The World of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space AgeMenzel, Donald H. (Donald Howard)
Science
The World of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age
Menzel, Donald H. (Donald Howard)
Unidentified flying objects
[IX-12] Gold, E. “Thunderbolts: The Electric Phenomena of
Thunderstorms,” _Nature_, Vol. CLXIX (1952), pp. 561–63.
[IX-13] Kogan-Beletskii, G. I. “The Nature of Ball Lightning,”
_Priroda_, No. 4 (1957), pp. 71–73. (Translated in [IX-8].)
[IX-14] Schmidt, R. O. “The Kearney Incident,” _Flying Saucers_
(October 1959), p. 31 ff.
[IX-15] _UFO Critical Bulletin_, Vol. II, No. 2 (March-April 1958).
[IX-16] “The Case of the Radioactive UFO,” _Flying Saucers_ (February
1958), p. 30.
[IX-17] “Electro-magnetic Effects Associated With Unidentified Flying
Objects (UFO’s),” Subcommittee of the National Investigations Committee
on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), Washington, D.C. (June 1960).
[IX-17a] _Sky and Telescope_, Vol. XXIII (1962), p. 323.
[IX-18] Michel, A. _The Truth about Flying Saucers._ New York:
Criterion Books, 1956.
[IX-19] Keyhoe, D. E. _The Flying Saucer Conspiracy._ New York: Henry
Holt & Co., 1955.
[IX-20] Scully, F. _Behind the Flying Saucers._ New York: Popular
Library, 1951.
[IX-21] Cramp, L. G. _Space, Gravity and the Flying Saucer._ New York:
British Book Centre, 1955.
_Chapter_ X
CONTACT!
All fields of human activity have their practical jokers. Elaborate
hoaxes have been perpetrated in music, art, literature, history,
religion, science--and in the world of flying saucers. Although the
motives for such swindles are not always obvious, the trickster is
usually trying to promote a cause, to gain fame and/or prestige,
to make money, to satirize a folly, or just to have some fun at
the public’s expense. Some hoaxes, such as Mark Twain’s petrified
man, produce only harmless amusement. Others, planned as serious
deceptions, can cause long-lasting damage. The celebrated Piltdown
man was fraudulently created from an ape’s jawbone, a stray tooth,
and a few chemical staining agents; it gained fame for the scientists
involved but threw the study of human evolution into a confusion that
lasted more than twenty years, until the forgery was revealed in every
detail[X-1].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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