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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“Sea”47 pages
Dr. Richmond's preliminary inspection indicated that the "web" consisted of a short, weak fiber that looked like cotton or wool. The specimen was passed on to the professor of chemistry at the local college, Dr. Charles B. Rutenber. No immediate explanation or conjecture was forthcoming as to the source of the strange material. On Tuesday, February 22nd, Dr. Rutenber issued a statement that his findings, based on chemical analysis, showed the mystery substance was cotton, either waste or fibers, that "had been in an explosion and were heavily damaged." Tests with the college geiger counter showed the material to be radioactive. The doctor's findings on the composition were supported both by Dr. Richmond and Mrs. Hans Bernt, assistant professor of art, who, as an expert in textiles, examined the specimen. Again, no explanation was offered as to the source of the material. Other reports referred to a similar mysterious deposit found in London and in other major cities last year. It was generally agreed that the substance could have been carried great distances in the upper air and that the cobweb might have knit itself and fallen in a small area pulled down by its own weight. By February 23rd, the local mystery had attracted interest of the Atomic Energy Commission which asked Dr. Rutenber for information on the results of his tests. The Associated Press carried the story on its wire services and the New York correspondent of the London Times expressed an interest because of the similarity to the "web" found last year in London. Meantime, Mr. Shell who first reported it said the web was rapidly disintegrating and disappearing. While the scientists continued their tests at the college, a new avenue of conjecture was presented by Mr. Lawrence Peer, Plant Manager of the Local dairy. Mr. Peer, supported by Mr. John Stelmak, a chemical engineer of the Westinghouse Electronic Tube Division plant at Horseheads, suggested the possibility that powdered milk, not cotton fibers, was the basis of the substance. Mr. Peer claimed it was possible that some powdered milk could have passed through a vent pipe and been converted to stringy casein fibers by the 300 degree temperature of the machine. He admitted, however, that a large quantity of milk powder would have been required to cover the half-mile area with the fibers. Too, the milk theory did not explain the radioactivity, the amount of which prompted the Westinghouse plant to conduct another investigation to discover why the Web" produced a higher count on the testing machines than matter usually taken from the local air. Spokesmen from the plant stated that a metallic content would be more likely to pick up radioactivity than organic matter. February 24th brought even more confusing and muddled reports. Dr. Rutenber who had held to the "cotton fibers heavily damaged in an explosion" theory, suddenly reversed his decision. He announced that he now was convinced the material was a protein product created by the escape of a hot milk product at the local plant. The Manager of the chemistry section of the local Westinghouse plant, Mr. John B. Diffenderer, also held to the milk theory. However, the Westinghouse tests showed the contents of the "web" to be only 30% carbon, with quantities of calcium, silica, aluminium, iron and about ten other traceable elements. In the interval the radioactivity had dropped to almost nothing. Directly opposing the milk theory were the findings at the milk plant where the milk theory first originated. Louis R. Hermann and Robert L. Mix, chemical technicians at the plant, reported, after conducting their own tests, that the material consisted of cotton and wool fibers with peices of fine copper wire mixed in. "It looked like it might have come out of a carpet sweeper bag," they said.
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