in the news 1952
PART TWENTY-SIX
Above: From the August 11, 1952 edition of Pacific Stars and Stripes. The caption reads: "FLYING SAUCER ANSWER? -- The Engineer Center at Fort Belvoir, Va., has produced what they believe to be miniature flying saucers. In a small working model of the stratosphere. William Erbe of the research laboratory bleeds minute amounts of air into an ionized partial-vacuum to produce globular orange-colored light. The objects created can "speed up, hover indefinitely, or disappear or reappear in a flash."
NINETEEN FIFTY-TWO might be remembered for many things, large and small. The election of Dwight Eisenhower as President of the United States. Fifty thousand American families afflicted by Polio. The British A-bomb. The first issue of Mad magazine. The theory of the Big Bang.
But for those of a certain bent, 1952 will also be remembered for the second great 'flying saucer flap' which climaxed with the reports of radar and visual sightings over the nation's capital in late July.
Part of the story of that event-filled year is now available in declassified government files. But for the public back then -- at a time when only one in three families in America had a television set -- the story was mostly found in the newspapers and magazines.
This then is a look back at those stories, as they first appeared in print...
AUGUST 11, 1952:
Fitchburg, Massachusetts Sentinel - 11 Aug 52
Now They Are "Objects"
(New York Times)
The romanticists who are willing to believe that Mars and Venus are inhabited by people so intelligent and advanced that they have been visiting us for centuries and giving us a periodic "once over" must be highly pleased with the reported failure of jet fighter planes to intercept what, a few months ago, were called "flying saucers" but are now called "objects."
It is not the first time that military planes had to give up in their attempts at interception. Past failures were easily accounted for by the impossibility of rising to the altitude to which meteorological and cosmic-ray balloons ascend. One pursuer lost his life because he climbed too high.
That radar should have detected the "object" in the latest attempt at interception is what may be expected of reflected radio waves that will spot birds on the wing, ribbons of tinsel and cellophane and rain. Radar testifies to the solidity of the "objects" seen over Washington.
To Prof. C.C. Wylie, a well-known astronomer, an "object" seen in southwestern Iowa was "most likely the planet Jupiter." The air force has similarly accounted for some apparitions on which it reported in 1949. That "objects" should occasionally fly in formation is to be expected of sounding balloons, which are often sent up in clusters that spread out. The lights attached to the balloons and followed at night are interpreted by the credulous as the brightly lit ports of a craft that came from another world.
Though the air force has done its best to dispose of the nonsense that comes from imaginative observers of "objects," it might do better. Why did pilots of jet planes that pursued "objects" over Washington fail to catch up with their quarry? Was it because they couldn't go no higher? Such questions are bound to be asked. Unless they are answered in simple language belief in visitors from outer space will be strengthened in those who cannot distinguish between speculation and scientific reasoning.
Life Magazine - 11 Aug 52
The Air Force Makes A Pass At The Saucer Stories
The Air Force suddenly announced last week that flying saucers were probably just atmospheric mirages. The announcement followed close on the heels of radar tracking of "unidentified objects" over Washington, D.C., of partial confirmation of the radar reports by visual sightings, and of sending jet fighters to intercept the objects (LIFE, Aug. 4).
Chief of Intelligence Major General John Samford said the radar "blips" might be due to an atmospheric condition known as "inversion" -- a layer of cool air between layers of warm air which can, under certain circumstances, reflect radar rays. Although usually only solid objects appear on scopes, radar mirages were familiar during the war to navy ships, which occasionally fired at nonexistent "objects." The visual sightings confirming the radar reports might, the Air Force said, be reflections from light sources on the ground. At any rate people could stop worrying about flying saucers.
The Air Force explanation might calm many troubled people, but it didn't end the discussion. The U.S. Weather Bureau in Washington said that there had indeed been inversion layers on the nights of the radar sightings but that these were not at all unusual. Furthermore radar experts could not explain how the inversion theory would account for the appearance of simultaneous, identically located "blips" on three separate screens. And there was an incongruous note in the statement of General Samford himself: there is still no explanation for 20% of the saucer reports which have come from creditable observers in the past five years.
Before the week was over, two more reports were added to the Air Force list. An official Coast Guard picture was released showing four saucerlike objects in the sky over Salem, Mass. And over Dayton, Ohio two jet pilots, sent up by the Air Force to investigate saucer reports, maneuvered around a bright object and said that since they viewed it from several angles it could not be a light reflection.
Abilene, Texas Reporter News - 11 Aug 52
Robert S. Allen Reports
NO ADDICT
General Omar Bradley does not believe in flying discs and makes no bones about it.
The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was very emphatic about that during a private talk with a group of House members led by Representative Albert Thomas (D-Tex). They conferred with him on a request for additional funds desired by the Pentagon, particularly for atomic weapons. Representative John Phillips (R-Calif) was frankly skeptical of the claim the money was "urgently needed."
