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in the news 1952


PART FORTY-FOUR


Braxton

Above: Eugene Lemon and Kathleen May after appearing on television show to tell of their experience. Story below.


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...




SEPTEMBER 23, 1952:


Charleston, West Virginia Gazette - 23 Sep 52



Lemon and May
THE MONSTER which prowled the hills of Braxton County on Friday, Sept. 12, was drawn by a New York artist from descriptions given him by Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon, Flatwoods residents who said they saw the "thing." The two witnesses, with A. Lee Stewart, Jr., Sutton publisher, told their experiences on "We The People" television show in New York Friday night. The artist's conception was featured on the program with a background of weird music. Lemon and Mrs. May hold the portrait which they say is "quite accurate." [sic] The photo was taken in Charleston at the Greyhound bus terminal.


Charleston, West Virginia Gazette - 23 Sep 52



'Monster' Held Illusion Created by Meteor's Gas

The "Braxton County Monster" has been described by a local insurance man and amateur astronomer as an illusion created by the remains of a gaseous meteor.

He is Earl Stephens of nearby Belle, whose theory is one of the best offered here on the origin of "the thing" that scared the daylights out of a Braxton County family.

His theory was advanced after Mr. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon of Flatwoods returned from New York where they described their experience before a nation-wide television audience.

It is Stephens' opinion that the meteor, commonly called a fire ball, originated from an electrical discharge in the outer atmosphere, forming the shape of a gaseous ball.

Odor of Sulphur

"The odor of sulphur was the tip-off," declared Stephens. "It burns with a green flame accounting for the green apparition the people saw."

Stephens said one of the party apparently flashed the light on the gas ball just the instant before it disintegrated into thin air. The reflection of the light on the gases gave it the shape the people described, he said.

The "monster" story came to light a week ago after reports that Mrs. May, Lemon and four youths ran smack into the thing while searching for a strange object they saw floating into the woods near their home.

They described the monster as about eight feet tall, with red eyes and a green body, topped by a strange pointed mantle.

However, during a thorough search of the area by county officials the next day only the sulphurous odor remained.

Facts Support Theory

Stephens said his theory is backed up by the fact the earth entered a meteoric stream on Aug. 14. He believes the gaseous body may have been ripped from Biela's Comet which has been splitting up during recent years, showering the earth with its fragments.

During the same period several local residents observed a strange luminous body that was believed to have fallen within a 50-mile radius of Charleston.

His gaseous theory is further bolstered by the stories of two residents of rural St. Albans, who declared they saw a lighted object float lazily to the ground and disappear.

A search of that area by two Gazette reporters failed to turn up any trace of the object.

Stephens offered his theory to The Gazette in the interest of what he termed "attempting to erase the fear of supernatural beings from the minds of the people."


SEPTEMBER 24, 1952:


Charleston, West Virginia Gazette - 24 Sep 52



Reader's Forum

Lay Off The Braxton Monster, Reader Asks

Editor Gazette:

Please stop printing the ballyhoo about the Braxton County Monster! It is quite embarrassing to the other residents here.

It is, also, humiliating to be placed in the position to be ridiculed. We cannot believe the producers of We the People and the editors of the newspapers and magazines really believe this tale, but are just using it for cheap publicity and are secretly laughing up their sleeves.

There is no question that something passed through the sky. Several people from here saw it, but all said it was nothing to be alarmed about. It must have been one of two things, either a meteor that burned out just as it reached the earth, or, an electrical phenomenon, commonly called a ball of fire. Either of these could furnish sufficient heat to have ignited the foliage, and an overwrought imagination furnish the details.

We wouldn't mind a free trip to New York, but we'll go by some other means of transportation than on 'The TALE of A Monster."

Burnsville. -- M. C. Berry. -- Mrs. Ruth E. Lewis.


Great Bend, Kansas Daily Tribune - 24 Sep 52



Still They Could Be Real

Whether flying saucers are a reality or exist only as a figment of the imagination is a moot question that remains unanswered among the high up officials of this country, and now a British society of scientific minded persons comes to the front to cautiously poo-poo the flying saucer theory.

The British Interplanetary Society, after great deliberation and study, has decided that people are much more likely to see a flying saucer if they keep up with the latest comic books.

