globe) is really a steam kite, 13ft. long by 4ft. wide, and propelled through the air by a light screw making 2500 revolutions a minute. When properly inclined and the screw is going at a certain speed the kite moves horizontally through the atmosphere. With a higher speed it ascends, and with a lower it descends. The inventor is now engaged in building a much larger kite for practical purposes. It will be 110 ft. long by 40 ft. wide, and be driven by a screw 18 ft. in diameter. The power is to be supplied by a petroleum condensing engine weighing 1800 lb., and capable of raising 40,000 lb. of load along with the kite. The estimated weight of the flying machine complete with two engineers on board is 11,800 lb.; Mr Maxim therefore calculates on being able to carry 10 or 12 tons of freight, or passengers through the air.]
[FWB comment in ink] no good; never so wrong
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1892
* 29 September 1892, Rover drawing on Steam Monkeys production description paper. Source: Rumsey Collection, University of Sydney Archives.
 |
| Bill Chalker in the Sydney University Library rare materials room, 2 August 2024, holding Birmingham's Rover flying machine drawing. |
Transcription of annotations in black ink:
{38 feet long; nine wide, and 5 feet deep}
{Rise of Bow = 2 1/2 feet, rise of Stern abt. 1/9.}
A network railing (low) all round: Body blue with red band.
[Plan view of craft, in pencil and ink, with measurements in feet and inches]
((Scale, 8 ft = 1 inch))
Name? the "Rover."
9 .. 0
12 .. 0
8 ..6
8 .. 6
--------
38 feet long by 9 feet wide, by 5 feet depth of Motor
Wheels about 16 feet apart in the 3 Keels; - Keels to suit Railway line;
Both Cabins rise some 2/9 aft ore and 1/6 fore ore above the desk, respectively
A Jib and Mainsail of small size on a hinged mast.
Drivers 4 in Cabin aft 3 in Cabin forward = 7 x 3000 = 21,000 pulling power or 4 aft x 2 forward
equals = 6 x 3000 - 18 thousand lbs. power.
F.W. Birmingham Sept. 19th / 92
On the back in pencil, and perhaps in the hand of Rumsey, is the following:
A yacht of "whale boat" shape - The "Rover."
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1893
* 16 ?[19] December 1893 - Frederick William Birmingham dies at the Old Man's Home (asylum), George Street, Parramatta. He is buried at Rookwood General Cemetery, Rookwood, Zone B Section L Grave 894. Age: 70 years. As far as is known, he had no local family, but had been supported by friends and colleagues.
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1911
* circa 1911 - F.W. Birmingham Papers, in Herbert Rumsey (1866-1956) Collection, University of Sydney Archives, circa 1911. Refer Chalker 2024 for a detailed description. Possibly compiled in connection with the writing of an article on Birmingham during 1911. Contents include:
- 3 small notebook sheets / pages, presumably removed from a Birmingham notebook and partially copied from a now lost 1873 Memorandum Book, with 6 handwritten pages. Contents: 1868-1876.
- Washington DC tourist map, with handwritten notation dated 30 May 1887.
- Newspaper clippings.
- Drawing of Rover space craft, on a Steam Monkeys product description sheet. Dated 29 September 1892.
* 21 November 1911 - H.J. Rumsey, An Early Day Surveyor - Thought he had discovered the secret of flying, The Farmer and Settler, 21 November 1911. Republished as: Surveyed Melbourne and Grafton. Some Ancient History, The Richmond River Herald, 5 December 1911 (Published in Aubeck 2013 and Chalker 2013). Content: A letter from Mr Herbert J. Rumsey confirming Birmingham's story of encountering a strange aircraft in July 1868. It also includes additional details on the Rover craft Birmingham constructed based on the Ark spacecraft.
Mr. H.J. Rumsey has written - I can give you some further information that may be what your correspondent is looking for. One of the surveyors of Melbourne was Mr Fred. W. Birmingham. I have frequently heard him say that he surveyed the site on which the G.P.O. now stands. This man had a most interesting career. Once, while returning from survey work in the neighbourhood of the Exhibition Building, he told me he was attacked and robbed by bushrangers. He acquired a large piece of land where either St. Kilda or Brighton now stands (I forget which), but he disposed of it in exchange for a second-hand theodolite. Some time later he was appointed district surveyor at Grafton, and possibly laid out that city. He was removed from Grafton, and brought an action against the Government, I think for illegal dismissal, but lost. [Comment: Birmingham actually won the case.] This seems to have turned his brain, for he became suddenly impressed with an idea which he always expressed as follows:
"In or about the month of November, 1873, the British Government decided, after considering the circumstances of your case, that as you have discovered their secret, you ought to suffer death."
The secret referred to was that of the means of flying. He believed that some other person had discovered his secret, and he said,
"As Queen Victoria knew, if any other nation obtained command of the air it would be the end of her supremacy. This [other] man had been brought off with a title and a large sum of money."
Birmingham thought that the secret of the command of the air had been shown to him in a vision in July 1868 and more fully on the 15th April 1872. The airship was an ark thirty-eight feet long, nine feet wide, and five feet deep. The method of propulsion was a vacuum chest so arranged that the ends fore and aft developed a pulling power which he calculated at eighteen to twenty-one thousand pounds. The Rover, which was to be the name of the ship, was designed with three keels, the two outside ones with wheels, to run on a standard railway track, and the central one for running on ice. I have in my possession a sketch of this wonderful airship, with dimensions and extracts from his diary.