"After you have been a member of the Appropriations Committee for many years, as I have," Phillips told Bradley, "you become suspicious of emergency pleas. Whenever a big Navy appropriation bill comes before us, I always know that Russian submarines will soon be reported off either the Atlantic or Pacific Coast. It rarely fails. Now it's flying saucers or discs."
"I emphatically deny responsibility for any submarine reports," replied Bradley stiffly.
"What about flying discs?"
"And the same goes for flying discs," retorted Bradley. "I have never claimed seeing them or that I believe in them. Neither has anyone in the Pentagon, that I know of."
Note: The Air Force, and the Navy know a great deal more about the mysterious flying objects than has been officially indicated.
Corpus Christi, Texas Times - 11 Aug 52
Radar Screen Watch Spots Air Objects
By Arthur J. Snider
Chicago Daily News
WILLIAMS BAY, Wis. -- On a few remote acres of brush cleared Wisconsin land is the first line of defense against flying saucers and other unidentified aerial objects.
Here electronic beams or radar scan the skies day and night, Sundays and holidays.
Below, in a window-darkened and heavily guarded operations room, Air Force experts never take eyes off a screen throwing a purplish glow in their faces.
Schedules Known
They know the advanced schedules each day of every commercial private and military craft that flies within this station's zone.
Anything else that records a blob of light on the radarscope is challenged. No chance is taken.
The identification man has one minute to check CAA and military flight logs. If no plane is slated for that area at that time, he flashes the controller.
The controller is linked by direct telephone with air bases.
Protecting saucer-anxious Chicago around the clock is the 4706th Defense Wing at O'Hare Airport under the command of Col. Fred T. Crimmins, Jr.
F-86 Sabrejets, holders of the official world speed record of 670 miles an hour, are poised with 50-calibre guns loaded.
Aces at Controls
They are piloted by such aces as Lt. Col. Bruce H. Hinton, who shot down the first Russian-built MIG-15 in the Korean war, and Col. Benjamin S. Preston, Jr., who has 102 Korean combat missions with four MIG kills.
Any pilot, from lieutenant on up, is empowered without further instructions to shoot down anything he cannot identify by sighting or radio exchange.
"We have yet to fire at anything -- and that includes flying saucers," declared Col. Crimmins. "We have seen no saucers."
At the sound of the "scramble" siren pilots race from the ready room to their planes. They are airborne in seconds.
They switch to the radio frequency of the radar control officer to get direction altitude and course for their rendezvous with the mystery.
The object and the interceptors are followed by radar and courses plotted on a map in the operations room.
At night or in bad weather the planes can thereby be maneuvered into the best possible position to attack.
Some Limitations
While the seeing-eye watchdogs of radar is the most advanced system of aerial detection yet devised, it has a limitation. Radar waves, like television waves, will not "bend" over high hilltops.
Thus it is ineffective at low altitudes where the line of sight is cut off by terrain obstruction.
One way of minimizing this weakness is to locate the nation's network of radar stations so that one beam will cover the dead spots of the other.
Another is to use the eyes and ears of the new nationwide corps of volunteer ground observers who report to a filter center.
In Chicago the filter center is located at the Museum of Science and Industry.
"A suburban housewife may draw little glory or acclaim for her hours of watching or waiting," Col. Crimmins said, "but she has the knowledge that the she may be the one to save an entire city from atomic devastation.
New Castle, Pennsylvania News - 11 Aug 52
Astronomer Will Attempt To Solve "Saucer" Mystery
BERKELEY. Calif. Aug. 11 -- The big question of whether flying saucers exist or not may become a principal topic at the fourth annual convention of western amateur astronomers to he held at the University of California in Berkeley, Aug. 18-19-20.
Several hundred of the nonprofessional stargazers are expected to attend the sessions, bringing along their telescopes and equipment for both display and use.
A "star party" at which the astronomers will set up their instruments for scanning the celestial vault is scheduled for Monday night, Aug. 18.
"If we spot any objects we can't identify," said one of the members of the East Bay Astronomical Society, hosts for the convention, we'll watch them carefully. However, inasmuch as we astronomers spend more time, individually and in groups, in watching all parts of the sky -- and haven't seen a flying saucer yet, we don't expect to this time!"
Pointing out that August is known traditionally as "the month of meteors," the amateur astronomers expect an unusually large number of reports of "mysterious flaming objects" from the uninitiated. Such annual meteor showers as the perseids and similar displays provide everything from large, flaming bursts to small swift streaks in the sky.
Corpus Christi, Texas Times - 11 Aug 52
THE REAL THING, OR JUST FOR YOUR PERSONALITY? -- If you've seen a 'flying saucer' like this, or like some of the others reported over Corpus Christi, you might do well to consult your subconscious mind. It may be you're trying to identify yourself with some famous scientist. Or, as happened to this reporter, you may be just a victim of eye-muscle tricks. The saucer in this picture is an artist's conception. The plane is a Martin patrol bomber from NAS.