Carefully avoiding any direct answer that would actually deny the existence of such things as flying saucers, the British group took a firm grip on its reputation and concluded that it was not able to go along with the idea that flying saucers are the real McCoy, although they would "rather like to believe that space ships were already flying in the neighborhood of our earth, even if they were not our own."

For a conservative group of Britishers to make this much of an admission seems almost as unbelievable as flying saucers do to the people who have not yet experienced the strange thrill of seeing one.

The society opened its thinking to the rest of the world in its Journal for this month, and said it prefers to retain an open mind, tinged with skepticism, until one of its members spots a saucer. It was admitted, however, that some of its members have written in stating that the group should not be too hasty and that the society would do well to avoid being flippant about the matter for the time being and until there is more study into the possibility that there really are such things as saucers.

This interplanetary society is by no means a fly-by-night group of know-nothings who have no idea what they are talking about. It was founded in 1933 to promote the collection and spread of knowledge dealing with possible flights to other worlds and its members study everything from astronomy and rocket engine construction to the social, political, and legal problems that may arise when adventurous people from this earth do make the trip to Mars some day. Many of the most prominent British and foreign scientists are included in the group's membership

One of the things that most bothers the society is the fact that the saucers appear to show no uniformity and that the reports collected so far describe the strange aircraft in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, although most of them are extremely bright and appear to spit green fire.

The society is taking no chance of getting caught on a limb with no parachute on this flying saucer business, because it also notes that there is a possibility that some observers are enjoying a large practical joke at the expense of their fellow men.

The members are told that the number of sightings of such saucers over the US is at an all time high, although jet fighters vectored into the radar echoes have found nothing there and it therefore appears fairly certain that the phenomenon is the well known "radar-mirage."

Thus the British Interplanetary society with all the tact and diplomacy for which the people of that country have long been noted, say that the saucers probably don't exist, that they may be only a mirage, that a bunch of jokers may be having lots of fun kidding their friends and the public in general by saying they saw something they didn't see, or finally that maybe saucers do exist and that if such things really don't exist, they wish they did.

We go along with the British theory, hook, line and sinker We don't know whether saucers are real, or whether lots of people in this country are going around with spots before their eyes.

We do know that people who claim to have seen saucers have a thoroughly convincing story, and that they themselves are sold on the idea before they mention it out loud. It takes a lot of nerve to sit down at breakfast or stop by the next desk to tell about that flying saucer you saw last night -- particularly if it was only a dream and you really didn't see anything after all. In fact that is what it probably seems like, in view of the skepticism that greets each saucer story.

But saucers are happening to so many people these days. It is getting to the point that you really have not lived, if you haven't seen one.


Albuquerque, New Mexico Journal - 24 Sep 52



College Dean Reports Seeing Flying Disk

GREENSBORO, N. C., Sept. 23 -- The associate dean of the University of North Carolina's women's college today reported that he and his wife saw a silvery disk.

Dr. Franklin McNutt, who resides 10 miles east of Greensboro, said he saw "something", and called his wife, who also saw the object. The silvery object hovered for a moment and then sped north, vanishing in seconds.

The local weather station reported that it could not have been a balloon as the wind was from the north.


El Paso, Texas Herald-Post - 24 Sep 52



N.M. Scientist Believes 'Fireballs' Are Man Made

By CLYDE FARNWSWORTH
Scripps-Howard Staff Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, Sept. 24 -- The man who knows green fireballs best (without being in on the secret) leans to a theory they are man made.

Dr. Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico, head of the world's only Institute of Meteoritics (unless the Russians have one), has taken this tack in his thinking at the risk of:

1. Disappointing living room voyagers of outer space, or

2. Throwing a scare into folk with the idea that the Russians may have been drawing a fireball bead on our atomic Southwest, or

3. Lulling others into a conclusion that U.S. scientists have been pitching those Kelly green flashers.

Passes Reports On

Dr. LaPaz, a phenomenon himself of briskness and enthusiasm, doesn't talk about flying saucers. Not his line. All the saucer reports that get mixed into meteoritic and fireball matters, he passes on to the proper authorities.

The University's Institute of Meteoritics has become the clearing house for information in the public domain on green fireballs. But the 55-year-old scientist (who looks every day of 40 and more like a golf pro) doesn't tell all he has learned.

For example, he's mum on the velocity and altitude of the green fireballs (or at least the one he personally saw.) He feels security bound not to disclose these calculations because of the classified auspices under which they were made.