Birmingham was an alderman of the borough of Parramatta, and designed the Parramatta waterworks. He went to American about 1885 to lay his ideas before the United States Government, but was not successful in convincing them of the practicability of his scheme. While there, his money gave out, and as he was unable to obtain employment he was on the verge of starvation. His Parramatta friends heard of his plight, and subscribed to pay his fare back. He returned in July, 1887. By this time, I think, the Parramatta folk realised that he was mentally deranged, and although he was still well able to carry out the minute calculations required in surveying and engineering work, his business quite fell off. There was no old age pension at the time, and eventually he died on December 16th, 1893, in the George-street asylum.
[Comment: This is a significant article verifying much of what was contained in Birmingham's Memorandum Book and 1875 article on the Rover. It also points to the personal price the engineer paid in pursuing this issue. The additional collection of material identified during 2024 in the Rumsey Collection at the University of Sydney Archives further confirms the veracity of the Memorandum Book 1873.]
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1932
* [Remembering Birmingham], Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1932. Reminiscences by former Parramatta mayor, Frederick Cox:
"Did I ever tell you about Birmingham," he asked. "Birmingham was an alderman of Parramatta Council, and an engineer, and at his house in Duck-lane, near the Old Men's Home in Macquarie-street, Parramatta, he built a flying machine. As he failed to form a company to get the machine on the market, Birmingham took it to America, but he again failed to find any backers, and he was stranded in New York and pretty well starving. His friends in Parramatta soon had enough money to bring him back home again. That was the year the Duke of Edinburgh was out here - over 60 years ago.
1937
* Ivor Freshman, Built Fling machines, The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Parramatta, Thursday, 25 March 1937:
Built Flying Machines - One of Mr Cox's friends in the 1860s was a man named Birmingham, a Parramatta alderman and an engineer, who lived in the vicinity of Macquarie street, close to the Old Men's Home. He built a flying machine, but failing to secure the necessary finance to place it on the market, he took the machine to America, where he endeavoured without success to form a company. Moneyed interest held aloof from what they termed a "wild brain scheme," and Birmingham was left stranded in New York. When his Parramatta friends heard of his plight, they subscribed sufficient funds to bring him back to own town. Evidently Mr Birmingham was born 70 or 80 years too soon.
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1955
* Copy from the Memorandum Book of Frederick Wm. Birmingham, the Engineer to the Council of Parramatta. A machine to go through the air. A.D. 1873, [1955], 15 pages, dot-matrix typed copy plus illustrations. Compiled by the following:
- Tasman V. Homan ("Co-ordination")
- Mrs. N. de Launte ("Manuscript")
- Marjorie Esling ("Caligraphy")
- David Esling ("Drafting")
- Judith Lambert ("Transcription")
This document was first sighted by Bill Chalker in 1975. When Homan died in 1981 the original manuscript Memorandum Book was lost. Likely provenance of the Memorandum Book 1873:
- Frederick William Birmingham 1873 - died 1893
- Herbert Rumsey 1893 - 1940s
- Mr Wallace Hayward, Teacher, Parramatta (? to the 1940s)
- Mrs N. de Launte 1940s (mother of Marjorie Esling)
- Tasman V. Homan, 1950s - 1981
- 1981+ Unknown or destroyed.
Homan produced the dot matrix printed transcript. A copy of this version was found by Fred Phillips in the papers of astrologer June Marsden, who in turn showed it to Bill Chalker in 1975.
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1975
* Bill Chalker is shown a copy of the Frederick William Birmingham transcription by Frederick Phillips of the Sydney-based UFO Information Centre (UFOIC).
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1976
* Greg Copley, Australians in the Air, Rigby, Adelaide, 1976, 290p.
1977
Guy Baskin, UFOs Are Here [documentary], Channel 9, Sydney, 1977, YouTube, duration: 1.02 minutes. Excerpt regarding the Birmingham incident of 1868. Full documentary: duration: 72.06 minutes.
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1981
* The death of Tasman V. Homan and the supposed resultant loss of Birmingham's original manuscript account as presented in his Memorandum Book 1873.
1982
* Bill Chalker, A UFO vision? The mystery of the machine to go through the air, UFORAN magazine, 3(1), 1982, 14-26.
1996
* Bill Chalker, The Oz Files - the Australian UFO Story, 1996. Includes an account of the 1868 episode.
1997
* Bill Chalker, Project 1947 - Australian Early Historical Encounters, UFO Investigation Centre, Pennant Hills, Australia.
1998
* Bill Chalker, The Mystery of "A Machine to go through the Air": A UFO Vision? The mystery of a machine to go through the air 1873, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, Bill Chalker Archive, 1998. The following account is based on the 1955 transcript of the original, presented below as extracts, interspersed with commentary and headings. Those extracts are indicated by inverted commas or italics:
THE ACCOUNT
The "Memorandum book, A.D. 1873" attributed to the hand of one "Fred. Wm. Birmingham, C.E. & Lic. Surveyor, Parramatta, Australia," gives an account of an "aerial machine - A machine to go through the air."
"On the night of the 25th - 26th July Anno Domino 1868, I had a wonderful dream - a vision..."
Birmingham described standing under the verandah of his rented cottage in Duck's Lane, Parramatta, when he saw up in the sky, to the north-east, the passage of a bizarre apparitional procession.
This consisted of:"....the Lord Bishop of Sydney's head in the air looking intently upon me in a frowning half laughing mood... I watched it intently and when it had travelled to the east it dimmed - just as one loses his focus by quickly drawing in or out the slide of a telescope."
