In February of 1896, the city of San Francisco was abuzz with news of a local physician's plan to begin construction on an aluminum airship, which would revolutionize transcontinental travel. Over the course of the next two years, as a wave of UFO sightings swept across the nation, the local press clamored for details of Dr. Charles Abbott Smith's futuristic invention. The doctor, however, withdrew deeper and deeper into the shadows to avoid any semblance of public scrutiny. Was Dr. Smith--President of the Atlantic and Pacific Aerial Navigation Company, simply averse to the limelight, or were there more sinister reasons behind his penchant for anonymity? Intensive research into Dr. Smith's carefully concealed past yielded electrifying results. Suppressed for well over a century, Dr. Smith's secret life has now been revealed...

Timothy C. Parrott is a linguist and translator by profession, as well as a researcher and author of several books on local history and biography.

timoshka@aol.com