Works With Military

As Dr. LaPaz explains, he is working closely with military intelligence. So far as official interest goes, there's no telling whether it's real or pretended. But it would surprise Dr. LaPaz if Government scientists hadn't already taken spectograph [sic] readings of the hurtling yellowish-green blobs and come up, secretly, with an appraisal of their substance -- if they haven't known it all along.

The color of the fireballs, as described by non-military witnesses, suggests a copper -- or uranium -- content.

A woman drove 60 miles to tell Dr. LaPaz about a fireball and fingered her Kelly green scarf to indicate color. Sometimes it is described as "copper green" or "neon green."

Distinguishing Mark

These color descriptions, says Dr. LaPaz, distinguish the postwar green fireballs from the usual brand of meteors. Other standout differences: prodigious and relatively constant light turned suddenly on and off; the noiselessness of passage of such indicated masses through the earth's atmosphere (they should sound like a jet buzz job); a straight-line meteoric pattern; the concentration as to time of night and area in which they have been observed, and the lack of material traces after impact, if any.

Iron Common

Iron is the most ordinary metal found in meteors and meteorites. Copper is the rarest. Ordinary fireballs or "shooting stars" thus burn white, blue white or even blue green, says Dr. La Paz -- but never yellowish green.

Dr. LaPaz is impatient with people who without seeing one, call green fireballs ordinary meteorites He has observed 11,000 ordinary meteoric showers and knows the differences.

Most of the fireball sightings have been in the Southwestern U.S. area roughly bounded by the Texas-New Mexico line on the east, the Pacific Coast on the west, Las Cruces on the south and Wyoming on the north.

For meteorites this concentration would be most unnatural. But -- this area includes the principal places of American research in atomic weapons.

Seen at Night

The sightings have been between 8 and 10 p.m. with the greatest concentration around 9 o'clock. Most ordinary meteor showers occur after midnight.

I asked Dr. LaPaz to tell me at what point in his thinking he started to consider the green fireballs as possibly man made. It was on reading an article by Col. C.H. Lanza in the Field Artillery Journal, he said. The article discussed green fireballs sighted over the Baltic and Sweden as long ago as 1946. The possible explanation there was that the Russians were testing guided missiles using knowledge and materials captured from the Germans.

There is evidence that the Germans had been using copper-beryllium alloys for their missiles. Copper nitrate in the flame of a Bunsen burner glows Kelly green.


SEPTEMBER 25, 1952:


Charleston, West Virginia Gazette - 25 Sep 52



L.F. Drake

FLYING SAUCERS

Flying saucers have attracted less engineering comment than the product we are introducing to the American public.

I want to hire the brains, ambition and incentive of the 5 most aggressive-minded and foresighted men in Charleston. I want to introduce to you for the first time the most revolutionary industrial achievement on the market today, the product being introduced with the most expensive advertising campaign in over 30 years of our business experience, the program, which in itself is the talk of the advertising world.

If you believe you are the man I am looking for, don't hesitate, write care of this paper Box S-72. Courteous, private interviews shall be arranged with the area manager.


Clearfield, Pennsylvania Progress - 25 Sep 52



'Umbrella' Spaceships Too Expensive

WASHINGTON -- Regardless of whether there's anything to this flying saucer business, an atomic powered "flying umbrella" space ship is theoretically possible.

Moreover, the umbrella part would look like a huge saucer -- and it would glow with an orange color like that reported by some of the people who claim to have seen flying saucers.

But it would require ten trillion dollars in radioactive materials to propel it into interplanetary space.

Dr. George Gamow, George Washington University physicist, tossed off the idea of a flying umbrella in a book "Atomic Energy" published in 1946, a year before reports of "flying saucers" began cropping up.

Gamow's idea, which he said he offered "for what it is worth," was this:

Attach a huge umbrella-shaped sheet of metal to the tail of a rocket ship. Line the inner side of the umbrella with some "ordinary" chemical made radioactive by being exposed to atomic neutrons in a uranium furnace.

Launch the rockets with some orthodox jet fuel. When the rocket was nearing the limits of the earth's atmosphere, unfurl the umbrella at the tail. Radiations would give a "recoil push" to the metallic umbrella -- pushing it and the rocket ship into space.

Gamow says his 1948 idea is "still possible in principle, but not practical." He offered no estimate of the cost. Another Washington physicist, who declines to be quoted by name, says "it's theoretically possible -- but fantastically impractical."