In the same manner, "....the Premier's head twice appeared... this dimmed, and again the Lord Bishop's head shone forth as it were looking intently and impeachingly upon me, and travelling southerly to about s.s-east."Birmingham dropped his gaze to ponder the extraordinary display.
"After some considerable time I determined to look at the head or heads again...," but they were gone.
"I retraced the course the head had taken and just in the spot where I first saw the head I saw an 'Ark' and while looking at it - moving along the same track as the head had taken - I said to myself aloud, 'Well that is a beautiful vessel.'
I had no sooner ended the sentence than I was made aware that I was not alone, for to my right hand, and a little to the rear of my frontage, a distinct voice said, slowly - 'That's a machine to go through the air.' In a little time I replied - 'It appears to me more like a vessel for going upon the water, but, at all events, it's the loveliest thing I ever saw.'
[Comment: The exchange was followed by an instantaneous teleportation from Duck's Lane to nearby Parramatta Park where Birmingham would observe the Alien Ark land.]
I then felt that somehow or another the spirit and I were, as it may have been spiritually, on the highest part of the Parramatta Park."
By this time, "the machine" had moved through the air in a zig-zag fashion,
"The machine then quite stopped the forward motion and descended some twenty feet or so as gently as a feather onto the grass at P.P. [Parramatta Park]."
This was at a distance of about 20 yards from Birmingham and the "spirit." Birmingham described the ark in the following way:
"...though a brown colour all over at a distance... its peculiar shapings are well impressioned upon my mind and the colour seemed to blend with faint, flitting shades of steel blue below, and appearing tremulous and like what one might term magnified scales on a large fish, the latter being as it were flying in the air. The machine has not the shape of anything that has life."
The "spirit" was described by Birmingham as being: "...like a neutral tint shade and the shape of a man in his usual frock dress."
It said to him, "Have you a desire or do you wish to enter upon it?"
Birmingham replied, "Yes."
"'Then come' - said the spirit, thereupon we were lifted off the grass and gently carried through the air and onto the upper part of the machine..."
On the machine, the spirit showed Birmingham two cylinders, located at the front and back of it, indicating their purpose, "by downward motion of hand."
The spirit beckoned the surveyor to enter the "pilot house" (as Birmingham termed a part of the machine) saying, "Step in."
Birmingham described how he went down about three steep steps. They led into the pilot house room, which was about three and a half feet lower than the deck of the machine.
The only feature of the room was a table, about five feet by three and a half feet and two and a half feet high covered with material like oilskin,
"or perhaps iron covered with rubber cloth tightly."
About two feet separated the table and the walls of the room. Birmingham referred to how,
"everything appeared very strong, the sides I noticed were extremely thick, about six inches - and I (then) wondered why they were so strong in 'a machine to go through the air'."
Standing alone at the rear end of the table, whereupon he rested one hand, Birmingham began to repent agreeing to "entering upon" the "ark."
"I felt miserably queer - just like one who undertaking a billet or post he knows nothing of. So I remained for some considerable time, when I was aroused as it were from my reverie by the voice of the spirit on my right hand, who said, 'Here are some papers for your guidance'."
The hand of the spirit was resting on the table and within it were several printed papers. The first paper was covered with figures and formulae.
"...Thinking the formulae and figures of other kinds might be too intricate for my comprehension I said to the spirit - 'Oh! Will I want them?' The spirit replied slowly, but with marked emphasis, 'It is absolutely necessary that you should know these things, but, you can study them as you go on'."
Among the "figures and formulae," Birmingham saw, were the following: V = 550 + (500 [square root]H)
"I again cast down my eyes between my hands as it were on the table and considering silently the words of the Holy Spirit and when I looked about I found I was alone in the ark! So I fell, I suppose, into my usual sleeping state, and waking next morning deeply impressed with that vision of the night..."
Beyond the above experience, 1868 was "a most miserable year" for Birmingham.
"I went about down-hearted and with the remains of low fever - rheumatism, lumbago and the like."
Early in 1869, Birmingham (formerly "twice elected alderman of Parramatta") was reading newly acquired engineering literature, to facilitate work on a report to the local council on
"....the waterworks scheme for supplying Parramatta with water... many years surveying had made me quite rusty as to the little (engineering) I knew some 16 to 18 years before, I scraped up such useful information as I could speedily get or pay for".
Amongst the material he had bought and seen for the first time, were Molesworth's Engineering Tables for 1868. On page 137 of these tables, much to his surprise, Birmingham found the figures and formulae he had seen
"...in that vision of the night namely, 'July A.D. 1868'."
They were present in connection with centrifugal pumps.
(Note: Janet and Colin Bord tracked down the Molesworth Tables for me. They could only find a 1863 edition, which had exactly the same equation on the same page number, so the possibility of precognition on Birmingham's part is not so apparent, although he wrote that he had not seen the tables before he acquired them after the vision - B.C.)
Birmingham pondered his "vision" occasionally but could only rationalise (to his own satisfaction at least) the first portion, namely that it reminded him:
"....that I must serve God by conforming to the Christian doctrine and laws of his church. (Christ's Bride). As to the second portion of the vision I could not conclude what it meant - at least in any satisfactory way ('a machine to go through the air' - or in other words, the ark mentioned in the Book of Revelations!)"
Things did not end there for Fred. Wm. Birmingham. On 27 March 1871, he was puzzled by what seemed to be opening and closing of the latch on his verandah gate by what seemed to be an unseen hand - poltergeist, spooks or just a coincidence? Birmingham continued to ponder the meaning of it all.