It's Easy To Get Into The Flying Saucer Act
By John H. Johnson
Have you been seeing flying saucers? If so, it well may be that you're just trying to get into the act. That, in essence, is the opinion of a Naval Air Station psychiatrist. Only he calls it "personality projection."
It works like this: Whenever a scientist, airline pilot, or other expert reports the sighting of some unidentified object in the sky a whole rash of reports flows in from non-experts all over the country. Corpus Christi included.
These non-experts, Comdr. John Boland believes, don't know it but they're trying to identify themselves with the scientists and pilots through this business of personality projection. They are able to align their own personalities with those of the scientific observers when they "see" flying saucers.
It sounds complicated. Dr. Boland says, however, that the matter is clearer when considered in this light: If the kid next door or a housewife down the street happens to spot a saucer there is no incentive to see one yourself. There's no glory in identifying yourself with these non-experts. You might even be laughing. Identifying yourself with a scientist is another matter.
The whole idea is tied up somewhat with things like hero worship. Many a man considered cigarette holders foppish until FDR came along. Then it was different. A man could, by using one, smoke his cigarettes right down to the nub, and identify himself with Roosevelt in the process.
Because it's now highly reputable to see flying saucers, Dr. Boland believes great masses of people will go right on seeing them.
Incidentally, I saw a "flying saucer" myself last week. At least it could have been one.
The saucer was an unidentified light in the night sky. It moved toward me, at a seemingly great speed, climbed rapidly, then veered quickly to the left and back to the right.
This saucer, however, wasn't one you could get excited about. It was a light, all right, but it's amazing movements were due to a trick my eyes played on me.
The night sky in which it was observed was artificial. It was in the blacked out night vision training room at NAS. The light was artificial, too. An enlisted man names James Hopkins operated it in the darkened room. He turned it on, and Dr. Boland told me to watch it closely. I did.
At first the light, no bigger than a pin-point, seemed to stand perfectly still. Then it went through weird, saucer-like gyrations. When I became convinced that it was moving at terrific speed, Jones switched on the room lights.
The little light I'd been watching so intently was housed in a box. Rigidly mounted, it hadn't moved at all. My eyes had completely deceived me. Dr. Boland told me not to be alarmed. It happens to the best of eyes when you stare at a fixed object. Try it some dark night on a star. Maybe you'll see a saucer, too.
Idaho Falls, Idaho Post Register - 11 Aug 52
Another 'Saucer'
POCATELLO, Aug. 11 -- A Pocatello couple reported sighting what appeared to them to be a "flying saucer" Saturday night. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hill said they watched objects zig zagging across the sky at about 10 p.m.
Big Spring, Texas Daily Herald - 11 Aug 52
Japanese Dentist Sees Flying Saucers
TOKYO -- A dentist in Beppu, Kyushu, reported last night he saw two bright circular objects sail through the sky from northeast to southwest and from east to west.
The dentist said the objects moved much faster than an airplane but that he felt they were not shooting stars.
Several other persons reported seeing aerial lights.
Corona, California Independent - 11 Aug 52
Flying Balloons From State Fair to Float in Skies
Not flying saucers but balloons will float through California skies this week. They won't be visitors from another world; they'll be special messengers from California State Fair.
Beginning Wednesday, 5,000 helium-filled balloons will be released in various parts of the state. Attached to each one will be a bright yellow tag, bearing an invitation for the finder to bring his immediate family to the California State Fair, Aug. 28, through Sept. 7, as guests of the Fair for the day.
It's part of a plan to extend a special invitation to all California families to visit the 93rd California State Fair. The theme of the Fair this year is "The Family," and California's largest native-born family -- mother, father, and 18 children -- will also be honored guests at the Fair.
Forrest Laugenour, a director of the State California Agriculture Society, will release the first helium-filled balloons from the State Capitol Building Wednesday morning. He'll then journey to Stockton, Sonora, Merced, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Eureka, Marysville and Red Bluff, and release balloons until all 5,000 have been sent aloft.
Sydney, Australia Morning Herald 11 Aug 52
Moon Travel Possible "This Century"
Professor Sydney Chapman, a leading British geophsyicist, said yesterday that it woud not need an unreasonable degree of progress for scientists to achieve travel to the moon "within this century."
Hitherto visionary ideas of interplanetary travel were also now with the realms of possibility.
Professor Chapman arrived in Sydney by air for the International Scientific Radio Union conference, which begins to-day.
"Interplanetary travel in space ships going at 1,000 miles a second seems a future possibility, but will require a much longer times to achieve," said Professor Chapman.
"If it is achieved a group of scientists would be able to make an investigation cruise around a planet like Mars and be back in a month."
Professor Chapman is Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford and has been a Fellow of Queen's College since 1946.
He is Fellow of the Royal Society and was last year elected president of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.
"FLYING SAUCERS"
Asked about "flying saucers," he said: "I do not believe in them because I do not know of any evidence that establishes their existence.
