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.
“UFO Research Society”10 pages
198 The committee stands adjourned. (Whereupon, at 4:39 p.m., the committee was adjourned.) In addition to the six symposium participants, the chairman, Mr. Roush, invited other scientists to submit written papers expressing their views of unidentified flying objects. Their papers follow as a part of the record of the symposium. (The biography of Dr. Menzel follows:) DR. DONALD H. MENZEL Dr. Donald H. Menzel, a native of Colorado, received his Ph. D. from Princeton University in 1924. After one year as instructor at the University of Iowa, another year as Assistant Professor at Ohio State University, Dr. Menzel went to Lick Observatory in 1926, as Assistant Astronomer. While at Lick he participated in many observing programs with the large telescopic equipment. His major work, however, was in the interpretation of the spectrum of the atmosphere of the sun, from photographs taken at various total solar eclipses. He participated In the observation of two such eclipses, in the years 1930 and 1932. In the fall of 1932, Dr. Menzel came to Harvard University, where he has beenever since, except for three years of service as a Commander in the U.S. Navy, during World War II. His studies have covered a large number of fields, from pure physics to pure astronomy. Of special concern has been the sun itself, in which field he is a recognized authority. His studies have employed a combination of observation and theory. In 1936 he was director of the Harvard-M.I.T. eclipse expedition to USSR. In 1945 he directed the joint U.S.-Canadian eclipse expedi- tion to Saskatchewan. He has also observed the total eclipses of 1918, 1923, 1954, 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1967. In an attempt to obtain basic information outside of a total solar eclipse, Dr. Menzel developed the first coronagraph in the United States and established the station at Climax, Colorado, where it is now known as the High Altitude Observatory. Originally operated jointly by Harvard and the University of Colorado, this scientific institution is now wholly under the jurisdiction of the latter university. The observations of solar activity obtained at Climax had an immediate application to problems of solar -terrestrial relation- ships, especially on the propagation of radio waves. To expand the work in this field and to provide for more nearly unbroken records of solar activity, after World War II, Dr. Menzel suggested that the Air Forces establish a second solar station. After several years of site surveying, Sacramento Peak Observa- tory was established near Alamogordo, New Mexico on a mountain some 5000 feet above the Tularosa Basin, overlooking the White Sands Proving Ground and the Holloman Air Force Base. The large instruments, including the 16 -inch corona - graph, were all designed and built under Harvard auspices, collaboratively with scientific personnel from the High Altitude Observatory. In 1956, with Air Force sponsorship, Harvard built a Solar Radio Observatory near Fort Davis, Texas, to record the radio waves of solar origin. The data from these observatories are revolutionizing our knowledge of the sun and solar activity. In 1952 DT. Menzel became acting Director of Harvard College Observatory and, in 1954, was advanced to the Directorship. He resigned as Director on March 31, 1966. In Harvard University he is Paine Professor of Practical Astronomy and Professor of Astrophysics. On July 1, 1966 he also accepted appointment asResearch Scientist on the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory staff. He has lectured extensively in Spanish throughout Latin America. In 1963 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Chile, and served as State Department Specialist for Latin America in 1964. From 1954-56 he was President of the American Astronomical Society. He is Vice President of the American Philosophical Society, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a large number of other professional organizations. He is a senior member of the Insti- tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Foreign Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society. From 1948-1955 he was President of the Commission on Solar Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union, and from 19434-1967 was President of the Commission on the moon. He is also a member of the Inter- national Radio Scientific Union (URSI),and the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics. He has been Chief Scientist of GOA Corporation since 1959. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. from 1957-1966. ( In 1954 he received the honorary
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.