"Day by day and at night in my wakeful moments I have often rehearsed the wonderful dreams I have had, and coupling them one day with the vision of the Lord Bishop's head and the latch rising, I came down from the hill in the Parramatta Park firmly convinced that the vision was gradually unfolding itself and 'the machine to go through the air' was a thing (through God's mercy) to be accomplished. I sat down at the same end of the table where from I saw the latch rise, calculating pressures etc. and taking a match box in my hand and letting it drop on the table I said aloud 'But, how in the name of goodness can I overcome 'gravity'.' I instantly felt in my left air a sound like that produced by pressing a large sea shell close to one's ear, and the words 'Are not the sides greater than a third'. Becoming excited and in great joy I said aloud, 'Yes, and the sides and bottom working together can overcome the top'. This was the first practical clue as to forming the interior parts of the machine I saw in the vision of the aforenamed night 25th - 26th July, 1868. (About three years and nine months had passed away viz to the 15th April, 1872)."
It therefore seems that, through telepathy, Birmingham received information about the spacecraft from 25 - 26 July 1868 through to his revelation of 15 April 1872. As a result of this, he would seek to reconstruct the craft, and/or attempt to have it reconstructed in the United States.
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2002
* The 1868 UFO vision of F.W. Birmingham, Part 1, Banana TV, 2002, YouTube, duration: 7.44 minutes. See also Part 2. A discussion and partial re-enactment of the 1868 event by ufologist Bill Chalker and interviwer Doug Moffitt.
* Bill Chalker, Australia's 1868 UFO Buzz, Fortean Times, #162, September 2002.
Australia's 1868 UFO Buzz
Did a UFO buzz New South Wales, Australia, in 1868? Was a local surveyor invited to board this incredible flying machine by its strange pilot, or was it a dream? Bill Chalker examines a curious outback tale.
A machine to go through the air: AD 1873. Such was the title of a very curious document that came to my attention in 1975. It was 15-pages long, dated from the 1950s and described itself as a “Copy from the Memorandum Book of Fred Wm. Birmingham, the Engineer to the Council of Parramatta”. Although somewhat sceptical of the account’s authenticity, I was intrigued enough to investigate whether there was anything of substance behind this potentially significant first-hand testimony of what could be one of the most significant early UFO sightings in Australia.
Fred Birmingham was a surveyor. His extraordinary series of experiences began with a strange vision of floating heads – or, as he put it “a wonderful dream” – on the night of the 25–26 July 1868. He was standing under the veranda of his rented cottage in Duck’s Lane, Parramatta, close to what is now the geographical heart of Sydney, when he saw, up in the sky to the north-east, a bizarre apparitional procession. Floating there was,
...the Lord Bishop of Sydney’s head in the air looking intently upon me in a frowning half laughing mood… I watched it intently and when it had travelled to the east it dimmed – just as one loses his focus by quickly drawing in or out the slide of a telescope.
In the same manner,
“....the Premier’s head twice appeared… this dimmed and again the Lord Bishop’s head shone forth as it were looking intently and impeachingly upon me, and travelling southerly to about [south-south-east].” Birmingham dropped his gaze to ponder the extraordinary display.
After some considerable time I determined to look at the head or heads again,” but they were gone. “I retraced the course the head had taken and, just in the spot where I first saw the head, I saw an ‘Ark’ and while looking at it – moving along the same track as the head had taken – I said to myself aloud, ‘Well that is a beautiful vessel.’ I had no sooner ended the sentence than I was made aware that I was not alone, for to my right hand and a little to the rear of my frontage a distinct voice said, slowly – ‘That’s a machine to go through the air.’”
Birmingham thought it looked more like an ocean-going ship and said so, adding:
...but it’s the loveliest thing I ever saw.
The origin of the voice, slightly behind him, seemed to be what he describes as “a spirit”. It was part of his ‘dream’ – not solid but
...like a neutral tint shade and the shape of a man in his usual frock dress.
It also seemed to him that his viewpoint had changed,
...that somehow or another, the spirit and I were, as it may have been spiritually, on the highest part of the Parramatta Park.
During this interchange, “the machine” had moved through the air in a zig-zag fashion,
...then quite, stopped, the forward motion and descended some twenty feet or so as gently as a feather on the grass.
It came to rest about 20 yards (18 metres) from Birmingham and the ‘spirit’. Birmingham described the ‘ark’ in the following way:
…though a brown colour all over at a distance… its peculiar shapings are well impressioned upon my mind and the colour seemed to blend with faint, flitting shades of steel blue below and appearing tremulous and like what one might term magnified scales on a large fish, the latter being as it were flying in the air, (the machine has not the shape of anything that has life).
The ‘spirit’ asked Birmingham if he’d like “to enter upon it” and he replied that he would.
‘Then come’ – said the spirit, thereupon we were lifted off the grass and gently carried through the air and onto the upper part of the machine…
Onboard, the spirit showed Birmingham two cylinders, located at the front and back, indicating their purpose “by downward motion of hand.”
The spirit then brought him to “the pilot house” inviting him to “step in.” Birmingham went down several steep steps into the pilot’s room, about three and a half feet lower than the deck. The only feature of the room was a table, about 5 by 3.5 feet (1.5 by 1 metre), and 2.5 feet (76 cm) high, covered with material like oilskin, “or perhaps iron covered with rubber cloth tightly.” About 2 feet (60 cm) separated the table and the walls of the room. Birmingham referred to how,
...everything appeared very strong; the sides, I noticed, were extremely thick, about six inches [15 cm] – and I (then) wondered why they were so strong in ‘a machine to go through the air’.
