Sign Historical Group

Summary of findings in CSI's First 220 Sightings Reports

    Richard W. Williams

Sightings pouring in to CSI from every state in the union, from Canada, Great Britain, Africa, South America and many other locales make one point very clear.

There are flying saucers and related aerial phenomena.

They are not mirages or weather balloons. Contradicting a popular fallacy, CSI's voluminous logs reveal that saucer sightings are not concentrated particularly around atomic installations.

The sightings also conclusively prove from most reliable of observers that the green fireballs which have received so much publicity of late, are no new phenomena.

CSI's records show numerous sightings of green fireballs dating back into the early 1930's.

Although no reports is yet possible from CSI's evaluation board of scientific and aeronautical experts headed by Dr. Walther Riedel, international rocket authority and father of Germany's World War II V-2 program, a breakdown of the first 220 sightings received, gives some interesting information.

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Top Brass in Washington, D.C., zigged and zagged through a maze of extremes in comment and explanation in trying to stem the recent upsurge of public interest in the flying saucer phenomena. A single day brought forth both the assurance from high places that the objects were purely the products of overactive imaginations, and an order to "shoot them down if you can't talk them down."

From Korea to Sweden, from California to Florida, including a couple of dramatic flourishes over this nation's Capitol, the unexplained objects were reported to be sweeping across the view of hundreds and thousands of interested spectators. The local press, wire services, radio and television stations across the country went about gathering the greatest harvest of saucer sightings since the objects were first reported by Arnold in 1947.

The present rash of sightings began on July 5, when four Florida pilots, three of them World War II veterans, told of seeing an unidentified object hovering over the Hanford atomic plant at Richlands, Washington. The object was described as a perfectly round disc, white in color and almost transparent, with small vapor trails off it like the tentacles of an octopus.

The Hanford Incident was followed immediately by literally hundreds of other reported sightings all over the nation.

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URGE YOUR FRIENDS TO SEND SAUCER SIGHTINGS, PHOTOS, AND NEWS CLIPPINGS TO: -

The Civilian Saucer Investigation was organized in December of 1951 by a group of professional engineers and writers who had closely followed the saucer phenomena over the years. As individuals, each recognized the lack of coordinated civilian effort to gather the facts upon which to establish the origin, identity and ultimate purpose of the objects. Each man in CSI was also deeply aware that facts, and only facts, would relieve the suspicion with which the man on the street viewed the phenomena, since, for some reason, the Flying Saucer fell easy prey to hoax and fiction.

The group obtained Box 1971 at the main Los Angeles Post Office early in January, 1952, invited sighters of the objects to report to this address, and was "discovered" by TIME magazine, who made generous mention of the organization in their science section. Box 1971 gained further world-wide publicity by LIFE magazine, TRUE magazine, syndicated newspaper articles, and by radio and telephone, which brought a deluge of first-hand reports of sightings, each of which the small CSI group has labored to acknowledge. CSI believes it to be significant that its fine treatment in the press and by other media has been entirely voluntary; that on no occasion has the group sought out or solicited publicity of any kind.

Each report is read by every member of the group as soon as it is received, and then turned over to a group of qualified engineers to be evaluated, logged into the master records, and correlated with other reports of similar nature. Those reports considered to especially significant are then copied and transmitted to the Air Intelligence Center at Dayton, Ohio, to assist the Analytical Section in their analysis of the phenomena.

It should be emphasized that the Civilian Saucer Investigation is an independent, non-profit, fact-finding organization; that it is not committed to prove or disprove any preconceived theory or concept related to any phase of the saucer phenomena.

FLYING DISCS AROUND THE
WORLD IN 1952

Werner Eichler

It is a significant fact of the still unsolved flying saucer mystery that the United States is not the only country visited by the much discussed phenomenon. Nor have sightings been confined to a particular hemisphere. They occur everywhere in the world, as evidenced by the ever-increasing volume of reports to CSI from all corners of the globe.

Although it appears that an overwhelming number of sightings have been recorded in the United States, mysterious phenomena of this type have been observed in all European countries, the African continent, South America, Australia and, lately, even in Korea.

