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Detroit News: Articles of 1947
*Note: I have included articles that reference UFOs and other occurrences that may or may not be related.
New York Times: Articles of 1947
| Detroit News
July 04, 1947 FR 1; 24 page THEORIES BLOOM LIKE LILACS; 'FLYING SAUCER' TALES WIDEN Five theories were advanced today to "explain" the mysterious "flying saucers" which persons in 10 states have reported seeing streaking through the sky. The theories ranged from a San Francisco layman's flat assertion that they were "space ships" from older planets to a Chicago scientist's peevish comment that the witnesses were seeing "spots in front of their eyes". Three of the other explanations came from Army Air Force officers who began a preliminary investigation and then dropped it because they weren't getting anywhere. * * * * ROUNDUP OF THEORIES The AAF's experts said:
After a preliminary AAF investigation, however, Maj. Paul Gaynor said: "We feel that it is up in the clouds and we can't do anything until we get more concrete information." COVER WIDE AREA The mysterious discs, usually reported as shiny and traveling at great speed, first were reported 10 days ago over the Pacific Northwest. Reports of the projectiles poured in from Oregon, Washington, California, Kentucky, New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado, South Carolina, and eastern Canada. Yesterday persons in Texas and Ohio reported seeing the "flying saucers". Ole J. Snelde, of San Francisco, said he was surprised that the witnesses didn't know they were seeing "oblate spheroid space ships from the older planets". In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle Snelde warned the people of the earth to "set up no belligerence" or they would be wiped out in less than 24 hours. * * * * WEIRD EXPLANATION "They have been absent from our planet since before the fall of the Roman Empire, when the Great Master left earth for the outer galaxy of fohatic teleportation," he explained. "He is now back and what is going to be depends upon mankind." Aircraft engineers at the University of California conceded that if the "flying saucers" were traveling at 1,200 miles per hour, as reported by some witnesses, any passengers must be "out of this world." One professor, H.A. Johnson, said air travel at more than 600 miles per hour was impractical now because of temperatures generated by air friction. At 1,200 miles per hour, air friction would generate a temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about the limit of safety for metals now in use," he said. He said V-2 rockets traveled 3,600 m.p.h., but were in the air only a short time. --------------------- Detroit News Garden, Travel Radio Programs, Page 8, Part Two 'FLYING SAUCER' OF NEW DESIGN REPORTED SEEN IN DETROIT SKY Observers in Detroit and across the nation this week-end watched the skies for "flying discs" but were only able to report authoritatively concerning the phenomena that they are a sure cause of stiff necks. From Port Huron came reports that "flying discs" or perhaps dinner plates were seen moving northward. Two Detroit housewives said Saturday they had seen, in one instance, a "silver saucer" and in another, a "silver cake pan." Both appearances were a week ago Mrs. Ingeborg Miles, 17838 Mitchell Avenue, said she saw the "cake pan" and "it had a silver halo above it." It sailed between her and the sun, she said, and she called a neighbor to look. The neighbor didn't see it. Mrs. Frances M. Ward, 2427 Edsel Avenue, said the disc she saw a week ago "awfully high in the sky and flying very fast" was observed by herself, her husband, Hubert, and Bernard Bindus, 15, a neighbor. Capt. E.J. Smith, of the United Airlines, said he and his co-pilot, Ralph Stevens, flying from Boise, Ida., late Friday saw one of the discs and chased it for 45 minutes. But the remarks of Dr. John G. Lynn, Valhalla, N.Y., an expert on human behavior, intimated that the pilots probably established a record for chasing spots before their eyes. Dr. Lynn said the people who saw flying discs reminded him of the thousands who were frightened by a radio broadcast by Orson Welles which presaged the coming of "the men from Mars." Frank Ryman, of Seattle, a Coast Guard yeoman, said he took a picture of a flying disc at 10,000 feet. First results of the photography seemed to bear out Dr. Lynn. There was a dot on the film which the photographer said was a blemish. The only other thing visible on the film was, yes-a spot. S.D. Miller, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan observatory, calmed Detroit residents who said they saw flying fish, flying "wings", flying boomerangs and just new comets. A low lying cloud level, he said, was obliging watchers who were determined to see things. The clouds reflected lights from the city and disc-reflections from airport and advertising beacons.
