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
In 1954 malfunction of a sewage-disposal plant in western Pennsylvania
produced one of the most spectacular saucer reports on record. An
oversupply of detergent, whipped by a stiff breeze, foamed into a
mountainous tower of bubbles. A sudden gust of wind broke the tower
and launched a colossal mass of bubbles as large as a ten-story
building. This brilliant, scintillating, super-giant bubble bath rose
to great heights and drifted for miles. Widely reported as a UFO, this
apparition was merely an unusual by-product of modern technology. The
UFOs photographed over Kentucky on July 7, 1947, were probably vapor
trails, a less familiar sight then than now; or they might possibly
have been the smoke trails from an exploding meteor (see Plate IIb).
A saucer incident that might have become a classic Unknown occurred in
Denver at 10 A.M. on a summer’s day in 1950. A man was sitting on the
shady porch of his house, reading. Beyond the porch roof the sun shone
brightly. Glancing up from his book, he was startled to see a formation
of perhaps a dozen spherical objects, shining iridescently, traveling
toward the distant mountains. As he watched, those in the front of the
procession seemed to vanish instantly while others appeared out of
nowhere to join the parade at the rear. Measuring their size against
the mountain background, he decided they were “immense” and they moved
at fantastic speed, covering the thirty or so miles to the mountains in
a matter of five or six seconds.
Too stunned to take action, he was still numb from shock when he heard
a faint “Hello,” and looked up--to realize that the little girl across
the street was blowing soap bubbles. If the man had jumped up when
he first saw the objects and had rushed into the house to telephone
the nearest saucer club, he might never have found out that the
“spaceships” were only bubbles[III-15].
[III-1] Ruppelt, E. J. _The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects._
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1956.
[III-2] Air Force Files.
[III-3] Menzel, D. H. _Flying Saucers._ Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1953.
[III-4] Tacker, L. J. _Flying Saucers and the U. S. Air Force._
Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1960.
[III-5] Keyhoe, D. E. _Flying Saucers from Outer Space._ New York:
Henry Holt & Co., 1953.
[III-6] Scully, F. _Behind the Flying Saucers._ New York: Popular
Library, Inc., 1951, p. 144.
[III-7] Sarson, P. B. “Aircraft Condensation Aura,” _Meteorological
Magazine_, London, Vol. LXXXV (1956), p. 217.
[III-7a] Johannesburg _Star_, April 14, 1958.
[III-8] Case 142, CRIFO _Orbit_, Vol. II (March 2, 1956).
[III-9] Detroit _Times_, Feb. 25, 1959.
[III-10] Barker, G. “Chasing the Flying Saucers,” _Flying Saucers_
(July 1959), p. 24 ff.
[III-11] Kirsch, F. A. “Air Force Right on Killian ‘Saucer’?” _Flying
Saucers_ (August 1960), p. 17 ff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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