Standing alone at the rear end of the table on which he rested one hand, Birmingham began to repent his curiosity about such a strange place.
I felt miserably queer… when I was aroused, as it were, from my reverie, by the voice of the spirit on my right hand, who said, ‘Here are some papers for your guidance’.” The hand of the spirit was resting on the table and, within it, were several printed papers. The first was covered with figures and formulæ. Thinking the formulæ and figures of other kinds might be too intricate for my comprehension I said to the spirit, ‘Oh! Will I want them?’ The spirit replied slowly, but with marked emphasis, ‘It is absolutely necessary that you should know these things, but, you can study them as you go on’. I again cast down my eyes between my hands, as it were, on the table, and considering silently the words of the holy spirit and, when I looked about, I found I was alone in the ark! So I fell, I suppose, into my usual sleeping state, and waking next morning deeply impressed with that vision of the night.
The rest of the year, 1868, was “a most miserable year” for Birmingham, who suffered from “low fever – rheumatism, lumbago and the like.”
Early in 1869, Birmingham – who was employed by the Parramatta council on a new waterworks project – was reading newly-acquired engineering literature, including a new copy of Molesworth’s Engineering Tables for 1868 (which he had not seen before). On page 137, much to his surprise, Birmingham found the figures and formulæ he had seen in his vision, presented in connection with centrifugal pumps.
Birmingham often pondered his ‘vision’ but could only rationalise the first portion, believing that it reminded him to “serve God by conforming to the Christian doctrine and laws of his church. (Christ’s Bride).” About the ‘ark’ he was mystified:
I could not conclude what it meant – at least in any satisfactory way (‘a machine to go through the air’ – or in other words, the ark mentioned in the Book of Revelation!
Time passed, but more was in store for Fred William Birmingham. On 27 March 1871, opening the gate latch to his veranda, Birmingham split some water from a bucket he was carrying. He had shut the gate but then heard it opening again.
After depositing the water… I shut it again, carefully, looking at it as I retired into the room. But, to my great surprise the latch rose this second time! I thought it strange so I went out again and latched the gate, struck the posts, and the front of the gate, jumped on the veranda, watched it for some 15 seconds, went backward into the room and round the table, looked out the window and keeping my eyes fixed toward the latch said aloud in a triumphant voice – ‘Now you cannot rise’ – I had no sooner said the sentence than the same (iron) latch rose up! And the gate opened!
Birmingham was astounded; he shut the gate again,
...but, I did not repeat the challenge. The thing has sunk deeply into my mind even to my very soul, and I now know that the power of God never sleeps. The latch for years before and years after this occurrence never did rise without hands to it or hand and cane.
The vision of the ‘ark’ continued to haunt him.
...Day by day and at night in my wakeful moments I have often rehearsed the wonderful dreams I have had.
On 15 April 1872 – nearly four years after the vision – it occurred to him that the vision of the Lord Bishop’s head and the latch rising might be linked in some way.
I came down from the hill in the Parramatta Park firmly convinced that the vision was gradually unfolding itself and ‘the machine to go through the air’ was a thing (through God’s mercy) to be accomplished. I sat down at the same end of the table where from I saw the latch rise, calculating pressures etc. and, taking a match box in my hand and letting it drop on the table, I said aloud ‘But, how in the name of goodness can I overcome ‘gravity’.’ I instantly felt in my left ear a sound like that produced by pressing a large seashell close to one’s ear, and the words ‘Are not the sides greater than a third’. Becoming excited and in great joy I said aloud: ‘Yes, and the sides and bottom working together can overcome the top’. This was the first practical clue as to forming the interior parts of the machine I saw in the vision of the aforenamed night.
Obsessed by his flying machine, Birmingham spent increasing amounts of time and money on experiments, with little success. On 9 March 1873, downhearted after a third failure, he had a long lie-down. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by a renewed determination to complete the great work:
I said aloud to myself – ‘Well, I don’t care. I believe it firmly and try I will if I should fail a thousand times, to the day of my death I will believe in it’.
Enthused, he rose and ate his supper.
The sun was or had just set. My door was open and my eyes were toward the sky which was quite clear, excepting three small clouds of Van Dyke brown colour, in the south-west a little separate. The middle one being the largest, drew my attention and was without doubt, the most extraordinary cloud in its wonderful movements that I ever saw. I made a sketch of it which I keep because it is evidence that we are taught betimes by the great and good spirit.
As he watched, two screw-like appendages appeared out of the middle ‘cloud’, projecting downwards. Between these
‘screws’ appeared a
...second shape with like two flat necks on a turtle shaped body.
The ‘necks’ bent up as the screws rotated about seven times. Birmingham was amazed.
As the screws reversed, the neck(s) came down gradually to the horizontal position and, after two or three minutes, the screw part rotated the second time and reversed as before. After this double operation the ‘turtle’ disappeared, I then knew not where to. After a few minutes lapse of time I was astonished (and said aloud) ‘Well I declare! The turtle is forming again’, and sure enough, in the same shape and place it remained for a pause of a few minutes, and to my surprise the movements were exactly the same as the previous series, namely twice screwed and twice reversed all the same forms as before.
