Barbara has transcribed an 1879 newspaper account of an “aerolite”, which sounds a lot more like a string of tongue-in-cheek jibes at the expense of the named parties, than it does a mysterious phenomenon. I wonder how many of the strange newspaper filler stories of the 19th century (and since) are examples of subtle prods. I’m thinking particularly of the “airship panic” flap that cropped up all across the US in the latter 1800s.
Nonetheless, inside jokes don’t travel well through time, do they?