To substantiate this statement let us take a look at some of the reports received during this year from the various countries, and from sources which are considered as very reliable in these countries. The instances were selected because of the reliability of the witnesses, clear weather conditions, and number of other witnesses.

England and Canada are two countries which supply most of the information. Among the reports from Great Britain is that of a well-known Suffolk botanist and ornithologist, Irene Stubbins, who described a sighting or two discs at relative low altitude and at very good visibility. Air Force personnel with years of training in observation reported in one instance, the sighting of a pear-shaped brilliant object flying with the large end downward in the vicinity of Hampshire, and in another instance, the appearance of two oblong airships of perfectly smooth surface over London, witnessed by numerous other persons of that city. A funnel-shaped stream of flame was seen in Devonshire. An R.A.F. officer reports a very good sighting of a saucer-shaped object over Kent. Very recently, a British official visited White Sands Proving Ground, N.M, and discussed the strange phenomena seen in British skies with scientists of White Sands. This is significant because it shows that British officials do not take these sightings lightly.

Canada is well represented with sightings of unexplained flying objects. An aviator of 13 years experience, the superintendent of Telecommunications and an instrument technician saw a bright amber disc which appeared over North Bay, Canada, and seemed to be the size of the moon. Reserve air force officers pursued a flying disc at 400 mph over Ontario, Canada, but were quickly outdistanced by the disc.

NEW RING PHENOMENA SIGHTED

Gerald Heard

One of the many problems in Saucer investigation is the great variety of shapes that the craft have shown. Saucers themselves are of various designs. Some are the standard discus-shape, with or without a whirling rim. Some are flat as a phonograph record with only a central boss on one side and a circular welt on the other. (See the Rio photographs). Some are like truncated cones clapt [sic] together at their blunter ends. Then there is the other completely different model, the tubes, some of which may be hundreds of. feet in length. But perhaps the oddest are the Rings. One of the best of such sightings came during the three months intensive visiting which the British Isles underwent in the Fall of 1950. On Sept. 24 an Edinburgh lawyer and his family were seated in their car looking at the famous North Bridge. Suddenly out of the sky came a huge ring. It was hollow in the center. It settled above the bridge and seemed to be watching a train that was at the moment crossing. Then as quickly as it had descended it drew up again into the sky and disappeared. This report prepared us for the careful account of Charles T. Earley of Greensfield, Mass. On the afternoon of March 30 of this year, he saw two rings, one above the other, descend out of the clear sky while he was working in his back yard. He estimated that as they swooped down toward him they were thirty feet in width and the couple were some four feet apart. The objects dived down toward him and then as rapidly, as in the Scotch case, retreated into the sky. In this case Mr. Earley did hear a very high note. These two cases are capped as the most spectacular of the ring sightings up to date. The object was seen aver the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls by a great number of people over a wide district. It seemed to all observers to be huge – "somewhat smaller than a city block," said Mr. Ray Golding. While it was observed it changed color. At first seen as a sepia ring on the colored sky it began to glow. When seen as a dark object it was moving slowly. Then as its speed increased it became bluish-white before it disappeared going toward the Falls.

These three cases serve to illustrate very well this particular phenomena. A number more have been sighted. What are they? They can't hold occupants. Here's one possible hypothesis. They could be scanning devices, "radiation-eyes" put down by "somebody high up" say from some mother-ship, from an artificial satellite, as we put down sounding devices when we map, photograph and take specimens from the deep ocean floor. Whatever the are, they are well worth watching. If you see one, tell us. Box 1971, Main P. O., Los Angeles, California.

Richard W. Williams

The mystery of what happened over the sleeping city of Seattle, Wash., at 1:26 a.m., May 11, remains to be explained satisfactorily.

According to press reports, a blinding white flash transformed the skies over Seattle at that moment into daytime brightness.

The flash was accompanied by a series of explosions that shook buildings and routed mystified residents over a wide area.

The general assumption was that a meteor had swished across the heavens and burst apart at a height estimated variously at 2,000 to 8,000 feet. But meteorologists said that if this were true, its behavior did not follow usual patterns.

