Evening star., 1947-07-07

usually fly" E. H. Whitaker, Mrs.
Whittaker's son. said. ut looked
like a giant plate. There were no
planes in sight at the time. 1t sailed
with the wind as smoothly as II 1t
were being towed. I can't say
exactly how big it was but at that
height it looked about foot across. y"
From Anne Arundel County, Md,
Mrs. Van Cleef Winterson, an artist
of East Linthicum, related how she
and her two young sons saw fly
ing saucer" flash through the sky
June 20.
Mrs. Winterson said the object
resembled a pancake viewed edge
wise with projections from its sides
which could have been propellers.
She said the object had a shiny
finish, apparently of chromium and
was noiseless. Mrs. Winterson, who
called her sons Kent, 8, and Stewart,
6, to view the saucer" said it was
about a mile away and flying low.
She was positive it wasn't a plane
or bird
Other Reports Widespread.
Other reports yesterday came
from a st. Louis mechanic, who de-
scribed what he saw as circular with
a ribbed framework; from a Walter
(Okla.) resident, who said he
thought about waking up his neigh
bors. but decided 'if it meant the
end of the world they would be just
as happy sleeping when the world
ended" and from Wallaceburg,
Ontario, where scores of residents
said they saw two large formations
of flying saucers" swing over wide
arc in the sky.
The Associated Press sent its Mil
waukee bureau chief to investigate
a report that an object had been
found in Grafton. Wis. which might
be one of the reported discs. The
bureau chief examined the object
and reported it was circular saw,
bearing the label Of well-known
mail order house.
Two neighbors in Kingsport,
Tenn, reported they had seen flying
saucers' speeding over the town two
years ago but had kept silent-one
because he thought they were me-
teors and the other because Of all
the rumors going around then about
what they were doing at Oak Ridge"
The atomic bomb was still a secret
then.
Some of the explanations for the
phenomena were as colorful as the
reports from "eye-witnesses."
Mass Hysteria" Doubted.
DR.. Harry A. Steckel, psychiatric
consultant of the Veterans Admin
istration at Syracuse, N. Y, dis
counted the element of mass hys-
terra" and attributed the discs to "a
result of experiments by some un-
known Government agencies, un-
willing or unable to reveal their &C
tivities at this time"
DR.. Aurel Aczel, editor of Hun
garian language newspaper IN
Philadelphia, expressed the belief
that the flying saucers' were mir
ages-possibly circularly distorted
sky reflections of flights of real air
planes many miles away.
: A worldwide traveller. DR.. Aczel
said he had seen similar things
years ago on the Egyptian desert
and the Hungarian plains.
Henry P. Adams. Philadelphia
weather expert, said such a thing
was not impossible, but he had
never heard of flying mirages.
Beacons, Another Suggests.
John J. F1oherty. Port Washing
ton IN. " author Of juvenile books
said he had seen lots Of flying
saucers," which he explained away
as the beams of revolving airline
beacons playing on or through
cloud layers.
The APPS science editor. Howard
Blakesiee, wrote that certain laws
of human eyesight could explain
much of what has been described
as flying saucers."
At any distance which Is close to
the limit of how far a person can
see, he wrote, all objects appear
round or nearly so. If the thing