The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
As the story of the sightings spread it was widely discussed in
scientific circles, with the result that the conclusion, an equipment
malfunction, began to be more seriously questioned. Among the
scientists who felt that further investigation of such phenomena was
in order, were the man to whom I was talking and some of the people
who had made the original sightings.
About a year later the scientist and these original investigators
were working together. They decided to make a few more tests, on
their own time, but with radiation-detection equipment so designed
that the possibility of malfunction would be almost nil. They formed
a group of people who were interested in the project, and on evenings
and weekends assembled and set up their equipment in an abandoned
building on a small mountain peak. To insure privacy and to avoid
arousing undue interest among people not in on the project, the
scientist and his colleagues told everyone that they had formed a
mineral club. The "mineral club" deception covered their weekend
expeditions because "rock hounds" are notorious for their addiction
to scrambling around on mountains in search for specimens.
The equipment that the group had installed in the abandoned building
was designed to be self-operating. Geiger tubes were arranged in a
pattern so that some idea as to the direction of the radiation source
could be obtained. During the original sightings the equipment-
malfunction factor could not be definitely established or refuted
because certain critical data had not been measured.
To get data on visual sightings, the "mineral club" had to rely on
the flying saucer grapevine, which exists at every major scientific
laboratory in the country.
By late summer of 1950 they were in business. For the next three
months the scientist and his group kept their radiation equipment
operating twenty-four hours a day, but the tapes showed nothing
except the usual background activity. The saucer grapevine reported
sightings in the general area of the tests, but none close to the
instrumented mountaintop.
The trip to the instrument shack, which had to be made every two
days to change tapes, began to get tiresome for the "rock hounds,"
and there was some talk of discontinuing the watch.
But persistence paid off. Early in December, about ten o'clock in
the morning, the grapevine reported sightings of a silvery, circular-
shaped object near the instrument shack. The UFO was seen by several
people.
When the "rock hounds" checked the recording tapes in the shack they
found that several of the Geiger tubes had been triggered at
10:17A.M. The registered radiation increase was about 100 times
greater than the normal background activity.
Three more times during the next two months the "mineral club's"
equipment recorded abnormal radiation on occasions when the grapevine
reported visual sightings of UFO's. One of the visual sightings was
substantiated by radar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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