Getting out his slide-rule, he came up with these figures:

Say you had a rocket ship weighing 10 tons, not counting the weight of the metallic umbrella, which Gamow himself figured would have to be "many hundred square feet" in area. You'd need about 10 tons of radioactive material to furnish the recoil effect necessary to propel your rocket ship at 25,000 miles an hour. That's the speed you'd have to achieve to escape the gravitational pull of the earth.

And that tonnage of radioactive stuff -- assuming that it could be prepared -- would cost you a cool ten trillion dollars.

Gamow suggested the external umbrella idea as one possible means of overcoming the hazard of using active uranium within the confines of a space ship.


Valparaiso, Indiana Vidette-Messenger - 25 Sep 52



Pilotless Planes 'Deadly, Astoundingly Accurate'

The United States Navy has opened the age of push-button warfare.

Guided missiles -- pilotless planes carrying 2,000-pound bombs -- are being launched from a Navy carrier at land targets in Korea.

They have television transmitters for eyes. They are guided to their targets by a mother plane or controllers aboard the carrier.

The guided missile expert in charge of the carrier operation disclosed that the Navy has a fleet of 1,800 guided missiles. They can be used in continent-to-continent bombing by aerial refueling, and they can deliver the atomic bomb, he said.

"They are deadly and astoundingly accurate," wrote the United Press correspondent who saw the missiles launched from the aircraft carrier Boxer.

Repercussions from the disclosure of the use of guided missiles came from all over the world.

Chairman Gordon Dean of the Atomic Energy commission said in San Francisco the United States will have in the foreseeable future enough atomic weapons "to destroy not only the industrial ability of an aggressor to make war but also its forces in the field."

A London dispatch quoted authoritative sources as saying the British Navy soon will be equipped with guided missiles.

A dispatch from Sydney, Australia, said guided missiles far more spectacular than those launched off Korea may be involved in the extremely secret "atomic weapon" test which Great Britain is about to make in the Monte Bello islands there.

From Allied headquarters in Paris came the suggestion that the United States, Britain and Soviet Russia all have guided missiles more advanced than those the Navy is using in Korea.


Ada, Oklahoma Weekly News - 25 Sep 52



Guided Missiles

Success of the effective use of a guided missile, launched from the USS Boxer 150 miles from its target, presents enough angles to cause military and naval men as well as all the rest of us to wonder what effect it will have upon war in the future.

Evidently it will enable an attacking force to kill enemy soldiers or sailors with little danger to the attackers. In a war in which such weapons were available to only one side, it might bring a quick end to fighting. Over a long period of time, however, it would be impossible to keep a potential enemy nation from having the same kind of weapon. With that condition, it would seem both sides would have offensive weapons against which it is difficult to build a defense. Maybe the very deadliness of the thing would cause nations to try to avoid war. No other new weapons ever have deterred action, however.

The missile goes under its own power, and the carrying plane is blown to bits as it delivers its deadly cargo. That means an expensive operation. That makes all the more powerful a great industrial nation such as this. At the present only Russia would have any chance to withstand an attack from this country, provided we had a sufficient backlog of such weapons. And we doubt if Russia will be able to build the necessary industrial plant for many years. For not only must a nation be able to produce the planes and bombs; it must have those delicate instruments to control the flight and the means of "seeing" where the robot plane is at all times.

Imagine two navies lined up a thousand miles apart, battling it out with such missiles. And if one can be sent 150 miles, cannot one be made that will span the Atlantic and might eventually even span the Pacific. No part of the world would be safe from their deadly explosions.

But we do not know how effective it will be. Many of us, ignorantly, thought the atomic bomb would make this nation invincible, but the UN has not used an atomic bomb that we know of in the Korean war and it has been going on for a long time. Is the bomb not as effective as we thought? Is it not devised for the type of fighting called for in Korea? Are we stockpiling it for a potential war with Russia? We do not know. So it is impossible for a person not on the inside to evaluate the actual meaning of the new weapon. But we do think it, no less than the atomic bomb itself, marks a new era in war.


Rhinelander, Wisconsin Daily News - 25 Sep 52



Intercontinental Rocket Perfected By Reds, Report

The U.S. Navy's announcement that it has a fleet of guided missile planes ready for action -- and has already used some in Korea -- is a step forward in the super-weapons race. But Russia is not idle, according to William G. Key, editor of The Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp. publication, "Pegasus."