____________________________________________________________________________________ Moon Called a Battleground THAT'S NOT GREEN CHEESE; IT'S ATOM DUST Chicago, July 11 (U.P.) The United States Rocket Society, an organization of men who want to go to the moon, suggested today that the moon might have been atom-bombed to death. An editorial in "Rockets, the Magazine of Space Flight," published by the society, said that the pock-marks on the moon might be atom bomb craters. "Could it be that the craters of the moon are in actual fact the Nagasaki's and Hiroshima's of some titanic war, fought out between two worlds during some fabulous epoch lost to history?" the editorial asked. It cited as "evidence" the fact that the moon is cloaked in a "corpse-like pallor." This indicates it is covered with a chalk-like dust, perhaps like the dust which has covered areas affected by atomic bomb explosions, it said. The editorial said the moon did not just grow old and die. Something killed it. It suggested that as the moon careened through space, it got near enough to the earth for its inhabitants to leave. "Their first stop, without a doubt, was the steaming, lush, primitive new world on which we now live," it said. "When we board this ghost ship of the sky, what will we find?" the editorial asked. "We may find the shriveled clues to our own drowned continents. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Detroit News Wednesday, July 09, 1947 Explodes Report One Was Turned In Reports of flying saucers whizzing through the sky fell off sharply today as the Army and Navy began a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors. One by one, persons who thought they had their hands on $3,000 offered for a genuine flying saucer found their hands full of nothing. The 8th Army Air Force announced at Fort Worth, Tex., that the wreckage of a tinfoil-covered object found on a New Mexico ranch was nothing more than the remnants of a weather observation balloon. AAF headquarters in Washington reportedly delivered a "blistering" rebuke to officers at the Roswell, N.M., base for suggesting it was a "flying disc." A 16-inch aluminum disc equipped with two radio condensers, a fluorescent light switch and copper tubing, found by F.G. Harston in Shreveport, La., was declared by police to be "obviously the work of a prankster." ____________________________________________________________________________________ Detroit News Friday, July 04, 1947 White Sands, N.M., July 4 8 Army Men Burned At New Mexico Base Eight military men were treated today for burns inflicted by acid from a giant experimental smoke bomb. The accident happened Thursday night at the White Sands Proving Ground, Southern New Mexico center for Army and Navy experiments with the German V-2 and other rockets. Only two of the injured were reported in serious condition. Others escaped with minor burns. All were flown to the Army's William Beaumont General Hospital at El Paso, Tex. Their names were not released. Lieut.-Col. Harold R. Turner, their commanding officer, said an unexplained accident spewed the acid in the midst of 75-man crew of technicians readying a V-2 for launching. Carried in a pressure tank with timed detonator, the acid was to have been released miles above the earth. There scientists expected to create a huge smoke cloud to facilitate observation of upper atmospheric phenomena. ______________________________________________________________________________________
Detroit News Tuesday, July 08, 1947 NAVY PLANES STAND BY TO CHASE DISCS A squadron of fast Naval planes is standing by with camera equipment to chase any flying discs reported in the Detroit area, Capt. W.D. Anderson, commanding officer at Grosse Ile Naval Air Station, announced today. Any persons slighting the elusive discs should call the operations officer at Trenton 1200, Capt. Anderson said, and report the general location, approximate altitude and direction of travel. Capt. Anderson said he understood a similar "flying disc alert" had been established at other Naval bases throughout the country. ______________________________________________________________________________________ NEGATIVE CALLED POSITIVE PROOF 3 SAW DISCS AT ORCHARD LAKE These "Flying Discs" were photographed by Albert Weaver, of Pontiac, when he and two companions sighted objects sailing over Orchard Lake Country Club Monday evening. The three said the discs were traveling about 100 miles an hour. Weaver, who said he had scoffed at stories of the discs being sighted throughout the country, was "amazed" when three sailed over a hill. He said they were traveling "about 150 feet high." The discs were about two feet in diameter and were approximately two inches thick at the edge, rising to four to six inches in the center. They appeared to have holes in them, he said. His companions agreed with Weaver's description, except to say they estimated the size at five feet in diameter. One said "they appeared to have a control tower on top." Meanwhile, numerous Detroiters mistook blinking lights on a Goodyear dirigible, which hovered over the city Monday night as flying discs. Their descriptions of the "discs" were varied and countless. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Detroit News Monday, July 07, 1947 Chicago, July 7 Could Be, Declares Rocket Body Chief Are the men from Mars taking a peek at us via the flying saucers? It would not surprise R.L Farnsworth, president of the United States Rocket Society, who is planning a trip to the moon some day. "Nothing surprises me," he said. "I wouldn't even be surprised if the flying saucers were remote-control electronic eyes from Mars." Farnsworth said the flying saucers reportedly racing through the United States skies were nothing to get up in the air about. "People have been seeing things in the sky for years," he said. Farnsworth is a member of the Fortean Society, a club for experts on the unusual things--on land and in the air--that people have seen and thought they have seen through the centuries. The club was founded in honor of Charles Fort, a diligent man who devoted his life to collecting four volumes on odd happenings. Farnsworth said the Rev. W. Read, an amateur astronomer, spotted a "host of self-luminous bodies" with his telescope in England on Sept. 4, 1851. In 1863, Farnsworth said, Henry Waldner, a Swiss, informed an astronomer at an observatory at Zurich, Switzerland, that he had been seeing a lot of small, shining bodies whooshing through the skies. The astronomer wrote back that he had been seeing the same things--and so had Stargazer Sig Capocci at a Naples, Italy, observatory. ______________________________________________________________________________________
Detroit News Monday, July 07, 1947 By Howard W. Blakeslee Associated Press Science Editor New York, July 7 Much of what has been described about the flying saucers reported from nearly all parts of the country may be explained by certain laws of eyesight. All objects appear round or nearly so at any distance which is close to the limit of how far a person can see. If the objects are seen by reflected light, as in most cases reported, they are almost certain to appear round, and if the reflections are sunlight, then the sizes reported are those which would be expected from distant light reflections. Descriptions of virtually all the saucers as round and flat fit exactly with the tricks that eyes play. This trickiness varies with differences in weather and lighting. This writer has seen flying saucers over Long Island Sound not only this year but in previous years. They were round, bright and moving fast. But they were no mystery, because they were light reflected from the bodies of airplanes that soon identified themselves by changing course and coming near to be seen distinctly. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Detroit News Thursday, July 17, 1947 SURE, DISCS CAN FLY; MAKER SHOULD KNOW Margate, Eng., July 17 Town Councillor A. Lovell really knows that flying discs exist--he made one and it flew. Lovell's revolving disc is rubber-propelled, and is 14 inches across. It has an 18 inch stabilizing rotor and a triangular stabilizing vane. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Detroit News Wednesday, July 02, 1947 Portland, Ore., July 2
FLYING SAUCERS SEEN BY ANOTHER Veteran Coast Pilot Tells of Spotting Discs The report of a long-time West Coast pilot was added today to the growing accounts of "flying saucers" over the West. Richard Rankin, veteran of more than 7,000 hours in the air, said he saw the much-debated mystery discs high over Bakersfield, Calif., and going "maybe 300 or 400 miles an hour." There were 10 in formation flying north, he said, but when "they returned on the reverse course, headed south, there were only seven." Rankin said he saw them June 23, but hesitated to describe what he saw until he noted others were reporting the same thing. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Detroit News June 26, 1947 Frontpage Pendleton, Ore., June 26 1,200-MPH Spots in Front of Flier's Eyes Army spokesmen expressed skepticism today on a report of nine mysterious objects--big as airplanes--whizzing over Western Washington at 1,200 miles an hour. Kenneth Arnold, a flying Boise, Ida., businessman who reported seeing them, clung, however, to his story of the shiny, flat objects. He said each was as big as a DC-4 plane and that he saw them racing over Washington's Cascade Mountains with a peculiar weaving motion "like the tail of a kite." An Army spokesman in Washington, D.C., commented, "As far as we know, nothing flies that fast except a V-2 rocket which travels at about 3,500 miles an hour--and that's too fast to be seen." The spokesman said the V-2 would not resemble the objects reported by Arnold, and that no tests were being made in the area. ______________________________________________________________________________________ (Detroit News) (July 26, 1947) Washington, July 26 (U.P.) President Truman, in a dramatic plane-board ceremony before flying to Grandview, Mo., today signed the armed forces unification bill and nominated Navy Secretary James Forrestal to be the nation's first "Secretary of Defense." The President delayed his takeoff for Grandview aboard his four-engined Sacred Cow for 30 minutes in order to sign into law the measure unifying the United States armed services for the first time into a single overall establishment. The new law--hailed by its supporters as a guarantee against "another Pearl Harbor"--provides separate, equal departments of Army, Navy and Air Forces under a Secretary of Defense. Each will have its own secretary, but they will not sit in the Cabinet. OTHER PROVISIONS It also:
The unification law goes into effect formally when Forrestal is sworn into his new post. Actually, it will require many months to complete all phases of the far-reaching organization. EISENHOWER MESSAGE Gen. Eisenhower, Army chief of staff, issued a message calling on all members of the Army to "accept and practice unification in spirit and action as a patriotic duty." With Forrestal's elevation to what will be the sole armed forces cabinet post, it was expected that Undersecretary John L. Sullivan will succeed him as Secretary of the Navy. Kenneth Royall, who this week succeeded Robert P. Patterson as Secretary of War, is expected to continue in that post under the new setup. Assistant Secretary of War W. Stuart Symington is considered a good bet to the nation's first Secretary for Air. The Unification legislation was rushed to Mr. Truman at the airport immediately after Senate President Vandenberg had signed it. ______________________________________________________________________________________ "SCIENTIST" SUGGESTS ATOMIC TIE Los Angeles, July 5 An unidentified "scientist in nuclear physics" at the California Institute of Technology was quoted today as suggesting the flying saucers might be the result of "transmutation of atomic energy" experiments. But Dr. C.C. Lauritsen, head of Caltech's nuclear physics department, denied the source was a member of his staff. The Evening Herald and Express described its informant as a researcher on the Manhattan Atomic project and said he asked his name be withheld. ____________ ________________ ________________ ______________ Denver, July 5 David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, told The Denver Post in a telephone interview tonight that the "flying saucers" reported over the United States were in no way connected with atomic experiments. The Post said a reporter held this brief telephone conversation with Mr. Lilienthal in Washington: The reporter explained the purpose of his call, and related reports that a West Cost scientist had said the discs were related to "transmutation of atomic energy." Mr. Lilienthal interrupted to say "of course, I can't prevent anyone from saying foolish things." ______________________________________________________________________________________ The Detroit News Tuesday, July 08, 1947 MAN MEETS HIS MARS-TER IN A SAUCER Artesian Welles Seized in Revenge (The following manuscript by Hal Boyle, who was last seen two days ago reading a copy of "Tom Swift" on the steps of the New York public library, was found in a beer bottle in a perambulator in Central Park. The empty bottle apparently had fallen from a great height.) By Hal Boyle Aboard a flying saucer over Pitcher, Okla. Don't tell me these flying discs re imaginary. Here I am in the middle of one, zooming around the American landscape like a boomerang. These things are not discs or saucers at all. They are built like a cowboy hat seven stories tall. The reason you folks down below have been disagreeing about the size is you haven't seen the whole thing. All you have seen is the reflection of the sides where patches of the infrainvisible paint were burned off these huge space ships as they passed too close to the sun on their way here from Mars. Yes, Mars! I am a prisoner aboard a 1947 model "flying saucer" from another planet. Let me explain. * * * * * * SIGHT FOR SORE EYES I left the New York public library at dusk the other day and dropped into a quiet bar to wash down a warm vitamin pill with a cold bottle of beer. Finishing it, I turned to a silent figure sitting next to me--the only other customer at the bar--and all but fainted. I saw a thing some eight feet tall, covered with thick green hair, with one eye, like a hard-boiled egg in the center of his forehead, and no visible mouth at all. He was naked, his hands were three-clawed and big enough for a Brooklyn center fielder. The green man's yolk-yellow eye burned a menacing red. One hand twisted one of a series of knobs on his chest marked "slang, American," and noiseless words drifted to me: "Scram, Mac. But take along some beer. You're going on a long ride." * * * * * * BOUNCED FROM A BAR Then I found myself lifted and tossed sprawling. There was the sound of a door closing and a sense of lifting rapidly into space. I scrambled to my feet and looked out the window--its infrainvisible paint is only invisible when you look at it from the outside. Manhattan was falling away