After a couple of minutes the ‘turtle’ began to fade; his last view of it was
...winding around and going upwards to the middle cloud, and to my surprise the two big three-threaded screws folded up, like the arms of a bear, and lost their shape in the middle cloud!
The sight lasted for about 20–25 minutes, Birmingham estimated, and, until then, the three clouds had remained stationary in the sky. Now they merged into one cloud, and in about three minutes melted out of sight.
This going away of the clouds was so quickly done that I had to rise quickly and step out of doors to watch them!
Birmingham concluded
...that the cloud material was worked upon by positive and negative electricity – for wind there was none, seemingly. After some lapse of time I said to myself ‘There may be a meaning in all this’ – doubled over and twice each time. I then thought of Pharaoh’s ‘dream’ of the fat and the lean kine – but said I inwardly) ‘Pharaoh’s was a dream but this just now seen by me was in daylight!’
There the account finishes.
Was this a legitimate historical document from 1873? Or was it a literary hoax perpetrated more recently, like David Langford’s An Account of a Meeting with Denizens of Another World, 1871, attributed to one William Robert Loosley?
As far as it has been possible to determine, this copy of the Memorandum Book was made in the late 1950s by T.V. Homan, who was given the manuscript by a Mrs N de Launte. Mrs de Launte had, herself, obtained the original book from Mr Wallace Haywood, a teacher who lived near Parramatta Park Hill – the landing site in Birmingham’s vision. The original had been in his family for quite some time.
Did Fred Birmingham ever exist? Apparently so. In 1872, he describes himself as “The Engineer to the Council of Parramatta. C.E. & Lic. Surveyor, Parramatta.” From at least 1868 to 1873, he was living alone in a rented cottage in Duck’s Lane, Parramatta. Before 1868, he had been “twice elected alderman of Parramatta” and by 1869 was working for the Parramatta Council on “the water works scheme for supplying Parramatta with water.”
Perhaps surprisingly, research confirmed all of these facts and a detailed chronology of Birmingham emerged. I was even able to determine that the cottage in which he experienced his “wonderful dream” of 1868 still existed in 1980, and I was able to stand on its veranda and contemplate the vision that had led me there.
I found nothing in the ‘Memorandum Book’ which was inconsistent with information known at that time in the 19th century. No apparent anachronism exists in the manuscript. Birmingham’s surprise as to why the ark’s furnishings were “extremely thick” and “very strong” and the reference to rubber, steel, centrifugal pumps and “positive and negative electricity” are realistic for the period of the manuscript – 1868 to 1873. I believe the manuscript is what it purports to be.
Many aspects of the Birmingham vision can be found in the rich harvest of contactee stories of the 1950s and the alien abductions of the 1990s. The invitation to board the craft is very common in contactee tales, though such freedom of choice has become rare in more contemporary abduction accounts [Comment: Many of the recent "abductions" are said to be human-based and not extraterrestrial]. Levitation of the witnesses is, of course, likewise reported widely as is some explanation or demonstration of how the UFO operates and its Spartan furnishings. What is curious is how cursory the ‘spirit’s’ actions seem.
Alien tutelage – the imparting of ‘significant’ information to the contactee by an entity – is another common element. Usually it is the percipient who invests the information with importance and not the entities; however, in Birmingham’s case, the ‘visionary’ information is deemed important by the spirit. Just how important the centrifugal pump equation was to Birmingham when he came across it in reality while later working on the waterworks project is not at all clear. However, such pumps were relatively new at the time, and the information may have seemed striking.
Birmingham implies a measure of precognition about the centrifugal pump equation in the ‘ark’ during July 1868, then professes that the first time he had seen the equation was in the following year (1869) when he opened Molesworth Engineering Tables for 1868. In seeking a copy of these tables, researchers Janet and Colin Bord managed to track down an earlier edition – for 1863 – in which, on the appropriate page (p173), we find the equation in question! So the possibility of precognition wanes somewhat.
Birmingham describes his obsession with the aerial machine and how it was to be accomplished. Similar obsessions with extraordinary ‘inventions’ and ‘devices’ pervade modern contactee literature. Remember George Van Tassel’s ‘Integraton’ and Howard Menger’s ‘free energy motor’?
[Comment: Chalker's identification of the connection between Birmingham's account and recent events is telling.]
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2007
* Erik Jensen, The Visitors: Aliens and UFOs in Contemporary Art, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 December 2007:
In 1868 a floating ark, filled with paper and piloted by a neutral-coloured spirit, abducted surveyor Frederick Birmingham and took him to the highest point of Parramatta Park, kindly returning him to awake in his own home. Birmingham had another UFO sighting in 1873 and became so obsessed with the phenomenon he set down his experiences in a book...... Blobb, Werrington
[Comment: The "filled with paper" reference is unknown to the present author; and Birmingham was not "abducted" by the Alien Spirit. He was asked by the Spirit if his would like to see the Ark spacecraft, and he responded "Yes." To use the word "obsessed" in regards to Birmingham's activities in regards to the 1868 incident and the subsequent attempt to reconstruct the Ark is to belittle the effort and cast aspersions on his state of mind. In the view of the present author, Birmingham acted reasonably and logically to an extraordinary degree throughout his life, and was, unfortunately, viewed as somewhat "deranged" in his later days, just as modern-day ufologists are ridiculed, despite the authenticity and validity of their efforts.]
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2009
Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck, Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times, Penguin, London, 2009, 582p.