Whatever it was, the event was quickly hushed up, there were no subsequent reports, and no details of any fragments being found were ever released.

CSI, with no associate members yet named for the Seattle-Vancouver area, was unable to make a personal investigation. If you are a resident of either of these cities, and qualified to make reports, please contact CSI at P.O. Box 1971, Temple and Spring Streets, Los Angeles, California.

Gerald J. Heard

Most people don't know that cruising sky-objects are no new scandal in astronomy. For when the discovery of telescopes "lifted the lid off the sky" and showed that there was only space above, not a hard ceiling, as had been thought, then meteorites were denied in the name of Science. German learned societies forbade members reading papers on such sightings.

Lavoisier, the great chemist, mocked the "ignorant superstition that still could fancy that fragments could fall from the 'heavens', a mythical sky-roof." Finally meteorites were accepted. Next it was the turn of ball-lightning to be vetoed. The thunder-bolt was no more than a hang-over from mythology. The end of the XIXth Century saw most scientists converted to a belief in ball-lightning, tho still far from happy about it. For how the devil did the ball hold together? But even then with these concessions the sky wouldn't keep quiet. For at the end of the last century observers reported in Great Britain that cruising objects had been viewed for a number of days over the country from England to Scotland. Careful reports also came from the British Fleet in the Mediterranean and also from the Bermudas. The aged and honored Helmholtz had not helped his reputation by reporting to the Prussian Academy of Sciences that he had lately observed Sirius to leave its sky-station and take a turn or two in the heavens. But the British sightings were in the day-time and none of the observers doubted that the odd objects were moving in our atmosphere.

Then in 1897 came the turn of America. The New York Sun for four days in April reported that over Kansas a powerful search-light had been scanning the countryside at sixty miles an hour. Chicago then reported that crowds had seen lights aloft showing red and green. Next Texas reported and therefrom came the first descriptions of the ship itself – the cigar shaped model we now know. But the craft had big flukes on it. Then the New York Herald on April 20 gave the account from Sisterville that at 9 p.m., the object stood above the town flashing white, green, and red lights. There seems no doubt that for a month a large "tube" was seen over a great part of the middle west and that it had red and green side lights and a search-light. People claimed to have observed it through telescopes. Their accounts are consistent with each other. Thereafter there was no such consistent visitation by one outstanding craft. There were a few sightings just about and after the first world war and then practically a silence till the outburst of 1947 and continuing until the period in which we are living. Perhaps with Wilson's effort at world peace they thought we had learned our lessons and they could go home. Now that we certainly show that we haven't, perhaps they are going to stay till we do.

The Civilian Saucer Investigation is pleased to announce the organization of a network of Associate Members throughout the North American continent, Europe, Africa and the Far East for the purpose of gathering and confirming, at the local level, facts and information relating to the many phases of the saucer phenomena.

The original group of Associate Members was selected from among CSI correspondents who had volunteered their services. For the present the selection will be based upon the geographical area in which the correspondent resides, although preference will be given to those with technical backgrounds or occupations.

Those people who have time to assist CSI in their own community or area are invited to write to Box 1971, attention of John C. Barnes, membership chairman, giving their education and their occupation. Identification cards will be issued to all who assist as Associate Members of CSI, will be furnished them, and there will be no fees, dues or assessments of any kind.

Local groups organized for the study of the Saucer phenomena are also invited to correspond with Mr. Barnes, since plans are under way to provide for the exchange of information with sub-groups under the Civilian Saucer Investigation.

The most exciting flying saucer news in recent months occurred on May 7 when two staff photographers for the Brazilian weekly news magazine of pictures, O CRUZEIRO, made what appear to be the best close-up saucer photos ever shot, near Rio de Janeiro. The photos appeared in an eight-page supplement of the May 17 issue of the magazine. The editors vouched for the authenticity of the pictures.

The big question is – are these extraordinary pictures, which show a sizeable saucer with a conning tower on one side and circular concentric ridges on the other, those of an extraterrestrial flying machine or a good photographic hoax?

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Ed Sullivan

CSI has received hundreds of letters from people seeking the facts behind reports of crashed flying saucers, unknown metals which defy laboratory analysis, mysterious top-level rendezvous in the Australian Bush, and the little man from outer space preserved in a pickle jar.