beneath us like a toy town. "Well, how do you like your first ride in a flying saucer, Orson Welles?" leered the green man. "You're on the way to a place where there are more Martians than ever were in New Jersey." "Look, this may be a flying saucer," I complained, "but I'm not Orson Welles. I got this high forehead from wearing a tight hat." "Then who are you?" "I'm his cousin, Artesian Welles," I countered, "and who or what are you?" "I'm Balmiston X-ray O'Rune from Mars," said the green man, "and you have probably ruined my chance to win the sweepstakes." "What sweepstakes?" "Why, the sixty thousandth centennial running of the Universal Martian Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes!" crossly grunted the green man. "This time there are 500 space ships competing. To win I have to bring back 12 rare objects, including Orson Welles. Now somebody will beat me. It's all your fault for looking like somebody else." * * * * * * HOLES IN HIS HEAD Moodily he tossed some peanuts on top of his head. To my mild surprise, it opened and a double row of teeth chomped down on the peanuts. Now I knew where his voice had been coming from. "What are the other items on your treasure hunt list?" I asked. "Oh, I've already got a slice of moon cheese, a burning spark from the sun, the fingerprint of Mother Machree, a phonograph record of Gargantua singing 'Mammy,' and an autographed smoke ring from Winston Churchill's cigar," said the green man. "I've just got a few things left to do in this country--like buying a new motor car, getting a nickel beer and a good five-cent cigar, and plucking a hair from the eyebrow of John L. Lewis." "Balmiston, old boy," I said, "I think you and the other flying saucers are going to be here a long time. Your search is only beginning." "I'll keep you as a hostage, then," he said. "You steer while I catch a little sleep." CAUGHT IN THE ACT So here I am wheeling this blasted flying saucer back and forth between the Bronx, Santa Fe and Seattle. I have scribbled down this story and twice tried to smuggle it out in a bottle through the gravity exhaust tube. But each time the green an woke up and caught me. Somehow I'll manage to get the bottle out. You must believe what it contains. Bigger tales than this have come out of smaller beer bottles. If I succeed I'll send out more details on the flying saucers tomorrow. If, however, the green man catches me again, well--"Look out below, Peoria!" ______________________________________________________________________________________ Back To UFO News Articles Menu
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New York Times 1947 New York Times July 6, 1947 By T.R. Kennedy Jr. 'FLYING SAUCERS' MYSTIFY EXPERTS; MAY BE PRANK OF NATURE, THEY SAY Scientists yesterday were at a loss for an explanation of the so-called "flying saucers" reported seen speeding through the sky by observers throughout the country, unless it was that those who first observed the strange phenomena beheld a prank of nature, now being perpetuated by the "popular imagination." Military and civilian experts in the weather and its summer vagaries shrugged their shoulders when first asked for an explanation. Airplane pilots and most others who were asked for accounts of what they had seen said the objects apparently were traveling at high speeds from one to two miles high. Most reported that the "saucers" were all vanishing in the northwesterly sky. Reports which came in over the July Fourth holiday only served to deepen the mystery. Holiday throngs and more fliers joined in saying that they had seen bright objects, pancake-like in shape, and all going at high speeds. The reports came from points from the Pacific Coast to Nova Scotia and from Canada to the Gulf. Estimates of altitudes and speeds varied widely. The Associated Press reported observations by such reliable men as Capt. E.J. Smith of United Air Lines and Co-pilot Ralph Stevens, who, together with Stewardess Marty Morrow, described seeing the "round, flat objects for twelve minutes while flying west from Boise, Idaho." While reports from scattered observers such as picnickers and motorists received credence, it was emphasized that trained observer in weather phenomena was generally better able to judge what he saw than others. The first published report of the strange sight came from Kenneth Arnold of Boise, a business man-pilot, who said that on June 25 at Pendleton, Ore., he had observed nine objects flying at "1,200 miles an hour in formation, like the tail of a kite," over Washington State's Cascade Mountains. "I don't believe it, but I saw it," he said. Yeoman Frank Ryman, of the Coast Guard public relations office at Seattle, took a picture on July 4 of "something" that he declared was a group of flying saucers. Late yesterday it became known that the Army authorities had ordered a full investigation. REPORTED SEEN OVER MAINE Civil Aeronautical Administration officials at Augusta, Me., The Associated Press reported, yesterday saw dozens of the missiles over the city traveling