In the Soviet laboratories along the Baltic Sea and in the icy northern wastes, says Key, scientists are feverishly working on guided missile research of their own. And reports filtering through the Iron Curtain indicate the research has already been successful in one vital direction.

They have reportedly produced the inter-continental rocket missile which the Nazis first conceived during World War II.

This is a refined version of the long-range V-2 weapon which the Nazis had designed for eventual attacks against the Eastern seaboard from European bases. Whether it could be precise enough in its strikes to do decisive damage is not known, but even haphazard attacks could seriously affect the morale of the American people.

Russia had the advantage of the advice and skill of two Nazi rocket specialists, Prof. von Brock and Dr. W. Tellman, who went into the Russian camp after World War II. Tellman escaped in 1949, and is now in Argentina, and the Russian rocket-development program is now directed largely by Prof. Artakianov.

Artakianov is directing the Peenemunde project and other Red research establishments at Heidelage in Poland, and Tomsk, Leningrad and Kuibishev in Russia. The Russians think so much of guided missiles as a war tactic they refer to them as "the absolute weapon." A British authority on the Red Air Force, Asher Lee, has written that "large scale production of rockets and flying bombs based on the German V-l and V-2 blueprints is now in process near Moscow, Kazan, Leningrad, Tomsk, Irkutsk, and probably other industrial centers."

The critical nature of Red rocket experiments, says Key, is indicated by the "shoot-to-kill" touchiness of the Russians in the Baltic Sea area. It is here that they have been experimenting with radio and radar control of V2 types operating at great altitudes.

Rocket warfare is ideally suited to Russia's needs. A large rocket is cheaper than a plane, running approximately one-fourth the cost of a bomber. Even its one-shot character does not change its economical aspect.

Rockets, also, do not use gasoline as fuel, and Russia is short of gasoline. Thirdly, rockets produced in peacetime can be maintained in a condition ready for instant mobilization much more easily than a fleet of planes.

The Nazis, during the dying days of World War II, were attempting to convert their V-2 rocket into a death-dealing missile capable of spanning the Atlantic. This projected rocket, the A-10, was to be manned, and was to use "bumper" auxiliaries to attain sufficient altitude to glide great distances.

The pilot would catapult out before it struck, and parachute to "prisoner-of-war safety." Russia has sufficient manpower to expend rocket pilots.

It is this missile the Russians are believed to have perfected.


Rhinelander, Wisconsin Daily News - 25 Sep 52



Light in Heavens May Be Explained in Air Force Report

Skeptics who attached little importance to reports of recent mysterious happenings in the eastern heavens of the Alton area were set back today by a report from Washington that the Air Force has a "breathtaking report" on "flying saucers" which will soon be released.

By a strange twist of circumstance, it was not the "light" in the east that has led to one of the most intriguing natural mysteries of recent times in the Alton area.

Other Reports

Other local recent reports flying of flying saucers, fireballs, and strange-moving objects in the heavens, which came as a result of the "Jumpin' Jupiter" episode, have not been explained satisfactorily.

The light from the planet Jupiter, most observers agree, has been so refracted by thermal currents that it appears to move erratically, to grow larger, smaller, brighter and dimmer.

The Air Force report, based on 1800 sightings over the last five years in various parts of the U.S., it is said, includes sightings which are regarded as most authoritative and detailed. These come from atomic plants, military bases and research centers. And among these is Scott air base, Belleville.

Scott air base is south and a little east of the Alton-Wood River area.

The Air Force document is reported to contain some sensational findings. The study, prepared by scientists and Air Force experts, expresses the belief that some of the mysterious flying objects are genuine and that they originate from "sources outside of this planet."

Kremlin Worried?

Two other findings are that the flying objects that have been sighted in various instances were actually secret U.S. missiles undergoing tests and that Russia is worried about the flying saucers, suspecting they are a new U.S. weapon.

In connection with the "fireball" that was seen passing over Alton in July, it was noted today that Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, head of New Mexico University's Institute of Meteoritics, is quoted as saying, "Sightings here and in Scandinavia lead me to believe that fireballs and so-called flying saucers may be guided missiles, possibly ours or possibly Russian. In any case, they are earth-born."

One of those who reported a clear sighting of the July fireball over Alton was Prof. Webster O. Crane of Shurtleff, who stated he saw it clearly as he was driving in his car along College Ave. On checking with friends in Quincy he arrived at the conclusion it was travelling 600 miles per hour.