"But just before I left Oxford I saw a copy of an American magazine from which I learned that an American scientist whose opinion must be respected is making a serious study of them."
Winona, Minnesota Republican Herald - 11 Aug 52
Roll Out the Welcome Mat For the Planetary Pilgrims
We now have it officially, on the word of the Air Force, that there's something in the air. But what it or they is or are is not revealed by radar.
It is entirely true to form that the American public views the situation -- but not the saucers -- with equanimity. After all, what have we to fear? We don't hate anyone, most certainly not the residents of an outside planet. We don't even want to imperialize the earth, let alone Mars or Venus.
And these celestial visitors can't be enemies. If they were Commies from the Kremlin, flitting about the stratosphere like will-o'-the-wisps, then swooping down within duck shooting range of Washington, Des Moines or Winona, we would long ago have been wiped out, probably by the same power that keeps them flying.
Not only that: We don't hear anything from Russia. If the Martians or Venusians were to drop in for a social call on Earth, they wouldn't leave without paying their respects to the glorious USSR. Surely, the Iron Curtain isn't THAT high.
If they had visited Russia, they wouldn't be here, because Uncle Joe would have had them in jail as spies, preferably as Americans in disguise.
But look out! Maybe the next voice you hear will be that of the Kremlin, proclaiming the Union of Soviet Socialist Planets. Then it will be time to duck. Until then we shall undergo this extra-terrestrial scrutiny with as calm a countenance and as clear a conscience as a presidential election will permit.
AUGUST 12, 1952:
Huron, South Dakota Huronite 12 Aug 52
Science Writer Says Verdict Is That Flying Discs People See Are Ghosts
By ARTHUR J. SNIDER
Science Writer
Chicago Daily News
Flying saucers — fact or fancy?
They're fact to the extent that rational people are actually seeing lighted objects doing curious dipsydoodles in the sky. They're fancy in that they are not space ships, men from Mars or signals from Venus.
This is the conclusion you arrive at after 10 days of saucer chasing.
It's the kind of conclusion that brings this sharp rejoinder from fervent believers in the interplanetary objects: "How can you prove they aren't space ships?"
No Measurements
The question, when presented to a scientist, gets the reply:
"When someone tells me that two and two add up to five, the burden of proof is on him."
So far, scientists have had no measurements they can hold in their hands.
Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, director of intelligence for the Air Force, who has the responsibility of appraising any air menace to the United States, says of the thousands of reports received:
"The stuff we have now hasn't enough meat on its bones to interest scientific people."
Astronomers, the best advisers on the sky, say their cameras have yet to show anything.
They are convinced the conditions for intelligent life on other planets do not exist.
As for the outer heavens, they point out a rocket traveling at 500,000 miles an hour from the nearest star would take 6,000 years to reach here.
The light we now see from Arcturus, traveling at the ultimate of speed, 186,000 miles per second, or 11,000,000 miles a minute, left there 33 years ago.
What then are the flying saucers people are seeing?
All are not seeing the same things, thus accounting for the conglomeration of descriptions.
Meteors Seen
Many people are seeing meteors.
Others, especially in the southwest, are observing rockets and guided missiles.
Flights of birds are being misinterpreted by some.
Cosmic ray and weather balloons are commonly mistaken.
A few people are seeing hoaxes perpetrated by pranksters.
A very few, under the influence of mass suggestion, are seeing nothing but an image fashioned in their mind's eye.
Airplanes glimmering the day's sun or winking safety lights at night have been shown by Air Force investigation to be a frequent source of reports.
A large proportion of sighters are catching mirages, optical illusions projected onto the sky from below.
Mirages are commonly perceived by sensible and experienced people, including explorers and pilots.
In all of these flying saucer reports scientists are impressed by the absence of confirmatory reports from distant points.
A single meteor 80 miles up, they point out, is seen by thousands for at least 500 miles around.
Radar Fooled
How does science explain away the mysterious blips on the radar screen? Doesn't radar echo only against solid objects?
Experts know nature can trick the radar eye as readily as the human eye.
They point out the beam directed skyward can pick up natural objects on the ground.
This week the radar screen operated by the State Water Survey in Urbana showed a "river" in the sky. It was a reflection of the Illinois River 80 miles away.
But how can radar beams be bent? Don't they travel in a straight line as do light waves?
They do, scientists explain, as long as the journey is through a layer of air of the same density.
But when warm and cold air become sandwiched in what is known as a temperature inversion the air masses act like a prism to refract radar or light waves in odd directions.
Secret Weapons
Experts also know radar waves can bounce off of air masses that have been ionized -- charged with electrical properties -- by thunderstorms or by a meteor.
The best of radar observers have been fooled by the ghostly blips.
Before dismissing flying saucers you consider the possibility of secret weapons.
Air Force officials from Gen Hoyt Vandenberg down have consistently stated there are no U.S. weapons, other than those known to the public, that would cause the reports.
