Airship 'secret inventor' narrative (1896-97).
discreditedclaimScandinavian "ghost rockets"
The widely-believed contemporary idea that a hidden inventor had secretly built a real airship, fed by attorney George Collins and ex-AG W.H.H. Hart naming (denying) principals.
Most 1896-97 witnesses believed the craft were human-built secret machines, not alien. All named principals denied involvement or vanished, no inventor ever surfaced, and Edison publicly called the airship story a fake. Alleged at the time; discredited as fact.