Among letters the Telegraph has received in connection with the "light" (Jupiter) is one from 15-year-old Larry Albright of Cottage Hills who said he sighted the planet with a tree on his sightline to determine the apparent movement. He wrote, "The light made its movements, and seemed to move a little farther north toward the Seven Sisters each time it moved up and down."

The East Alton woman who originally noticed "Jumpin' Jupiter" and brought it to the attention of the Telegraph subsequently received numerous telephone calls from persons who reported viewing similar phenomena as well as noting the strange apparent movements of the "light."


Lima, Ohio News - 25 Sep 52



'Project A' Chief Can't Explain Flying Saucers

About 20 per cent of the sightings being reported to Ohio Northern university's "flying saucer" Project A "cannot be explained away by ordinary procedure."

There is a general consistency in these sightings -- "a saucer-shaped object, flat on the bottom with rounded edges and rising to a slight dome on top."

The color is the same -- "bright blue or green."

Takeoff is the same -- slow at first and then, after reaching a certain point above the earth's surface, a terrific burst of speed.

THESE ARE the facts garnered thus far by the project; Dr. Warren Hickman, university dean and co-chairman of Project A, told the Lima Lions club's weekly luncheon meeting in the Barr hotel Wednesday noon.

Dr. Hickman emphasized that no conclusions have been reached and no analysis of the unexplained sightings undertaken as yet by the engineering, chemistry and physics departments of the university.

"There has not been enough sightings for proper analysis and we will not start until at least 200 of them are available," Dr. Hickman said.

HOWEVER, he pointed out these developments to date:

Flying saucers with the same general consistency of shape and the bright blue or green color have been reported thruout the United States and Canada and as far away as Denmark.

Dr. Hickman said one such saucer, sighted in Canada, was reported by two motorists. It was in a field, not far from the highway. Noticing the bright lights, one of the motorists jumped from his car and ran to within 30 feet of it before the object began its whirling motion and took off.

Most of the sightings, including the one in Canada, were by persons not considered "crackpots" by those who know them and who had no apparent reasons to report anything other than the truth, Dr. Hickman said.

He pointed out that most of the sightings have come from the Southwest and from the Chicago area. Many of the latter have been explained away as natural phenomena.

CLEAR WEATHER and the "earth's relation to the sun" at that point, may account for the large number of sightings reported in the Southwest. Dr. Hickman said most sightings are during the summer and early autumn.

Consideration of these theories will be given when university begins its analysis of reports.

The dean said that, contrary to popular belief, flying saucer sightings are not new. Historians record the appearance of unexplained objects in the sky as far back as 1762.

First of them reported in this country was an object which upset the calm of Bonham, Tex., in 1873, sending the townspeople running for cover. Later the same day, a mysterious object roared over Ft. Scott, Kans., as the garrison was preparing for a retreat ceremony. Horses reared and strained in their harness and soldiers raced for protection.

THIS INCIDENT, Dr. Hickman said, is listed in official reports to the War Department.

The terms "flying saucer" first came into use to describe an object which hurtled through the skies over Dennison, Tex., in 1878. A Dutch ship captain reported seeing such an object in the Atlantic in 1887, and in 1888 one was sighted in New Zealand.

All of the sightings were "isolated," Dr. Hickman said. They were made before the newspapers became a mass communications media and before the advent of radio.

He attributes at least part of the sightings of recent years to a generally more "sky-mindedness" of people everywhere. Persons, he said, are looking at the sky more now than ever before. Consequently there is a greater chance that they will see these objects when they appear.

ALTHO SIGHTINGS were made by the Armed Forces during World War II, the start of the current flying saucer flurry came when a Boise, Ida., flyer sighted an object in the sky over that city in 1947.

In its project, Ohio Northern "is not going out to prove the flying saucer is something," Dr. Hickman said. "We are going to examine the facts and let people know what we find."

He emphasized the persons reporting sightings will not be ridiculed and names will not be made public without the observer's consent.


Athens, Ohio Messenger - 25 Sep 52



The Public Forum

Flying Saucers

Editor, The Messenger:

Signs and wonders in the sky,
The good book does declare.
Ezekiel the Prophet was first to see
Flying saucers in the air.

God works in mysterious ways
His wonders to perform.
These flying objects that we see
May be just cause for our alarm.