In answer, let us say that we do not believe that any facts are in anyone's possession to support such claims, and that the stories themselves are damned for the simple reason, that after years of circulation, not one soul has come forward with a single concrete fact to support the assertions. If there were one single iota of fact, certainly someone, somewhere, would be willing to bring it out into the open.

It might be well for us to point out that after four years of operation, the Air Force investigation of unfamiliar objects remains in the statistical-analysis phase, because that agency also lacks physical evidence in hand. It is reasonable to assume that the AF would have small use for IBM tabulation were a captured saucer being held under wraps at March Field, as rumor has it.

Whatever you might like to believe, we must assure you that it is most doubtful if any object within the saucer phenomena has ever crashed, landed or otherwise revealed itself. We ask you to beware of the man who tells you that his friend knows the man with the pickle jar. There is good reason why he effects an air of mystery, why he "has been sworn to secrecy" – because he can't produce the friend – or the pickle jar.

CSI places itself at the disposal of anyone with reliable information or evidence to submit on any phase of the saucer phenomena; his identity will be respected, and we will be happy to assist in the proper documentation and analysis toward confirming the facts at hand. But, if YOU are the man with the pickle jar, we ask you to bring it forward if you can – if you can't, we ask you to stop preying upon the credulity of the sincere people interested in finding the answer to the riddle of the flying saucers.

It would not be easy to confuse a weather balloon with a flying saucer. That is the opinion of CSI board members after watching an evening balloon release from the Long Beach (Calif.) Air Force Base. Arrangements for the CSI group's visit were made by Capt. J. A. Van Brunt, who is in charge of the Long Beach weather station.

The vinyl-plastic balloon, inflated on the ground, is approximately 8 ft. in diameter. A long line beneath it carries a bright red parachute assembly, to which the radiosonde equipment is attached.

After the balloon is released, it climbs at a constant rate of speed of between. 1000 and 1300 feet per minute. The direction of flight depends entirely upon the movement of the various streams of upper air. Weather data is transmitted to the ground station by a battery-powered radiosonde unit, and the balloon's altitude is checked throughout each flight by means of radar.

The weather balloon observed by the CSI party exploded at 38,000 ft, although the Long Beach station recently sent a balloon aloft which attained a record altitude just below 140,000 ft before exploding.

The observers particularly noted the fact that the balloon in the air did not appear to hover. The constant upward movement was apparent at all times. The speed-over-ground was too slow to be confused with any other object than a free-floating balloon. As long as the object appeared to have the form of a balloon, up to about 20,000 ft, the red parachute could be seen swaying, pendulum-like, below the gas-filled bag. Above that point, the balloon appeared as a dull spot in the light of the setting sun, with an occasional flash from a metal part of the radiosonde package. At no time did the object take on the star-like intensity often mentioned in descriptions of the objects within the saucer phenomena.

The reader may put his observations to a simple test to identify or eliminate the weather balloon from a reported saucer sighting. Weather balloons are released simultaneously from a limited number of stations, usually located several hundred miles apart. There are four releases a day by Greenwich time, which on the Pacific Coast fall at 6 o'clock and 10 o'clock am., and at 2 and 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Figuring the constant climb of the balloon, at about 1000 feet per minute, it is unlikely that a balloon will be seen more than 30 or 40 minutes after its release hour.

Summary of 220 Sighting's - Cont'd. from Pg.1

The familiar flying disc shape was most frequently seen with 63 reported, as contrasted with 18 cigar-shaped objects, 16 spheres, 11 string of lights, 33 green fireballs, 74 colored lights and 13 unusual shapes.

Of the latter category which includes everything from bubbles to three-bladed objects, the most unique is the double-ring phenomena.

This peculiar object has been reported to CSI by four widely separated observers to data and is distinct and different from any flying disc or spaceship reports heretofore received in any quarter.

CSI has tape recording evidence plus eyewitness accounts from associate members to verify the double-rings.

Sightings were about equally divided between day and night, with night sightings leading by a slight edge of 72 to 65 for the day group. Nine explosions of objects (which could conceivably be meteors) were reported and seven had some sort of sound.

