Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“The Advance”52 pages
124 remnant magnetism in nearly every piece of iron within several hundred yards. This has not been found. Despite the above -described observation, there is little reason to believe that magnetic fields, of themselves, could be of much use in propelling a spacecraft, although there has been much uninformed speculation about this in popular UFO publications. The simple reason is that we cannot produce a north pole without at the same time producing a south pole. This is a consequence of fundamental theory. Such a dipole cannot exert a force in conjunction with a uniform magnetic field. such as the earth may be assumed to have in a given locality, though it can produce a force in a nonuniform field. To go beyond the above discussion would be rather speculative, but it is just here that we find a stimulus and challenge to scientific theory. It is almost circu- lar to say that when we find a phenomena we understand but vaguely we have also found a means of advancing our understanding; this has been particularly true in astronomy. Concerning the propulsion of UFO's, a tentative hypothesis would be that it is connected with an application of gravitational fields that we do not understand. Gravitation remains one of the enigmas of modern science, although there have been some advances in its understanding (beyond general relativity) in the pastdecade. There are theoretical grounds based on general relativity for believing there must exist a second gravitational field, corresponding to the magnetic field in electromagnetic theory, and that the interaction between these two fields must be similar to that between the electric and magnetic fields. This kind of interac-tion and its exploitation forms the basis for our modern electrical generators and motors. Without the interaction, we would be back to the days of electrostatic at- traction and of permanent magnets—two phenomena that can produce only very weak forces when operating individually. Someday perhaps, we will learn enough to apply gravitational forces in the same way we have learned to apply electro- magnetic forces. This will depend upon advances in many fields of science: Some of the things required will be enormously increased sources of power from atomic fusion; very intense magnetic fields and current densities, perhaps from super- conducting sources; and extremely strong materials to contain mechanical forces. Some of these advances are approaching, or are on the horizon. Others we have yet to see clearly. May I close this part of our discussion by recalling the statement that the most important secret of the atomic bomb was that it worked. This gave the crucial impetus to other nations in their own efforts to duplicate the research of the United States. In the UFO phenomena we have demonstrations of scientific secrets we do not know ourselves. It would be a mistake, it seems to me, to ignore their existence. II. UFO's AND HIGH -STRENGTH MATERIALS The instances in which physical fragments of UFO's have been found are dis- appointingly few. To my knowledge, there is only one well-authenticated finding, and that was in Brazil in 1957. The story of its discovery is contained in Chap- ter 9 of The Great Flying Saucer Hoax (Coral E. Lorenzen, The Willeam- Frederick Press, New York, 1962) written by Dr. Olavo T. Fontes. Briefly, several small metallic fragments were recovered by some fishermen near the coastal town of Ubatuba, Sao Paulo, after they saw what they de- scribed as a brilliant explosion of a flying disc. 'Some of the fiery fragments were extinguished in the water near the shore, where they were recovered. Fontes acquired three of the fragments that weighed less than a tenth of an ounce each, and had one of them analyzed at the Mineral Production Laboratory in the Brazilian Agricultural Ministry. The results of the first analysis was that the substance was magnesium of an unusually high degree of purity, and thatthere was an absence of any other metallic element (Lorenzen, ibid., p. 99). On the basis of the first examination a second spectrographic test was conducted,using the utmost care and the most modern instruments. The report was again marked by references to the "extreme purity" of the sample. Even impurities that are sometimes detected due to contamination from the carbon rod used as an electrode were absent. A further test, using X ray diffraction, failed to turn upany other metallic component. What could be the use of such high -purity magnesium in the context of a spacecraft? One clue lies in its crystalline structure: It is close packed hexag-onal, and is in this regard similar to the high-strength metals beryllium and titanium. Hexagonal crystals have but one slip plane, and this tends to makethem brittle but strong. One of the reasons for slip along crystal planes is that
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.