Russia, they believe, would be foolish to reveal secret weapons before an actual war or risk losing one over our shores.
Syracuse, New York Post-Standard 12 Aug 52
Morning's Mail
More Speculation On Saucer Theory
To the Editor of The Post-Standard:
There has been so much confusion and mystery about "flying saucers" until the amazement creeps into most conversations. I have my own theory.
I am wondering if we cannot sum up some of the mysteries as the belated effects to the experiments of the atomic bomb. These mysterious objects have been seen in our atmosphere certain times in the past three years or since we have been making atomic bomb tests.
I am not a scientist nor an astronomer, but the old saying is: "What goes up must come down."
At the time of those atomic blasts, volumes of a mixture which I am unable to describe are shot into the air. No one has made tests as to the height or distance these tiny atoms fly into the stratosphere. Dampness could cause these tiny atoms to adhere and shape with speed, and, after a time, flying saucers are seen.
It could be that these tiny atoms remain in the higher stratosphere and accumulate and grow until they become so large and weighty they are forced back to earth. Then they could be carried again by air current with less speed and become ineffective, the same as live coals in a wind, which fly for some time and die.
This may sound absurd and unbelievable, but the world is not standing still. Anything can and does happen, unreasonable as it does seem. This is as logical as something I heard concerning them over TV.
Old Mother Shipstead's predictions were not far wrong when she stated "there would be strange objects seen in the air."
MRS. L. M.
Cazenovia RD 3
Reno, Nevada Evening Gazette - 12 Aug 52
Plausible Explanation of Flying Saucers Offered
FRESNO -- A University of Chicago vice president has come up with a scientific explanation of flying saucers.
Dr. Andrew Conway Ivy says the saucers are pockets of ionized air which could be plentiful now because of the recent atomic tests in Nevada.
Dr. Ivy says the fact the air within the pockets is charged with electrical ions would make the saucer-like objects appear on radar screens.
"The charging of the particles within these pockets makes them susceptible to the opposite charge of electricity in the air," he explained. "It is the same as the experiments familiar to most every high school student in which two pieces of tinfoil inside a glass ball adhere to each other.
"When the glass container is rubbed, an opposite electrified force is brought into play and the pieces of tinfoil will separate.
"Their movement in the air thus would be regulated by the strength of an opposite charge of electricity, and the distance this opposing force is located from the air pocket.
"Two attracting forces equidistant from the pocket would make the 'saucer' hover. One stronger could attract, the charged air pocket at supersonic speeds."
Dr. Ivy, one of the men who conducted experiments which led to the paratrooper conception of waging warfare, is in charge of the University of Chicago's medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy schools. He is also president of the Society for Space Medicine, a group studying the possibility of man someday living in the gravity free area in space.
He is in Fresno on a lecture tour.
Madison, Wisconsin Capital Times - 12 Aug 52
Voice of The People
("Let the People Have the Truth, and Freedom to Discuss it, and All Will Go Well")
THINKS MAYBE WE SHOULD BE CAREFUL
[Beloit, Wis., Aug. 6] -- How dumb can we get? I hold with B. Wm. Kippenhan's letter in the Voice column. He feels it is unnecessary chance taking to shoot down one of these flying "saucers" for the sole purpose of seeing what makes them tick.
If these are space craft invading our atmosphere, it would seem certain that they are controlled by beings with intelligence and capabilities enough to counter any hostile move we can make and make sitting ducks of us in the bargain. Meanwhile it seems we have no trouble finding targets to spend our ammunition upon right here, fighting between ourselves.
Creatures with intelligence enough to employ the gravitational or magnetic forces that span and interlace throughout space, forces which hold the celestial bodies upon their proper orbits in the same way they function within the structure of the atom and who have the knowledge of how to use these forces in a manner to effect controlled interplanetary flight, have certainly advanced far beyond us in a field into which we probably have not yet directed scientific research. Certainly, these interplanetary navigators, provided they are such, make our ideas of flight to the moon by means of craft dependent upon atmosphere as a medium of flight, seem childish indeed.
In further agreement with Mr. Kippenhan, and on the possibility the conjectures here stated be proven to have basis in fact, we might be grateful that these missiles, space craft or whatever they are, have not yet proven themselves as unfriendly. I wholly agree with the writer mentioned that we at least let them make the first hostile move. Maybe they are but units of the Space Patrol keeping their eye upon us.
Probably this little globe of ours is known by our neighboring planets as being the real planet of War instead of the planet Mars and now that we've started blundering with the force that actually holds the universe in its place, it has caused alarm among our planetary neighbors who realize and understand the harmony and exact balancing of nature's forces upon which all creation and life itself depend?
By taking too big a step in the direction in which we are now engaged, there may be a probability that a nuclear reaction could occur that would reverse the charge or direction of some magnetic field even outside of that which keeps our own immediate solar system in its place, with resulting havoc that could make Stalin's ideas of destruction seem microscopic.
