Documents:

WE HAVE VISITORS

(Continued from page 7)

a hard-boiled skeptic about the flying saucers and even had written some articles (published by the "Correio Popular") trying to prove that UAOs didn't exist. And he had now before his eyes the best evidence - PHYSICAL PROOF - of the UAO existence. If it was true, of course. But he was no fool. The "substance clearly was some kind of molten metal", and he had to wait for it to cool of. In the meantime, he phoned some friends to come to the place at once; and reported the incident to newspapers and radio stations in the town. Before a number of witnesses, the material was collected and brought to the office of the "Correio Popular". From that place, it was sent to the Young Laboratories (at 584 Francisco Deodoro St.) to be analyzed. One of the chemists told the reported that "the sample had, at naked eye, all the characteristics of TIN (symbol Sn). In a few hours the analyses will give the answers."

The metallic sample was analyzed by the chief chemist, Dr. Visvalde Maffei, before several witnesses. Six hours later, Dr. Maffei released to the press the following report, transcribed verbatim:

"The sample analysed is a combination of chemically pure TIN (Sn) - 88.91 per cent and oxygen (O) - 11.9 per cent as oxide. No other element or impurity of any kind was found in the material in question. In other words, the analysis proved the "substance" to be a metal, which was definitely tin - in high concentration and exceptionally pure; and with no impurities or trace-elements excepting oxygen, which came from the oxidation in contact with the atmosphere.

Observation: The results above refer only to the sample received, which weighed 1.30 Gm."

Next day, in a press conference, Dr. Maffei was asked to explain better the analyses' report, to translate it into non-technical terms. In a strained voice, he made then the following statement:

"The 'substance' analysed had 88.915 of tin, chemically pure tin. The rest was oxygen, derived from the high degree of oxidation of the molten metal in the atmosphere. I can affirm categorically that this is the PUREST TIN EVER FOUND ON EARTH, IN NO PLACE ON OUR PLANET CAN A CONCENTRATION AS HIGH AS THIS - WITH SO PERFECT A PURITY - BE OBTAINED. I would like to stress, on the other side, that tin manufactured for industrial use has only 75 per cent of it - the rest being constituted of other elements, like iron, antimonium, lead, arsenium, etc. Even the purest tin manufactured by special procedures, with a percentage of 99.99 per cent, presents infinitesimal quantities of these elements - which can be detected by the spectroscopic analysis."

In the material analysed, however, the metal is absolutely pure, chemically pure, with a percentage of 100 per cent.

The oxygen can obviously be discarded. It was not in the original material.

To conclude, I consider the material in question as COMPLETELY UNKNOWN TO THIS EARTH... that is, TIN OF THE MOST ABSOLUTE PURITY, IN CONCENTRATION NEVER FOUND UNTIL TODAY."

Dr. Maffei finished this startling statement before a quiet, motionless audience. He was in a state of high tension. The spectators stood silent for a time, some faces worried, some confused and perplexed, a few bewildered. Then a reporter asked for his opinion about the origin of the material. He answered he was so disturbed about the whole incident he could offer no solution to the problem. He did add, however, that metals in so high a state of purity are usually of meteoric origin as it happens with the iron-nickel meteorites. But his hypothesis could be definitely excluded here. A meteorite made of pure tin has never been found till now...

The incident made headlines all over the country. The report and statement transcribed above were published and discussed by Rio's newspapers on December 22-23-24, 1954.

The Air Defence Command, at Rio de Janeiro, sent immediately an emissary to get a sample of the metal at Campinas. He was the RTTE sergeant Nelson Benderiao da Silva. He left a receipt in the office of the "Correio Popular", where the material was deposited. The results of the analysis made by the Air Force, however, were kept secret. An official statement was promised, but never released. I was informed that exhaustive tests performed by AF chemists only confirmed the results obtained by Dr. Maffei. By an ironic coincidence, this information came the same day I read an article about the flying saucers by Major Ruppelt, USAFR, in the magazine "True", with the following statement (p. 134):

... in the seven years there as been no physical evidence of the existence of saucers. The Air Force... has seen no "hardware" that it cannot explain as being man-made."

(Editor's Note: An analysis made of the material in the United States by Prof. Meltz of Defiance College, Defiance, Ohio, also confirms the analysis of the material made in Brazil by Dr. Maffei. Prof. Nathan Meltz is Chief of the Chemistry Division at Defiance College and is well qualified to conduct such tests. Four tests in all were made: (1) The conventional test, using a silver coin and a strip of tin in a hydrochloric acid solution, (2) the rhodamin test, (3) the pyrogallol test and (4) the potassium iodide and pyradine test. None of these tests showed the slightest trace of antimony, a result that amazes those who know of this incident. The density of this small sample was found to be 10.3, whereas the density of tin as given in published tables is 7.3.

An interesting theory as to the possible use of molten tin is also submitted by Dr. Fontes, and would certainly satisfactorily explain not only the tin being in the saucer in a molten state, but that condition which would possibly be responsible for the expulsion of the same by the UAO.

According to Fontes' theory, the UAO might have been equipped with an atomic reactor which provided the power to drive the airship and the energy to run its engines. Now, assume that no moderating material is used in this reactor to slow down the neutrons, and the latter produce fission (over a highly concentrated fissile material) which still have hundreds of thousands or even millions of electron-volts of kinetic energy. You will have, then, a reactor of an interesting type - the so-called FAST REACTOR. Reactors of this kind could be easily adapted to an airship - if the shielding problem was solved - because they are very much smaller than those which use natural uranium. The core of the Experimental Reactor (a fast reactor?) at Arco, Idaho, for example, is said to be the size of a football. The important point, however, is that fast reactors cannot be cooled by gas at all, since the heat generated is too intense. In the core of the Experimental Breeder Reactor for example, about 4 kilowatt of heat are produced in each cubic inch. This heat can only be removed by using a liquid coolant. The Breeder Reactor uses a molten metal - an alloy of sodium and potassium - which is circulated through the core and is heated up to a maximum temperature of 350 degrees Centigrade. The molten metal has its heat actually transferred outside the reactor to a second, completely separate circuit, which also contains liquid sodium and potassium. The heat removed by this molten metal is used to produce useful power - electric power.

The material dropped from the UAO was a MOLTEN METAL. To be a liquid coolant, it needed to have a low melting point (like sodium and potassium), and had to be in a state of high purity, of course. The material in question fulfilled the two conditions. The analogy is, in Mr. Fontes' opinion, impressing enough to call attention to this theory. He considers it better than any other, because if tin could be a "by-product" commonly discarded by fling saucers, incidents of this kind would have been reported by thousands throughout the world. And it is not so. But a small leak in the coolant system of the kind described above could perfectly produce the phenomenon, in rare instances.)

INCIDENT 4. On August 6, 1954, at 5:00 p.m., a Varig DC-3 took off from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sol, on a scheduled trip to Rio de Janeiro, with no intermediate stops scheduled. At 7:00 p.m. the airliner passed over Florianopolis, Santa Catarina. A few minutes later it was flying over the sea at 2250 meters. It was a pitch black night: a high overcast even cut out the glow from the stars. Suddenly, Commander Nagib Ayub, the pilot, spotted a bright red light glowing at about 500 meters above

(Continued on Page 9)