northerly. Gordon A. Atwater, curator of Astronomy of the Hayden Planetarium, was inclined to believe that the first reports of the strange sight was "entirely authentic," but that most subsequent ones were brought on by a "mild case of meteorological jitters," with some "mass hypnosis" thrown in. "Ice crystals, formed by nature high in the sky, could be as good an explanation as any until we discover the true facts," he said. The Planetarium, he added, had been deluged with requests for information ever since the first reports. He went on to say that scientists of the General Electric Company and others had made huge ice crystals in the laboratory, some two feet in diameter, but that natural ice crystals manufactured by nature or man in the sky were seldom larger in diameter than three or four thousandths of an inch. A mass of such crystals could reflect the sun's rays like a small mirror and make the phenomena visible. MOVIES OF CRYSTALS SHOWN Motion pictures of the forming of crystals can be seen daily in the Planetarium. Some of them are much larger than two feet across. Controlled laboratory conditions are necessary for their creation. "Some have suggested that the flying saucers might be meteorites, but we are inclined to believe they are neither meteorological or astronomical in origin," he said. "No meteorites are disk-shaped, and they vary from a pinhead in size to one weighing thirty-six tons." Dr. Jan Schilt, Rutherfurd Professor of Astronomy at Columbia, who was consulted over the telephone, said he was more inclined to believe the true answer would be found from some phenomena seen during the two last wars, when speeding airplanes churned up the atmosphere and caused distortions of light rays which passed through soon afterward. He said this effect might be largely electrical in nature, due to the turmoil of the propeller and wings, causing something like "smoke-rings." Birds also, he said, could readily create the effect. He went on to say that if the average motorist carefully observed the effect of his headlight against mist or clouds as he passed up a steep hill the same thing could be seen. "I am certainly inclined to believe a very simple explanation for the flying saucers will thus be found," he stated, "and that some who blamed it on more profound and strange things will be more careful in the future about spreading half truths or badly observed things of nature." LOCH NESS MONSTER RECALLED Yesterday a fresh but slightly diminished crop of reports, besides the one from Augusta, Me., came from Port Huron, Mich.; Portland, Ore.; Akron, Ohio; St. John, N.B.; Summerside, Prince Edward Island; Sherbrooke, Que.; New Orleans and Philadelphia. Ivan R. Tannehill, chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau's division of synoptic reports and forecasts, frankly was skeptical, according to The Associated Press. "I'll have to see one before I make a guess what they are," he said. Dr. Newbern Smith of the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, guessed: " It is like one of these Loch Ness Monster stories. Once the reports get about, everyone thinks they see it." An object which was found on an Ohio farm and caused speculation as to whether it might not be one of the mysterious "saucers" was declared by the Army Air Forces to be a radiosonde, a six-pointed kite-like framework covered with metal foil and about forty inches high. It is hoisted aloft by a balloon and then tracked by radar to determine wind direction and velocity at various altitudes. ___________ ____________ ___________ _____________
"SCIENTIST" SUGGESTS ATOMIC TIE Los Angeles, July 5 An unidentified "scientist in nuclear physics" at the California Institute of Technology was quoted today as suggesting the flying saucers might be the result of "transmutation of atomic energy" experiments. But Dr. C.C. Lauritsen, head of Caltech's nuclear physics department, denied the source was a member of his staff. The Evening Herald and Express described its informant as a researcher on the Manhattan Atomic project and said he asked his name be withheld. ____________ ________________ ________________ ______________ LILIENTHAL SCOUTS IDEA Denver, July 5 David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, told The Denver Post in a telephone interview tonight that the "flying saucers" reported over the United States were in no way connected with atomic experiments. The Post said a reporter held this brief telephone conversation with Mr. Lilienthal in Washington: The reporter explained the purpose of his call, and related reports that a West Cost scientist had said the discs were related to "transmutation of atomic energy." Mr. Lilienthal interrupted to say "of course, I can't prevent anyone from saying foolish things." ______________________________________________________________________________________ The New York Times Wednesday, July 09, 1947 'DISK' NEAR BOMB TEST SITE IS JUST A WEATHER BALLOON Warrant Officer Solves a Puzzle That Baffled His Superiors--'Flying Saucer' Tales Pour in From Round the