Being this letter delves in the field of conjecture, it may be that the predominating thoughts now ruling upon this earth have long ago been picked up by the telepathic receiving stations of some race of being concerned with the welfare of the universe as a whole, whose thoughts are not bound up and chained with but the doings of their own daily affairs and with how they can best get the upper of their neighbors. In other words, our thoughts may have been tuned in upon or intercepted by a race of beings with spiritual understanding enough to be interested in life itself.
Referring again and in conclusion to the order, as stated by our correspondent, given out by our blundering brass in Washington, to shoot down one of these flying saucers, this may just be the count against us needed for them to decide to blow us out of the sky.
Being aware, should we say, of our mental and moral unfitness of further knowledge into the secrets of the forces upon which the entire solar system is interdependent and taking a page from current fiction thrillers, it might be decided by Space Control Headquarters that we are a very bad risk to have floating around in space, now that we seem on the verge of greater knowledge that may enable us to remove all limits of the scoop of our destruction, and so order their demolition squadron to disintegrate us. From an outside point of view this might not seem a bad idea. To continue as we have been going is to continue what seems in prospect, the needless torment and suffering of hundreds of innocent thousands to follow us. Yes, it does look like, judging from our record, that we haven't much of a case for pleading a request for survival and mercy, before a Celestial Court of Appeals.
There have been stars reportedly observed to have disappeared in a flash of light. Maybe these were just strongholds or nests of thugs, spiritual morons and mass murdering maniacs blasted out of the sky for the benefit of the universe in general. Maybe though our Celestial Patrol is just giving us a chance to stop, look and listen.
It could be a good thing if we did stop long enough to listen to something else than the blatant blare of the political boss, the yapping bark of the dictator or the guttural shouts of commanding generals. -- M. Syl. Gould.
Statesville, North Carolina Daily Record - 12 Aug 52
Flying Saucers
Kenneth Adams, who lives at 1200 Ninth street, reported this morning he had seen flying saucers over Statesville about 9:30 last right.
Kenneth had been visiting his cousin, Melvin Adams, on Salisbury road, and both of them reported seeing the saucers. According to Kenneth they came like streaks of light out of the east, flashed off and on, and disappeared toward the north.
His story would seem to tally with that of two sky watchers, who reported independently today that they saw bright "orange-red" objects -- not meteors -- streaking through the sky near here last night.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration at Raleigh-Durham airport quoted James Adams of nearby Fuquay as saying he saw the objects last night for the second successive night.
A professor of North Carolina State college who asked that his name not be used, meanwhile told the United Press he saw "seven or eight" objects at about the same time last night.
Both observers gave similar descriptions of the locations, speed and general appearance of the objects and both said they were sure the objects were not meteors.
I.O. Harmon, CAA official, said Adams "was sure that they did not follow the traditional arc meteorites appear to take." He said he also was convinced from Adams' description that the objects were traveling much too fast to have been any type of airplane.
Beckley, West Virginia Raleigh Register 12 Aug 52
Hunger? Saucers?
So-called flying saucers look like various things to different persons, but probably the most realistic -- at least to him -- description was given by Russell Cook of Midway.
"It looked like a white saucer with ice cream on it" he volunteered in telling of the light he said flashed across the sky over his home toward Sophia, Sunday night.
Hamilton, Ohio Daily News Journal - 12 Aug 52
See Flying Saucer
Two members of the Hamilton Ground Observer Corps, while on duty at the GOC post at Hamilton Airport, recently observed what answered to the description of a "flying saucer," Jack Goldrick, post supervisor, reported.
The observers, Charles Emrick, 1820 Shirley Ave., and Leigh Emrick, 246 N. Second St., immediately reported the unidentified object to the Columbus Filter Center and were advised by officials of the Continental Air Command that three other observation posts had also reported this "flying saucer," and that jet interceptor planes were in the air on their way to investigate.
Mr. Goldrick reported this was the fourth time an unidentified object, resembling a flying saucer, had been sighted by members of the post since Operation Skywatch started, four weeks ago.
No report has been received from the Air Command as to the results of the investigating jet fighter planes.
Lubbock, Texas Morning Avalanche 12 Aug 52
Family Gets Into Flying Saucer Act
ROCKFORD, Ill., Aug. 11 -- Flying saucers made news today in Rockford.
Fourteen persons -- members of two families -- reported observing saucers late Sunday, and said the group totaled more than 50.
Roy E. Munson, a private pilot with 20 years' experience said:
"The entire sighting almost defies description."
The family of Eugene Leander, living across the street from the Munson home, reported the same thing.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette - 12 Aug 52
Manchester Residents Observe Flying Saucer
MANCHESTER -- A flying saucer was observed by Manchester residents Monday night.
Francis Gosling observed an unusual aerial object in the west while walking the dog about 11:30 p.m. He called his neighbor, Don Dorman, and Policemen Basil Confare and Louis Chrystal. The quartet took a vantage point near the west city limits, and for more than half an hour an object brighter than a star flashed red and green intermittently and gradually lowered and faded from view westward.