Judge not lest ye be judged.
We know not the reason why.
These signs and wonders that we see
May mean a message from on high.

The prophet Ezekiel as of old
God's presence to him revealed.
For he saw a wheel in the middle of a wheel
Away up in the middle of the air.

-- Alice Frick
Pomeroy R.D. 3, Sept. 23.


Reno, Nevada State Journal - 25 Sep 52



Winchell On Broadway

... The Quiz Kids' explanations (for the flying saucers) was a delightful illustration of children's winged imagination...


Indiana, Pennsylvania Evening Gazette - 25 Sep 52



"Flying Saucers" Appear As Models

AKRON, 0. -- Model plane flyers are tinkering around with flying saucers now. A model flying saucer was launched in this area for the first time and spun successfully over the heads of hundreds of spectators.

In other events at the model plane meet a glider took first prize in a spectacular flight in which it disappeared from sight and was not found. In a speed event another model plane reached a speed of over 141 miles per hour.


Racine, Wisconsin Journal Times - 25 Sep 52



Airlines Now Serving 588 Cities in Country

CHICAGO -- The nation's airlines are now flying more than a billion passenger miles a month, compared with only about 565,000,000 passenger miles a year in 1938.

In that year only 182 communities in the country were being served by airlines with a total of 231 twin-engine airplanes. In 1951 there were 588 communities receiving service from more than 800 airplanes, half of which were four-engine transports.






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Notes:

1. The complete story on the reported encounter with the "Braxton County Monster" by Mrs. May, Gene Lemon, and several children can be read in Here There Be Monsters at the Past Weeks portal of Saturday Night Uforia.

2. The green fireball phenomenon related in "N.M. Scientist Believes 'Fireballs' Are Man Made" will be the subject of a future series.

3. The advertisement titled "Flying Saucers" and claiming "the most revolutionary industrial achievement on the market today, the product being introduced with the most expensive advertising campaign in over 30 years" appeared in newspapers across the country through at least February 1953 -- changing only the name of the city to match the area in which the advertisement appeared. The identity of the advertiser as well as the specific product being introduced is unknown.

4. Despite assertions in "Intercontinental Rocket Perfected By Reds, Report" the first such rocket would not appear until 1957 in the form of the R-7 Semyorka. Wiki entry here, and infographic at RIA Novosti

5. Further articles on the Air Force report noted in "Light in Heavens May Be Explained in Air Force Report" will be included in Part Forty-Five.









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Whether you need some serious styling for your walls at home or work or are on the lookout to give someone a special gift they'll treasure forever, you support the work of Saturday Night Uforia whenever you shop for great posters from AllPosters.com from any link at this site -- any, each, and every time you start your shopping from here. You still get the same great deal as your friends and family, but a little will be sent back our way as a thank you from AllPosters.com. And you'll have the extra satisfaction of directly supporting the work of Saturday Night Uforia while treating yourself or friends to something special... like any of these great sci-fi movie posters (you can even have them mounted, laminated, or framed). Just click on the pic for a larger version...

Cowboys and Aliens

Apollo 18

Skyline

Aliens, 1986

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Moon

Communion

Avatar

Giger's Alien

2012

The X Files

Transformers 2- Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers

Critters, 1985

War of the Worlds

Transformers 2 - Bumblebee

Terminator Salvation

Star Trek

Men In Black II

Alien vs Predator

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Quiet Earth, 1986

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977

E.T.

Termination Salvation -X

Independence Day

Men In Black

Alien, Italian Movie Poster, 1979

Blade Runner Japanese Style

Star Wars - Saga Collage

Star Wars- Return Of The Jedi

Star Wars

Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot

Star Wars- The Empire Strikes Back

Invasion of the Saucer Men, 1957

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 1956

The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1951

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Swedish Movie Poster, 1956

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, French Movie Poster, 1956

Teenagers From Outer Space, 1959

Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 1964

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

Devil Girl From Mars, 1955

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, German Movie Poster, 1956

This Island Earth, 1954

Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 1964

Invasion of the Saucer Men, 1957

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 1956

The War of the Worlds, 1953

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978

The Day of the Triffids, 1963

The Phantom Planet, 1962

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Invasion of The Body Snatchers, 1956

It Came from Outer Space, 1953

Queen of Outer Space, 1958

2001: A Space Odyssey

2011


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