| Title: | Psychic Phenomena |
| Notice: | Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing |
| Moderator: | JARETH::PAINTER |
| Created: | Wed Jan 22 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Tue May 27 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2143 |
| Total number of notes: | 41773 |
During World War I, and to a _much_ greater extent during World
War II, there were stories of "gremlins," who were supposed to be
supernatural critters who caused anomalies in the behavior of
machinery, particularly airplanes.
Gremlins were the males; they inhabited aircraft and caused perfectly
good engines to sputter and misfire and other odd behavior. The
females were fifinellas; they were subtler, but tickled pilots'
(or bombadiers') noses to make them sneeze at odd times.
A ground-based set of female gremlins were the dingbells, who jinxed
office machinery and other ground equipment.
Gremlins reputedly were descended from the Little People. They
entered and loved machinery and took to the air when airplanes were
developed.
Any gremlin stories?
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 171.1 | Re: .0 | NATASH::BUTCHART | Mon Jul 21 1986 16:32 | 4 | |
Are gremlins supposedly responsible for malfunctioning equipment
(of any kind) that works perfectly when the repairman arrives?
Marcia
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| 171.2 | Well... | INK::KALLIS | Mon Jul 21 1986 16:48 | 23 | |
Some gremlins are. I wrote a styory based on Gremlin lore that
appeared in _Analog_ (of all places) a few years ago.
The idea is that a gremlin can cause odd behavior, but _mischevious_
odd behavior. If a person's in serious trouble, according to some
World War II pilot lore, gremlins will actually help out; some aircraft
were reputed to have flown for enough miles on supposedly empty
tanks to make it back to base, for instance. Gremlins aren't
malicious.
But since they are tricky little fellows and girls, intermittent
problems would be right up their collective alley.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
P.S.: According to some post-World-War-II pilots, there's a very
high-altitude variety of gremlin known as a "Spandule." Guess it
bugs astronauts and pilots of X-15s and SR71s. (Maybe U-2s, too!)
-SK
Bluejay -- Any gremlin stiries?
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| 171.3 | Unidentified Little People | BRAT::WALLIS | Wed Jul 23 1986 13:24 | 6 | |
Sounds like Deva's too me.
Lora
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