Manchester, Iowa Radio-Democrat - 12 Aug 52
"Flying Saucer" Is Sighted Here!
Something -- which for the purpose of conversation we will call a flying saucer -- was sighted in the sky northwest of town on Monday evening by Francis Gosling, who alerted Don Dorman of the CAP, Walmart. Gilkey, civil defense, and the night-police, all of whom will testify to the fact that an object of unknown identity was flying around flashing vari-colored lights for about an hour before it disappeared.
Shortly after 11 o'clock last evening, Gozzie saw the strange lights and called Don. Then they decided to get the others in on it and all drove out to the hill near Memorial hospital for a clearer view. What they saw they are not prepared to say -- but there was no doubt that some object in the sky was flashing yellow or white lights, with an occasional red, green or blue flash added, and that it pursued an erratic course to the northwest and finally disappeared.
Manchester, Iowa Radio-Democrat - 12 Aug 52
Amy's Corner
So Gozzie (and several others) saw a flying saucer last night! At least; that is what we have to call it, for lack of better identification. You can't help wondering what the real story is, behind all these manifestations. I refuse to be satisfied with the dull explanation that it is merely cool air between layers of hot air, or something like that! There is plenty of hot air going around, but also there is more to the "saucers" than meets the eye, I'm thinking.
Idaho Falls, Idaho Post Register - 12 Aug 52
'Saucer' Seen Here
The flying saucers are back again!
Beth Owen, 15 year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gale Hall, 183 Second street, reported that she and a teen aged friend, Bobby Bright, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Paul W. Bright, 250 first street, saw one of the 'objects' over Idaho Falls at about 9:55 p.m. Monday.
She described the object as appearing to be a white circle cut half in two. She said the glowing object was going in a southwesternly direction and that it was in view for about 16 seconds.
More saucers were expected to be sighted in this area this week, since the annual "meteor shower" is due to appear through Thursday.
Espana, Tangier, Morocco 12 Aug 52
Saucer-like Craft Seen In Spain
According to the Cifra news agency, on the evening of 10 August 1952, a resident of Cuenca, Spain, while walking along the Cuenca-Madrid road, saw an object similar to the so-called flying saucers. It crossed the sky at high speed in a matter of seconds. The object was round and gave off two luminous trails.
Butte, Montana Standard - 12 Aug 52
Italy Gets Into Act
ROME, Aug. 11. -- Italy got into the flying saucer act Monday night. Leghorn airport employes said they saw an object flash out of the stratosphere, stop for about 20 seconds and then disappear.
Tokyo, Japan Pacific Stars and Stripes - 12 Aug 52
Flying Saucers Seen
Tokyo -- Flying saucers were reported over southern Japan Monday.
Kyodo News agency said a number of residents reported seeing a bright circular object racing across the sky over Kyushu about 9:20 p.m. Five minutes later, a similar object skimmed by in another direction.
Observers said the objects moved much faster than an airplane and made no noise.
Albuquerque, New Mexico Tribune - 12 Aug 52
Saucers Are Old Stuff To Charles Hoit Here
Flying saucers are old stuff to Charles Hoit, Pacific Desk Co. owner here.
Fifty-five years ago, Mr. Hoit recalls an "airship" flew over his boyhood home, Quincey, Ill., and was described in much the same way as present-day flying saucers are.
As a clincher for his memory, Mr. Hoit presents a clipping-from the Chicago Daily Tribune which-quotes an account of the sighting, April 10, 1897:
"Either the long-expected airship from the Pacific Coast reached Chicago at 8:30 last evening or the fixed star, alpha orionis, shone with unusual brilliance which was augmented by the tricks of refraction.
"Hundreds of persons . . . looked at the strange phenomenon off in the eastern sky and were convinced it was the storied vehicle of the heavens. . . ."
"To spectators in Chicago," the newspaper account continues, "the thing appeared at 2 a.m. and looked to be about the size and color of an orange. It looked more like a full moon than a star . . . The object described as sweeping the heavens bore varicolored lights, according to all accounts . . . The concensus [sic] was that it was 70 feet in length, of slender and fragile proportions, to which was attached a headlight."
Lumberton, North Carolina Robesonian - 12 Aug 52
No Saucer Shape Yet
Speed of 2,000 miles an hour, sometimes attributed to "flying saucers" actually has been attained by British defense rockets. These new weapons, still in the experimental stage, are capable of hurtling into the air at phenomenal speed, seeking out an enemy bomber or missile, tracking it down and destroying it with an explosion.
Regardless of whether "flying saucers" exist, developments such as this indicate that men of science may be able to produce a flying machine resembling a saucer at some future date, if they find that shape offers any advantages.
