Page:Miller - Flying saucers, fact or fiction.pdf/11

 ing the researches of Harold T. Wilkins as contained in his book, "Flying Saucers on the Attack." Wilkins has authored two volumes on ancient South America prior to his UFO research.

The following are some representative cases from Wilkins' collection of early UFO sighting reports.

In 1893 the officer on watch on the H.M.S. Caroline, according to the British scientific periodical, Nature, reported sighting a number of "unusual lights, sometimes in a mass." They were described as occasionally taking "the form of a crescent of diamonds."

Jumping back into time, we find that Roman historian, Julius Obsequens, recorded the appearance of "a globe of fire (aurea globis), at sunrise, appeared in the sky with terrific noise, and burning "over the town of Spoletum, Umbria, in 90 B.C. This "globe golden in color," continued the historian, "fell to earth from the sky, and was seen to gyrate." Then it rose "from the earth, was borne east, and obscured the disc of the sun with its magnitude."

And still farther back, in 222 B.C., "there shone a great light, like ... three moons (that) appeared in quarters of the sky distant from each other" over the township of Ariminum.

In all of these cases of such antiquated reports it is oft-times difficult to separate apparently enigmatic occurrences from reasonably simple misinterpretations of mete orological phenomena. However, objectivity must prevail, and only those incidents (assuming them to be accurately recounted) that will withstand easy discounting are herein included.

One such curious report was of "a round shield" over Arpi, 180 miles east of Rome, in 216 B.C. Possibly a current report could easily discount such a phenomenon—but a round shield closely equates present- day reports about as much as could be expected from such an era of early recorded history.

"Small globes ... circling round the sun" were recorded over England in 796 A.D. by Roger of Wendover.

On the 18th of August, 1783, Tiberious Cavallo, F.R.S .—according to the data collected by Wilkins—witnessed: {{blockquote|"Northeast of the terrace, in clear sky and warm weather, I saw appear suddenly an oblong cloud nearly parallel to the horizon. Below the cloud was seen a luminous body ... It soon be came a roundish body, brightly lit up and almost stationary. It was about 9:25 p.m. This strange ball at first appeared bluish and faint, but its light increased, and it soon began to move. At first, it ascended above the horizon, obliquely towards the east. Then it changed its direction and moved parallel to the horizon. It vanished in the S.E. I saw it for half a minute, and the light it gave out was prodigious. It lit up every object on the face of the country. It changed shape to oblong, acquired a tail, and seemed to split up into two bodies of small size. About two minutes later came a rumble like an explosion."

Here the possibility of a meteoroid may be suggested. This can easily be discounted, however, by the facts that the object was relatively "stationary" and "oblong" or "roundish" -none of which are indigenous to meteor reports. And meteors are never visible for a duration of nearly "half a minute."

Leaving the researches of Wilkins we find—just prior to the turn of the century—nearly a year of good UFO reports, rival ling the current avalanche of reports, or "flap " as termed by the Air Force.

"In Air Force terminology," defined Edward J. Ruppelt, former USAF director of its official UFO investigatory body—Project Blue Book—in his The Report on {{hws|Unidenti|Unidentified|title=Unidentified}} {{rh/2|Trend Book 145|9}}