From: David Rudiak <drudiak.nul>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 11:27:49 -0700
Archived: Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:48:58 -0400
Subject: Re: Once More The Term 'Flying Saucers'


>From: Martin Shough <parcellular.nul>
>To: <ufoupdates.nul>
>Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 23:20:51 +0100
>Subject: Re: Once More The Term 'Flying Saucers'

>>From: David Rudiak <drudiak.nul>
>>To: <ufoupdates.nul>
>>Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 14:01:01 -0700
>>Subject: Re: Once More The Term 'Flying Saucers'

>>>From: Greg Boone <evolbaby.nul>
>>>To: <ufoupdates.nul>
>>>Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 11:35:09 -0700
>>>Subject: Re: Once More The Term 'Flying Saucers'

>>>However I'm still unclear as to whether people reported such
>>>disk-shaped craft, platters_before_Kenneth Arnold's report.

>>Here's an example from a 1999 UFO Updates post. It was a WWI
>>sighting from 1917. The object was compared to the military
>>"mess plate", which resembled a pie pan. It was very large and
>>appeared over multiple days. In the first sighting, it
>>appeared
>>directly over one of the new land tanks and was described as
>>rising straight up in the air. Attempts were made to
>>photograph
>>it by a scientific team in successive days, but rumors were
>>that
>>the photos always came out black (radiation?).

>Does this fulfill the condition of having been "reported...
>before Kenneth Arnold's report"? I don't see that it does.

It's a pre-Kenneth Arnold sighting of something exactly like a
classic metallic "flying saucer", though not reported until
afterward Arnold.

Reports of round or spherical flying objects certainly predate
Arnold. Some examples:

http://www.newsoftheodd.com/content/view/218/29

The 1561 Nuremberg incident of numerous spheres emerging from
large cylinders and darting about sounds very much like a modern
"mothership" report.

The 1904 U.S.S. Supply sighting of "meteors" described them as
round or egg-shaped. Bruce Maccabee analyzed this sighting. It
is very unlikely that they spotted meteors.

Here's a more modern and unknown case I stumbled across while
electronically searching newspapers. It's from the Los Angeles
Times, Oct. 27, 1935:

"MEXICAN PLANE SIGHTS COLORFUL AERIAL BODY

"Excitement was created on the plane of the Central Airways of
Mexico yesterday afternoon en route to Los Angeles when a
strange body was observed near Hermosilla, Mex

"The object appeared to be a ball larger than the largest star
and compared with the full moon as a tennis ball would compare
with a basketball, Pilot Paul Adams and Co-Pilot J. E. Tremayne
said at Grand Central Air Terminal.

"When viewed through a small telescope, the colors of the ball
changed to a mixture of red and greenish hues.

"The ball was visible from 2 p.m. until about 3:10 p.m. when it
disappeared over the western horizon. Passengers confirmed the
flyers observations.

"The possibility existed that the object might have been a rare
and unexplained fireball, although the recorded appearances of
fireballs have been only of few minutes duration. These strange
celestial bodies become visible as golden balls and burst in a
red and green shower of light.

"If the object was a fireball, it represented an extraordinary
astronomical phenomenon, according to Edward H. Morse of
Pasadena. Morse saw a fireball some time ago through his
fifteen-inch telescope. It lasted only a minute or so, he said.

"One theory was advanced that it might have been a weather
balloon which had drifted over that region.

"According to Weather Bureau officials here, balloons are used
for wind observation of different colors including red and blue.
They doubted that this could have been one of their balloons,
but pointed out that El Paso and other border stations use
colored balloons.

"The object was reported first by Field Manager Otero of
Hermosilla airport. He could not explain it."

Not strictly a "saucer" description, but still an interesting
pre-Arnold sighting.


David Rudiak


Listen to 'Strange Days... Indeed' - The PodCast

See:

http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/sdi/program/subscribers/