World By Murray Schumach Celestial crockery had the Army up in the air for several hours yesterday before an Army officer explained that what a colleague thought was a "flying disk" was nothing more than a bettered Army weather balloon. This denouement closed the New Mexico chapter in the "flying saucer" saga that already had contributions from forty-three other states in the Union as well as from Australia, England, South Africa, Mexico and Canada. However, none of the previous or subsequent reports of strange heavenly bodies created as much confusion as the startling announcement from an Army lieutenant that "a flying disk" had been found on a ranch near Roswell, N.M., near the scene of atomic bomb tests. The officer, Lieut. Warren Haught, public information officer of the Roswell Army Air Field, made no bones about the discovery in his detailed report as carried by The Associated Press. "The many rumors regarding the flying disk became a reality," his statement began. He told which Intelligence Office of what Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force had passed "the flying disk" along "to higher headquarters." Then phones began to buzz between Washington and New Mexico and the "disk" was well on the way to showing how the circle could be squared. One by one, as the rank of the investigating officer rose, the circle lost arcs and developed sides until it was roughly octagonal. Within an hour after Lieutenant Haught had given new impetus to the "flying saucer" derby, his boss, Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey, had a somewhat different version of "the flying disk." He said that while it was true it had been found on a ranch, no one had seen it in the air; it was "of flimsy construction," apparently made "of some sort of tin foil." Subsequently, it was reported being flown to a research laboratory at Wright Field, Ohio. In Washington, Lieut. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, Deputy Chief of the Army Air Forces, hurried to his headquarters' press section. Atomic experts in the capital were certain that whatever had been found was not any of their doing, but no one seemed to know just how to dispose of the object. Finally, a lowly warrant officer, Irving Newton, a forecaster at the Fort Worth, Tex., weather station, solved the mystery. He said it was just a part of a weather balloon, such as is used by eighty weather stations in the country to determine velocity and direction of winds at high altitudes. Several hours before the New Mexico mystery had been solved, a Canadian meteorologist suggested the same answer in connection with rumors of "flying saucer" in Circleville, Ohio. This was soon after a couple in the Ohio town had jubilantly proclaimed their "capture" of a mysterious disk. However, the midwest was spurred in its hunt by offers of $3,000 rewards for "proof" that America was not succumbing to an epidemic of hallucinations. One of the first to put in a claim for the prize was an Iowa salesman, who produced a steel disk, nearly seven inches in diameter. He said he found it in his yard in the morning after hearing it "crash through the trees." According to The United Press, reporters thought the disk was playing truant from an ash tray. Then there was the Nebraska farmer who added a bucolic touch to the story. He said the heavenly bodies were "flaming straw hats," that careened through the night, sometimes pausing for a rest. Michigan's contributor for the day was a toolmaker from Pontiac. According to The United Press, he turned over to newspapers a picture showing two circular objects against a black background. Examination showed holes in the disks. Also in the act was Wisconsin, where it was reported that on Monday 250 pilots of that state's Civil Air Patrol would take off in search of "flying saucers." Proof that "flying saucers" were not indigenous to the United States and Canada began coming in late in the afternoon. Two residents of Johannesburg, South Africa, said, according to Reuters, that they not only saw the objects, but that these "traveled at tremendous speed in V-formation and disappeared in a cloud of smoke." In England, a clergyman's wife, who said she had kept her discovery secret for fear of derision, finally came forth yesterday with a story about seeing "a dark ring, with clear-cut edges," that sped across the sky on Monday. The Australian variations of "the flying saucer," though reported by six persons in Sydney, were quite ordinary. Observers said they were a bit brighter than the moon, seemed to prefer an altitude of about 10,000 feet and moved along rather briskly. It may have been the weather, but the only allusion to "flying saucers" in New York City were a few skeptical remarks by Admiral William H.P. Blandy, commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet. Said the admiral, in response to questions: "I remain to be convinced there is any such thing. I am convinced that they are nothing the Army and Navy is concerned with. I am curious, like everybody else, to see what's behind it."