Although most flying saucers never made the slightest sound, CSI has received several good reports in which a unique humming like bees or static electricity has been reported.

California led all other states in number of sightings reported. Others with a high number were Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York and Texas.

Although the bulk of the first 220 sightings were for 1951 and 1952, every year back to 1947 when saucers first came into the public consciousness is well represented.

In addition there was a good sprinkling of sightings extending through the 30's and several early sightings as early as 1896, 1898, 1904 and 1907 were reported to CSI by old-timers relieved after a lifetime to mystification to tell someone of their strange experiences.

The original group of CSI sightings, plus several hundred later ones are now being analyzed and studied by the organization's evaluation board in a long-term project to determine the origin, nature and purpose of the strange objects.

Sighters are reminded that their reports are of most value to CSI if they are complete and detailed with all facts carefully listed, particularly as to date, time, locale and description of object.

It has been learned through such descriptions, for example, that most flying discs seem to have a wobble in our atmosphere and most of the sky objects have a luminous glow to them.

(Saucers capture nation's interest, cont'd)

Public interest reached a climax on July 28 when a series of swiftly moving unexplained objects appeared on radar screens within the Washington, D. C., defense perimeter. Jet fighters belatedly sent aloft to intercept or identify the objects were unable to establish contact.

The appearance of a shiny, apparently metallic object over the Los Alamos, N. M., Atomic Energy installations on July 29 produced another chase by three jet planes. Observers on the ground, who had watched the disc-like object for over 30 minutes through binoculars, expressed no surprise when the interceptors were unable to find the object, since it had swung around in a complete circle and got behind the searchers.

The willingness of previously silent sighters of saucers throughout the nation to disclose their experiences to the news agencies at this time indicates that future visitations by the phenomena will be more fully recorded than in the past, when the average citizen hesitated to report having seen the objects. Most impressive fact is that while officialdom seems intent on blowing the saucer story down, the Air Force men conducting the investigations of the saucer phenomena, at the working level, have not departed from their recently published views that "the good people sending in their reports must be seeing something."

South American Pictures - Cont'd.

Officers of Operation Bluebook, the Air Force's successor to Project Saucer, told CSI that a careful examination of the photos revealed that the shadow of a cupola atop a purported saucer seemed to be the cast [sic] in one direction while shadows of trees and other objects were in another. For that reason the Air Force has reasonable doubts as to the authenticity of the photos and that is the reason they have not been published in the United States.

The photos were later republished by O CRUZEIRO along with the pictures of Rio de Janeiro people who claimed to have seen the same disc from other parts of the city – which makes the Rio saucer pictures the more interesting.

Many other reports of this nature received from the Royal Canadian Air Force, from the Atomic Energy Center, and from other qualified observers decided several Canadian RCAF and top government officials to accept seriously the possibility of the existence of flying saucers. Among these men is Dr. O.M. Solandt, Chairman of the Defense Research Board, Dr. Peter Millman, Dominion astro-physicist, Dr. J. Machenzie, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Control Board and until recently president of the National Research Council. They all are of the consensus that so many reports from responsible observers cannot be ignored and that every scientist should keep an open mind on this subject.

Various newspapers and letters from research societies and individuals were received from Algiers, North Africa, where a skate-like object hovered over the harbor and was observed by many persons in various parts at the city. A similar incidence is reported from Sorocco, North Africa. More than a score of reports were received from Sweden, Norway and Copenhagen, Denmark, all incidences witnessed by more than one person.

Many sightings have been reported by newspapers and personal letters from France.

One report came recently from Rangoon, Burma, and two sightings were reported from Korea this spring by the crews of two United States war planes within a few minutes from each other. A statement is being investigated that one of these planes fired at the disc and that the bullets glanced off the disc like off a sphere, as the path of tracer bullets showed.