25 July 1868, Parramatta, NSW, Australia.
Flying ark, spirit voices, strange formulas, abduction
The following account, based upon a transcript of a manuscript that has never been located, must be taken with great caution. It purports to tell the story of Mr. Frederick William Birmingham, an engineer and local council alderman, who saw what he described as an "Ark" as he was standing under the verandah of his rented cottage in Duck's Lane and looked up to the sky:
While looking at it (...) I said to myself aloud 'Well that is a beautiful vessel', I had no sooner ended the sentence than I was made aware that I was not alone, for, to my right hand and a little to the rear of my frontage a distinct voice said, slowly, 'That's a machine to go through the air'- in a little time I replied 'it appears to me more like a vessel for going upon the water, but, at all events, it's the loveliest thing I ever saw.' During this part of the conversation the machine made three courses: the first a level, the second a rapid 2 3 4 backward descent, and the third left descent, but with a forward and curved easterly movement.
The machine then quite stopped the forward motion and descended some twenty feet or so as gently as a feather on to the grass [and] showed its bottom partially, its side fully, and a half front section or view. Its peculiar shapings are well impressed upon my mind and the colour seemed to blend with faint, flitting shades of steel blue, below, and appearing tremulous and like what one might term magnified scales on a large fish, the latter being as it were flying in the air. The machine has not the shape of anything that has life.
Shortly after my declaring it was the loveliest thing I ever saw-the spirit said to me 'Have you a desire or do you wish to enter upon it?' I replied Yes, - 'then come' - said the spirit, thereupon we were lifted off the grass and gently carried through the air and onto the upper part of the machine, which was about 20 yards distant from where we were standing - (the spirit appeared like a neutral tint shade and the shape of man in his usual frock dress). While I stood on the machine the spirit moved to a cylinder pointing and indicating its purposes by downward motion of hand then made sign (that another and similar, was beyond and back of the Pilot house - as I term a part of the machine) which former I could not from my position see - the spirit then went further to the right two steps or so and went down in the machine to his waist returned to me and while passing on one side going to the rear of the machine the spirit - en passant - and making a sign, pointing, said 'step in' and I partly turned in the direction indicated to me I saw steps (three, I think) steep ones. I stepped down into the - let me call it - 'Pilot house' which had a floor about three and one half feet lower than the first or upper floor it was enclosed at the sides, end and top and only open in front, and nothing was in the Pilot house that I could discern but a table with passage all around it, and this table or bench seemed covered all round its sides and top alike a solid or at all events a thing about five feet long or so, and 3 1/2 2 3 5 broad and 2 1/2 feet high covered like with oil skin or something of that sort, or perhaps iron covered with rubber cloth tightly-the side spaces round it were about 2 feet wide and everything appeared very strong, the sides I noticed (when about 'stepping in') were extremely thick, about six inches - and I wondered why they were so strong in a machine to go through the air.
I was now alone in the machine at the rear end of the tablet or table resting my fore fingers and thumbs on its edge looking vacantly with downcast eyes upon the table and repenting like at my saying yes - when the spirit previous to my entering upon it had spoken to me - I felt miserably queer - just like one undertaking a billet or post he knows nothing of, so I remained for some considerable time, when I was aroused as it were from my reverie by the voice of the spirit on my right hand (and his hand resting upon the table with several printed paper within it) who said 'here are some papers for your guidance.'
Associated with this sighting, and with the papers that contained formulas to make a flying machine, the witness later experienced paranormal phenomena. Prior to the observation of the "Ark" itself he had had a vision of faces in the sky. Some time later he experienced poltergeist phenomena when the latch of a gate kept raising itself in full view without visible cause. In April 1872 he observed three clouds of very peculiar shape, which flew away quickly. He took this observation to be another divine instruction, the meaning of which he could not decipher.
Source: The document containing this report has an interesting history. It is known as the Memorandum Book of Fred Wm. Birmingham, the Engineer to the Council of Parramatta and subtitled Aerial Machine. Researcher Bill Chalker has traced its post-1940s whereabouts and spoken to some of the people involved. One was named Wallace Haywood, a resident of Parramatta. In the 1940s he passed the book to a Mrs. N. de Launte, a qualified nurse who was looking after his wife, and she finally gave it to ufologist Tasman V. Homan in the 1950s. Homan made a transcription of the book, including the sketches contained in it, with the help of four other people. A copy of this 15-page typed version was discovered among the papers of an astrologer called June Marsden. Mr. Fred Phillips, then honorary president of the Sydney-based UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC), showed this to Bill Chalker in 1975. The original (if it exists?) has not been found, hence our reservations.
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2013
* Chris Aubeck, Birmingham's Ark - an airship from the spirit world, 2013, 28p. A comprehensive, and well-researched account of the life of Frederick William Birmingham and his UFO / Alien encounters and subsequent adventures.
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* Bill Chalker, The OZ Files, 30 December 2013. Text:
Did Frederick William Birmingham build a flying machine based on his bizarre 1868 UFO "vision" in Parramatta, NSW, Australia?
In 1980 I presented some detailed research findings into the mystery of "a machine to go through the air" - the "UFO vision" of Frederick William Birmingham in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, way back in 1868. I published a shorter version of this report in 1984 in the UFORAN magazine. I also described the affair in my 1996 book The Oz Files - the Australian UFO Story and wrote an article for Fortean Times in 2002.