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The New York Times July 07, 1947 MILITARY PLANES HUNT SKY DISCS WITH CAMERAS IN VAIN ON COAST By The Associated Press San Francisco, July 6 Military aircraft hunted the skies over Pacific Coast states today for sight of the mysterious "flying saucers" that for twelve days have puzzled the entire country. Early reports of results were negative. Five B-51's of the Oregon National Guard cruised over the Cascade Mountains of Washington--the area where the strange objects first were reported sighted. A sixth circled over Portland, in constant radio contact with the other five. All carried photographic equipment. Col. G.R. Dodson, commanding, described their flight as a "routine patrol," but said they had been instructed to watch for the flying discs. At Manhattan Beach, Calif., A.W. McKelvey took a Mustang fighter plane up above Van Nuys. For two hours he cruised at 35,000 feet. "I didn't see a thing," he said when he landed. Gen. Carl Spaats, commandant of the Army Air Forces, was in the Pacific Northwest. He denied knowing anything about the flying discs or of plans to use AAF planes to look for them. "I've been out of touch with things for four or five days," he said. Then he went to Medford, Ore., on a fishing trip. A P-80 jet fighter at Muroc Army Air Field in California and six fast regular fighters at Portland, Ore., stood ready to take off on an instant's notice should any flying saucers be sighted in those areas. Some of the planes carried photographic equipment. First sighted on June 25 and greeted generally with scornful laughs, the objects have been reported every day since by observers in thirty-three states. Airline pilots said they had seen the discs, larger than aircraft, flying in "loose formation" at high speed. A cautious attitude marked both official and scientific comments, but Capt. Tom Brown of the Air Forces Public Relations staff in Washington acknowledged that the Air Forces had decided "there's something to this" and had been checking up on it for ten days. MISSILE THEORY DISCOUNTED "We still haven't the slightest idea what they (the discs) could be," he added. "But we don't believe anyone in this country, or outside this country has developed a guided missile that will go 1,200 miles an hour as some reports have indicated." David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said that the discs had nothing to do with atomic experiments, and Army and Navy officials also entered positive disclaimers. Commenting on a report linking the phenomena with "transmutation of atomic energy," Dr. Harold Urey, atom scientist at the University of Chicago, called it "gibberish." He said that elements could be "transmuted" but not energy. DETAILS OF THE DESCRIPTIONS Reports generally agreed that the flying objects were round or oval. Estimates of their speed ranged from about 300 miles to 1,200 miles an hour. They were described as flying with an undulating motion at heights of 10,000 feet and less. Some described them as glowing, or luminous. Nova Hart, a St. Louis mechanic who was trained during service in the war to spot all types of aircraft, said he saw one of the strange objects near Pattonville yesterday. It was flying at an altitude of 300 feet, he said. He described it as circular, with a ribbed framework and silver gray in color. He said it appeared to have a motor with a propeller attached in the center and it kept turning like an airplane doing a slow roll. First reports of the phenomena were published on June 25. Kenneth Arnold, a business man pilot of Boise, Idaho, told of seeing nine of the discs flying in formation at 1,200 miles an hour over the Cascade Mountains in Washington. ______ ________ _________ ____________ Spokane, Wash., July 6
Eight flying saucers, described as "more like washtubs" and each "about the size of a five-room house," were reported today by Mrs. Walter Johnson of suburban Dishman as having fallen in view of ten persons Thursday evening near St. Maries, Idaho. They fluttered down into the timber," she said, and vanished. ________ __________ __________ ___________
New Jersey had its first reports of sky discs yesterday, according to The Associated Press. Patrolman Frederick Schlauch of the Elizabeth police told of seeing two shiny objects flying northeast last night, not very fast but diving in a fluttering fashion "like pursuit planes." Mrs. Harold Doner of Denver, visiting in Essex Fells, and Mrs. Leonora Woodruff of 184 South Arlington Street, East Orange, reported "balls of fire darting silently at high speed through the air" about 1 A.M. Friday. The first flying disc in New York was reported in Rochester last night by Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Ohley, who were in their backyard when they observed it "zipping" eastward. In Washington, D.C., Hazen Kennedy, a former flying cadet of the Army Air Forces, reported seeing at 8:40 last night an orange-colored object flying 1,000 to 1,500 feet aloft "well over 1,000 miles an hour." Maj. Gen. C.E. LeMay, assistant chief of staff for research, told The Associated Press that the phenomena were "nothing to worry about" and Dr. Winfred Overholser, the psychiatrist, said that some of the reports bore earmarks of "national hysteria." Meantime, other versions over the country were reported by The United Press. A woman in Chicago standing on her porch said she saw a flying saucer "with legs" that seemed to be coming down "to slap me in the face." Two women in South Bend, Ind., recounted watching "a dogfight" of discs for twenty-five minutes. And Francis Howell of Tempe, Ariz., declared he saw a saucer two feet in diameter "ascend" near his home. ____________________________________________________________ |