Not a Meteorite, Says NASA
Metal Fragments Found
On Farm Pose Puzzle
A lab technician at the H.T. Campbell quarry in Texas, Md,. is making no outer space claims about the hunks of strange metal he found near his Parkton home.
But he would like to know what kind of metal it is, and where it came from.
William Belt, who lives on Walker Rd. in Parkton, collected two quart jars of the mysterious stuff when a neighbor, Peter Tuczinski, called him over and asked if he had seen the fireworks.
"What fireworks?" Belt asked.
THEN TUCZINSKI described a brilliant flash just over his house around 10 P.M. Glowing bits of something rained down, the neighbor said, and he could hear metal rattling against his windows and the tin roof of his garage.
The next morning Belt investigated and found a small area of Tuczinski's farm liberally sprinkled with shining and jagged bits of solid metal.
Belt immediately sent samples to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration in Washington. A demand for more samples came back, along with information that preliminary tests showed the metal is NOT from a meteorite.
"I'VE TESTED bits of it myself," Belt said, "and found it contains a lot of iron. But it is harder than any steel I've seen. It's impossible to bore into it with a regular steel bit."
Asked if he discovered any signs of little green men having landed around where their flying saucer exploded, Belt said no.
"But they could be sealed in these pieces of metal," he added.
Read analysis of metal conducted by Dr. John O'Keefe of NASA-Goddard.
The News American
Baltimore, MD
Aug 14, 1965
Outer Space Intruders?
UFO Report Brings More
Visitors from outer space are keeping a close watch on Baltimore these days, if there is anything to the rash of unidentified flying objects reports beinig received by The News American.
Following Thursday's story about a Parkton resident finding strange hunks of metal on the ground after a "blinding flash" near his home, the calls started coming in.
They indicate that intruders from other planets, apparently friendly up to this point, are spying on us or just visiting us an (sic) a variety of vehicles.
A WOMAN who lives on Edmondson Ave. said she and friends saw what looked like "an absolutely black object the shape of a washing machine" go tumbling across the sky last night.
Kathy Hoos of the 3500 block Kings Point Rd., Randallstown, reported seeing an "oval-shaped, very bright orange object" fly into view, stop in midair for about a minute, and then vanish.
She said it looked like "a solid mass."
JAMES WOLFE of Glen Burnie, said he was in a aprty of several people when he saw an unidentified flying object appear in the sky and leisurely proceed in a southeasterly direction until it disappeared over the Chesapeake Bay.
That flying saucer, if it was one, could hardly have been the one seen by Thomas Downey of the 1900 block Ramsey St., as he and friends gazed skyward from the 1900 block Wilkens Ave.
His UFO was headed due north, he said, after it passed directly overhead. He could give no other details of its size, shape, crew or type of fuel being used.
The News American
Baltimore, MD,
Aug 16, 1965
UFO's
The UNIDENTIFIED flying object is with us again.
After a story appeared in the News American about a Parkton resident who found strange hunks of metal on the ground after seeing a "blinding flash" near his home, UFO reports began coming in from all over the area.
An Edmonson Ave. resident said she saw what looked like "an absolutely black object the shape of a washing machine" tumble across the sky. A randallstown woman reported that she saw an "oval-shaped, very bright orange object" fly into view, stop in midair, then vanish. And so it went.
None of the callers reported seeing the objects land, spewing forth a crew of little green men. But that could be next.
The UFO has become for this age what the sea monster was for previous generations. It gives the average man the thrill of contemplating the mysteries of the unknown. It's a harmless diversion...as long as nobody takes it too seriously.
The News American
Baltimore, MD.
Aug 17, 1965
Expert 'Identifies' Metal Bits Found on Farm
'Disks' from Outer Space
By Bill Burnett
Human beings from more-advanced planets in our solar system were reponsible for the mysterious chunks of metal found on a Parkton farm last week, James Wales announced today.
The self-styled "representative of the Planetary Space Center" at 1207-A Martin Court expressed no amazement with the findings of William Belt as reported last week in the News American.
He identified the metal as bits of "monitoring disks" the friendly visitors from space send out from their "palace-like mother ships hovering high up in our atmosphere."
HERE IS THE WAY Wales describes things:
"The disks are used to pick up samples of atmosphere, or minerals, they being loaded with scientific equipment. They radio information to the mother ship, even televise back pictures of people or things on the ground.
"These disks are highly maneuverable, using an electro-magnetic force field as the mode of propulsion. They are noiseless like their larger counterparts, which carry passengers.
"They can hover, cruise or accelerate at tremendous speeds and make right angle turns, etc.
"SOMETIMES THESE disks develop mechanical difficulties and are exploded in the air by the visitors, who first make sure they can harm no one.
"Or the disks are allowed to drop to the ground and then sent a beam to disintegrate them. In that case the disk becomes jelly-like and then dissovles, slowly."
Wales said that without question the space ships and "disks" are made of "iron and aluminum alloyed to the crystalline, translucent stage."
FURTHERMORE, HE said, visits from outer space have been going on since the days of Nero, when fiery chariots and flying shields were spotted in the sky by non-fiddling Romans.
Virgil reported such things as "Sky People in Hollow Clouds," Wales said, "and the Hopi Indians saw White Gods come down in fire-baskets."
See what you started, Mr. Belt!