A very significant sighting comes from Australia, where 13 persons reported the appearance of a cigar-shaped object without wings, propellers, exhaust or noise of any kind. Among these persons were two airplane pilots and one RAF officer. The objects were reported within 7 minutes from four different areas separated as much as 100 miles in the neighborhood of Sidney [sic], Australia. Sightings are quite frequent in South America and Mexico. Two recent reports from Caracas, Venezuela, describe a green fireball and four discs of the apparent size of the moon. The latter were seen from a distance of about two miles.

The recently advanced interest in flying saucer activities brought with it a series of new and extremely scientific theories. The present trend indicates an anxious hope that one such theory will finally be found which will be all encompassing, explaining all situations under which the phenomena have been observed, and all the different types of strange sky-objects being reported. Then comes along one of those perfectly incredible coincidences, bringing with it an entirely new behavior characteristic, which would make the proponents of the mirage, the ionized particle, and the electromagnetic vortex theories hard put to remain convincing in their convictions.

For four nights, between July 23 and July 26, and at almost the same hour on each occasion, widely separated groups in the Los Angeles area have watched large, bright objects move over the city, hover, then seem to split into several pieces.

On the night of the 24th, CSI received reports from Reseda and from Bellflower, where separate groups of observers watched an object split into three pieces. On the evening of the 25th, a former Major in the Air Force, now connected with CAP, observed the same phenomenon over the community of Hawthorne . Several observers who were with him reported that the object split into six pieces. The same characteristic was then reported on the night of July 26 by members of the San Pedro police force. Up to this point, there had been no newspaper publicity to suggest the new behavior pattern to the several groups or people.

Then, through Box 1971, CSI received a written report of a sighting by three people, employed at a major aircraft plant, on July 23. These men watched the object through binoculars, and state that the "splitting" effect observed by the naked eye, was in reality two smaller objects emerging from what the reporter calls the "mother ship". His letter follows:

"A strange bright silver object was first sighted coming in from a southeastern direction. My position of observation was from a northwestern section of Culver City.

"The object, as seen with the naked eye was a brilliant silver color, but no shape could be determined. As observed through 7 x 50 binoculars, the object had a very definite oval shape . . . and flew in a somewhat straight line with a rocking motion for approximately 20 minutes. It then stopped directly overhead and seemed to hover in space. After approximately two minutes it was observed that the strange object was launching objects of much smaller size than the parent ship. These smaller objects were launched

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"This activity continued for approximately 25 minutes at an extremely high altitude. Then after the mother ship had received the two small objects back in itself, it appeared to ascend straight up, until it was lost to vision through the binoculars."

This Is The First Issue of the CSI Quarterly Review – Fall Number, [sic] 1952.

The Civilian Saucer Investigation presents this first issue of its Quarterly Bulletin to keep those interested informed of the progress of the CSI investigations. The bulletin further serves two important purposes:

1. Since the information contained in this Bulletin was sent in to CSI their correspondents, the CSI board recognizes its obligation to pass its findings back to the good people who furnished the information in the first place.

2. Although the CSI board members have financed the organization to this point out of their own pockets, it is their hope that funds from the sale of the Quarterly Bulletin will provide for the expansion and improvement of CSI services and investigations.

TRUE Reviews Scully

CSI recommends the September issue of TRUE Magazine as a must. Those who have doubted the authenticity of certain facts presented in Frank Scully's "Behind The Flying Saucers" will welcome the feature article by J.P. Cahn who spent many months looking into the backgrounds of Scully's sources of information.

The revealing investigation by Mr. Cahn will serve a remarkably worthwhile purpose if it stimulates Mr. Scully to substantiate his facts, or to admit that he, like so many others, was led down one of the innumerable blind alleys which confront all who take off in pursuit of the elusive saucers.

Small Group Takes On A Big Job

If you are one of the CSI correspondents whom we were unable to answer at length, or if our answer to your letter was not as prompt as you would like it, please remember that CSI is a small group of men, who are conducting the Civilian Saucer Investigation strictly "on the side", as a hobby.

The world-wide response to the CSI invitation to report sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena to Box 1971 was far beyond the expectations of any of the members. The small group has labored to acknowledge each letter and report received, but if we appeared to be remiss, please forgive us. As funds become available from the sale of the Quarterly Bulletin, additional stenographic help will be obtained to keep us up to date in our important correspondence.