UFO. United States

New York, New York, TIMES, 8 July 1947, pages 1 & 46

'Disks' Soar Over New York, Now Seen Aloft in All Colors
By MURRAY SCHUMACH

The "flying saucer," though still adept at eluding the most powerful telescopes in America, continued yesterday to flash in increasing numbers and variety before the goggling eyes of rooftop and roadside amateurs.

New York and other Eastern states, hitherto oblivious to the strange bodies in the sky, suddenly found they were not immune, according to the latest reports to harassed policemen and astronomers. The Associated Press said that thirty-nine states, plus the District of Columbia and a part of Canada were playing host to the heavenly disks.

Despite the humorous skepticism of scientists and military experts, the latest flock of rumors showed increasing imagination. No longer, for example, were the disks just white. In some cases they were in technicolor, with orange the predominant hue.

Australia Tries an Idea

Just to show how simple it was to see the "flying saucers" play tag among the stars, a professor of physiology in Sydney, Australia, tried an experiment. He suggested to 450 students at the University of Sydney, that, in the interests of science, they stare fixedly at a point in the sky about a mile distant.

Within ten minutes twenty-two students were back with findings. They even drew pictures to prove that they had seen "flying disks." The professor nodded sagely and remarked:

"Just as I thought. It was all due to the effect of red corpuscles of blood passing in front of the retina. This is well recognized and anybody interested can draw his own conclusions."

But no sooner had word of this experiment - which, incidentally, was supported by other reputable authorities on the subject - been made public, when along came what looked like first-hand knowledge of the existence of "flying saucers."

In this case, a flier gave a detailed description of the object that had been smashed in collision with his plane over Boseman, Mont. He described it as "a pearl gray, clam-shaped airplane with a plexiglass dome on top."

Said the flier's boss, a little while later:

"Three or four of us were sitting around the hanger gassing, and we just made it up. Somebody must have heard it, and spread the word. I've been so busy on the phone since it got out that I haven't been able to do any flying all day. I'm flabbergasted that anyone believed it."

Then there was another explanation from a man down South. He said he had released thousands of small balloons as a publicity "stunt" to exploit his products - toys.

In Frankfort on the Main, Germany, where, according to The United Press, nobody has yet noticed the "flying saucers," a United States Army doctor gave the scientific name for the spectacle - muscae volitanted. This is a fancy way of saying optical illusions.

There were a few other cases where the flying disks could be subjected to objective study. In Chicago, where the object made quite a noise as it bounced into a backyard, it turned out to be a circular saw and the home owner quickly canceled his telephone call to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

An indication - and perhaps a good reason - for not seeing nocturnal apparitions came from a policeman in Elizabeth, N. J. Originally, he felt quite good about his vigilance. That was on Saturday night, when he became the first person in New Jersey to spot a "flying saucer." But yesterday he had a different point of view:

"I know I saw two objects in the air," he said, "but I don't know what they were. And the ribbing is getting hard to take."

In a dead heat for the claim to having been first to observe "flying saucers" over New York State were a married couple in Rochester and a man in Glens Falls. The Rochester couple noted just an ordinary white disk. But the Glens Falls resident saw what looked like a headlight, emitting red fire in front and blue fire in its wake. This, unquestionably was the fanciest of the flying saucer to date.

Finally, the Army Air Forces was smoked out and admitted complete ignorance. Just to play it safe, the Air Forces statement said an investigation was still under way. This gave the War Department the opportunity to say it was dumping the whole matter in the lap of the Air Forces.

Perhaps prophetic of any investigation was the result of a search near St. Maries, Idaho, where, according to The Associated Press, nearly a dozen "flying saucers" were said to have crashed. Fliers circling the area said the view was lovely. Land parties said they were tired. No one found anything worth talking about.

One scientist suggested the library as a clue, referring particularly to a section of "Alice in wonderland," in which the Mad Hatter sand the following song:

"Twinkle, twinkle little bat
"How I wonder what you're at
"Up above the world you fly
"Like a tea-tray in the sky."

To which Alice responded:

"Well, I've heard something like that."