The story has long fascinated me and I have repeatedly revisited my research to see if anything further could be established. My original research and the increasing availability of old newspapers on line provided further tidbits about Birmingham - his engineering, mapping & surveyor activities; his 1866 insolvency; his robust "Town Hall" oratory efforts to try to get elected to the local Parramatta council; his activities as twice alderman on that council; his work as an engineer to Parramatta council on the local water supply works; his accuracy as an astronomical observer - Chris Aubeck of the Magonia Exchange list found a Sydney Morning Herald letter to the editor written by Birmingham describing a meteor in 1864 - as did further research in various Parramatta and NSW archives.
In September 2013 I was pleasantly surprised when my friend Paul Cropper came across references to Birmingham building a "flying machine" in local papers in 1932 and 1937! There are the 2 items, each based on recollections of a former mayor of Parramatta Frederick Cox (mayor in 1884) a few months before he died in April 1932. One is from the Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1932.
I have been undertaking a lot of further research on this because at the very least it adds a curious wrinkle to early "dreamers" or "designers" of heavier than air flying machines - a new piece of information about the dreams and achievements in the attempts to fly in Australia.
I found the following reference in 1932 to a "prophet of Aviation - Air-mindedness in 1868" referring to E.W. Cole of Cole's Book Arcade fame predicting in 1868 "the advent in Australia of the aeroplane as a mode of travel." Cole went on to draw up many weird designs and even had some built. None successfully made it into the aerial void. Cole made a public offer of 1000 pounds in October 1882 for the first person by October 1884 to fly 100 miles and land a flying machine powered "by electrical, chemical, mechanical, or any other means, except by gas" coming to a stop in front of his book arcade. Of course no one did.
But perhaps "visionaries" or wild "dreamers" like Birmingham were thinking about Mr. Cole's 1882-1884 "flying machine" prize, perhaps, in Birmingham's case inspired by very strange "visions" and "aerial sirens."
I have long wonder about the "co-incidence" of the death of Dr. William Bland in Parramatta in the week leading up to Birmingham's "UFO vision" on the night of 25-26 July 1868. Dr. Bland's death was announced in the Sydney Morning Herald of 22 July 1868, and his well attended funeral was reported on 24 July 1868. The local and political elite attended in large numbers, including members of the local Parramatta council. Birmingham was twice alderman on the council between 1865 to early in 1868. Unstated in the newspaper coverage about Dr. Bland's death was that he was the first person in Australia "to gain real significance in Australian aviation ... when, in March 1851, he drew up detailed plans of his "Atmotic Ship" - an airship to be powered by a steam engine. Unfortunately Bland's Atmotic Ship never made it to construction stage. If it did it would have been the first "steam-powered airship", a feat achieved in September 1852, but not in Australia (Copley 1976).
I was left wondering if the coincidence of Bland's death just prior to the July 1868 "vision" of "a machine to go through the air" inspired Birmingham in some way. His "flying ark" was nothing like Bland's "airship." Nor was Birmingham's 1872 daylight sighting. There has been speculation that Bland's plans, unrealised in Australia, may have inspired Count Zeppelin. William Dean flying the unpowered, lighter-than-air vehicle "The Australasian" in February 1858 became Australia's first aerial adventurer. So there were some aerial efforts about in the era that Birmingham had his strange vision.
When Chris Aubeck, co-ordinator of the pre-1947 UFO & Fortean research list Magonia Exchange and co-author with Jacques Vallee of Wonders in the Sky - Unexplained Aerial Objects from antiquity to modern times" (2009), contacted me recently about clarifying the date of death of Frederick William Birmingham, I shared the gist of the newly learnt information - that Frederick Birmingham had apparently built (or more likely drew up a design or made a model) of a "flying machine" that may have been based on his "vision" of 1868 and his daylight sighting of 9 March 1873.
Chris cryptically mentioned he had gone down a similar path "and reached The Rover." He clarified that this was "what Birmingham called his machine."
Well, I certainly look forward to learning the details of what Chris has found. So I guess you could still say that after all these years I'm still lost in the thrall of Birmingham's "vision" of "a machine to go through the air."
[Comment: Both references are reproduced above. It does not appear that Chalker or Aubeck were aware of Birmingham's 1875 article describing the Rover Ark replica in detail, or its provenance.]
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2016
* Bill Chalker, UFOs exposed - the historical case, Ufologist Magazine, January-February 2016.
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2020
* Bill Chalker, The Parramatta Park 'UFO Vision' of 1868, New Dawn, 15(5), 2020.
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2023
* Aussie Aliens - UFO over Parramatta - Birmingham's encounter, 3 June 2023, Haunted Historic Australia, YouTube, duration: 61.08 minutes.
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2024
* Bill Chalker, The Birmingham "UFO vision" manuscript via Herbert Rum,sey has been found and viewed, The OZ Files, 19 August 2024.
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4. Acknowledgements
In the compilation of this article, I would like to acknowledge the pioneering of Australia's premiere Ufologist Bill Chalker, plus also the research of American Chris Aubeck. References and links to their published work can be found scattered throughout the above article.
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ETs & UFOs : | 1971 File | Elena Danaan | Events, film and books | F.W. Birmingham, Parramatta Park, Australia 1868 | Flying Saucers over Australia 1950 | Martin Sharp, LSD & UFOs 1960s | Maria Orsic | Mayan Alien & UFO hieroglyphs | MH370 | Mount Zeil, Australia | Mussolini's UFO 1933 | Origins | Shirley UFO 1952 | Space Force | TR-3B | UFOs, Aliens and the Vatican + References | Wilson/Davis transcript 2002 | Zero Point Energy |
Last updated: 30 August 2024
Michael Organ, Australia (Home)
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