The desire for more speed has caused the wings of fighter planes to be shortened or swept back, and one interceptor plane has something of the shape of a stingaree. But increased flying speed has been accompanied by increased landing speed, which is a problem in itself. The more nearly round a plane has been, the less able it has been to hover in the air at slow speed. only the helicopter, with its big blades revolving over head, has been able to do that, and the helicopter is among the slowest of aircraft.
So far, 'flying pencil' and 'flying cigar' have been much more appropriate labels for aircraft than 'flying saucer'.
Panama City, Florida News-Herald - 12 Aug 52
Views of Other Editors
The Washington (D.C.) Evening Star: The skies seem to be getting fuller and fuller of flying saucers. Reports about them have reached a new high within the past few weeks Both in this country and abroad, there are more and more people who will swear that they have seen the things whizzing about in the heavens -- either singly or in formation -- at fantastic speeds. In fact, even our own Air Force apparently has begun to suspect that they are not entirely an optical illusion caused by rocks in the head or the summer heat.
Of course, on follow-up investigation by "Operation Bluebook" -- an Air Force group whose job is to look into such matters -- most of the sightings have been disproved. Thus, in special studies of 1,000 reported cases, it has been found that 38 per cent of the alleged saucers were really meteors or similar bodies. 22 percent birds or orthodox planes. 13 per cent balloons and 2 percent hoaxes. Even so, inquiry into 25 per cent of these reports has failed to result in a satisfactory explanation one way or the other. This lends a rather eerie touch to the situation, and more eerie still is the fact that some of our ground radar units -- including those right here in the Washington area -- have tracked unidentified objects flying through the heavens at speeds ranging fantastically upwards from 100 to 2,000 miles an hour.
A spokesman for "Operation Bluebook" has admitted that a lot of people who report flying saucers "actually see something in the sky." Just what they see, however, is another question. There are mystics who insist that we are being visited by super-intelligent creatures from outer space. And there are others who are sure that the things are merely a top-secret. This is all very baffling for those of us who have not yet had a glimpse of the phenomenon. We shall just have to wait until one of the outlandish objects sails right before our own eyes.
Lubbock, Texas Evening Journal 12 Aug 52
Walter Winchell
ABC's "Time Capsule" handled the flying saucer frenzy interestingly. . .
Portsmouth, New Hampshire Herald 12 Aug 52
In Hollywood
by Erskine Johnson
Those flying-saucer headlines are sweet music at Paramount. The studio's got 'em, with men from Mars yet, in the soon-to-be-released "War of the Worlds."
Greenville, Pennsylvania Record-Argus 12 Aug 52
Broadway Grapevine
By Dorothy Kilgallen
That gray-haired gent scanning the flying saucer headlines while waiting for a train in Grand Central Station was Albert Einstein.
AUGUST 13, 1952:
Corona, California Daily Independent - 13 Aug 52
Headline Hopping
By Ollie Crawford
Army physicist demonstrates Flying Saucers in lab. These even come in your choice of colors. He's the first boy to get Flying Saucers into a bottle, instead of out of it.
Noel W. Scott made blobs of light circle around in a Bell Jar, and this will satisfy everybody but those who want little green men to jump out of it. It did everything flying saucers can do, except worry the Air Force. Scott is now the Army's favorite disc jockey.
He did it, and now all they have to prove is that nature is just as smart.
Scott's tests shows that the air gets all charged up, and not just people. One dash of electricity, and no chaser, and the Saucers show up. It has something to do with ionized air, but let's not get too nosey. This makes Noel the Houdini of the crockery department.
Scott is the first Saucer expert to name all its ingredients.
All science has to do now is figure out some way of squirting them full of chlorophyll.
Elyria, Ohio Chronicle Telegram - 13 Aug 52
Saucers In Jars
Like a chapter from science fiction, Physicist Noel Scott's peepshow of flying saucers in a little glass jar has offered a weird chapter in layman's physics for all to ponder. He took some ionized air and pumped it into a partial vacuum he made in a jar. By purely mechanical means he reproduced most of the movements many witnesses have described after seeing what they thought were flying saucers.
He made orange fireballs change to red and to green. He explained these things were dense enough to show up as blips on a radar screen. With a movement of his hand he made a red disc-like mass turn toward him. Scott also left a lot of red faces behind him when his demonstrations were over. If his conclusions about flying saucers are true, the Air Force, the Radar men and a lot of earnest civilians have been seeing things that just were not there. At least, they were not solid bodies nor space ships full of little green men or anything like that.
Another illusion explodes. It makes people sorry. Certainly a thrill ran through the world when visitors from another planet seemed a possibility. There was the hope for another frontier, another jumping off place into the unknown. Man looked through his atmosphere at the stars and planets and wistfully called: "Hello, out there!" And it seemed possible that somewhere someone would answer.
Now we know we live alone on our little earth, imprisoned and burdened, with no escape. Scott has suddenly narrowed our horizon again, yanked it in from the endless, trackless void to the dusty nearness of our own upper air.
He did, that is, unless he was wrong.
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