Cette page en français
The article below was published in the daily newspaper The Circleville Herald, Circleville, Ohio, USA, page 1, on July 9, 1947.
Circleville had the distinction, Wednesday, of being the first city in the nation to have on display two queer six-point foil-covered box-like contraptions which may [illegible text]
Although [illegible] the "flying saucers" [illegible] not been [illegible] Wednesday, and although press dispatches said that 80 weather stations have been sending aloft foil-covered gadgets in connection with weather observations, the mysterious gadgets found on Pickaway county farms presented a possible solution to the "flying saucer" conundrum baffling the nation.
Excitement buzzed throughout the United States early Tuesday night when an alleged "flying disc" was reported found on a ranch in eastern New Mexico. Shortly afterward, however, an Army Air Corps announcement said the find was a contraption whose description tallied closely with the gadgets discovered in Pickaway county and placed on exhibition in the office of The Circleville Herald.
A third similar box-like gadget covered with silver foil was found Tuesday afternoon on a farm near South Bloomfield.
Last Saturday, the news was flashed throughout the nation that the first such contraption had been found on the farm of Sherman Campbell on the Westfall road in Pickaway county eight miles south of Circleville.
The second such find was reported to Sheriff Charles Radcliff Tuesday afternoon by David C. Heffner, who said he discovered it on a line fence on his farm on the old Tarlton road four and one half miles east of Circleville. Mr. Heffner's post office address is Route 1, Stoutsville.
The gadgets found by Mr. Campbell and Mr. Heffner were brought to the Circleville Herald. Each is constructed of a light wood frame. Only a remnant of the thin rubber balloon remained attached to the Campbell find, but the other contraption discovered on the Heffner farm includes most of the remains of the balloon which must have measured more than 15 feet in diameter when it was inflated. That device bears the markings: "ML 387, B-AP. Mfg. By Chase."
Followed in the skies by radar the strange gadgets found near Circleville would have "when whirling in the air" appeared like a "flying saucer".
As to the box-like object reported in New Mexico Tuesday night, identification as a bit of of "meteorological equipment" was made by Warrant Officer Irving Newton, Stetsonville, Wis., an official of the Eighth Army headquarters weather department.
The Fort Worth office said the "disc" was only a bit of equipment used by Army and weather bureau officials.
An amplyfing statement by public relations officer capt. G. F. Haist said:
"Experts have identified the equipment as a box kite or a "rawin high altitude sounding device" used by meteorologists."
The original announcement of the discovery of a so-called "flying disc" came from the Foster ranch near Corona, N.M. An employee on the ranch found the balloon.
An Air Corps public relations officer at Roswell, N.M., Lt. Warren Haught, electrified the country with his report of finding a "disc", but a few hours later the report blew up with the Fort Worth identification.
Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey, commanding general of the Eight Air Force field, had insisted the "disc" evidently was nothing other than a weather or radar instrument of some sort.
For a time officers planned to bring the "disc" to Wright Field, Dayton, O., by plane. Its identification as remnants of a weather balloon cancelled those plans.
