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This is section 1 of FBI headquarters file 62-HQ-83894 on flying discs, compiled in July and August 1947. It collects press clippings, including a report of a disc found by a priest in Grafton, Wisconsin, that a Milwaukee memo treats as a prank involving a circular saw. It also holds a Milwaukee report on a disc found near Black River Falls, a Portland teletype about a pilot's sighting over Myrtle Creek, Oregon, citizen letters, and Hoover's correspondence forwarding material to the War Department.
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Ouu-ks of E'fesight May
Explain Disc Mystery
By HOWARD BLAKESLEE
AP Science Editor
Nl!.."'W YORK, J uly 6-{JP)-Certain laws of human eye
sight will explain much of what has been described about
the flying saucers reported from nearly all par ts of the
United States.
At any distance which Is dose photograph of the oval object
to tpe limit of how far a person taken by Yeoman Frank Ryman
can see, all objects appear round north of Seattle, Wash. The Long
or nearly so. This law of sight Island oval came closer and
covers both small things seen turned Into an airplane.
nearby and large ones at great Planes at great distances tend
distances. to look round when light Is re-
Regardless of shape, the ob• fleeted from their sides. Many
ject near the limit of sight looks descriptions of movements of the
round. If the thing is silhouetted flying saucers flt with the com
against a bright sky, as some of mon maneuvers of airplanes,
the flying saucers have been re- singly or In groups.
!ported, then It Is more likely to They flt also with what birds
al Its true shape. look like, flying at a consldei ble
, , distance. However the bird llu-
VE NO STRUCTURE slon is not very common. me
the thing Is seen by reflected of the maneuvering repo ted,
light, as In most cases reported, which took saucers out or ght
It is almost certain to be round, and back Into sight again re
and if the reflections are sunlight, sembles what can be seen while
then the sizes reported are those watching distance airplanes.
which would be expected from SPEED MYSTERY
distant light reflections.
The one outstanding fact about There Is no explanation for re
virtually aJI the saucers Is that ported speeds of 1,000 or more
they ha<.1 no structure - they mlles a n hour. Meteors, although
seemed merely round and flat. they go much faster than that,
That description Cits exactly with do not explain It because the
the tricks that eyes play. This saucers mostly appear in daytime
trickiness varies with differences and there are not enough day-
In weather and lighting. light meteors.
This writer has seen flying Ice crystals forming little round
saucers over Long I sland Sound clouds have been suggested. But
near his home, not only t his year t hese fall to flt In most cases be
but in previous years. They were cause the Ice crystals form at
round, bright and moving tasL altitudes whlch are higher than
most of the saucers reported.
NOT A MYSTERY Nothing published in science or
But they were no mystery be- atomic studies gives the slightest
cause they were light reflected clue to flying sfucers unless the
from the bodies of airplanes that objectg are aircraft.
soon identified themselves by One scientist today said that at
cha, lng course and coming near least a lot of saucers are ex
eno h to be seen distinctly. plained by the rorce of suggestion
L t week this writer also saw which causes a pers,gn to say toIone val flying form which for himself: .. {CLO u~a moment looked exactly llke the "Oh, gel', I !tr it too."
?. ~:..f_m ~ -
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