The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: Oct-54-Beuvry-lès-Béthunes.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
On October 6, 1954, an article in the regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard reported that one had discovered that a man from Beuvry-lès-Béthunes was making "flying saucers", in fact mini-hot air balloons, what was later called "Chinese lanterns"; which he regularly dropped into the skies of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais. The discovery had sparked some hilarity in the region.
The man, Victor d'Oliveira, 60, of Portuguese origin, had moved to Beuvry in 1922; but he explained that he had been making these balloons since he was a child in Portugal, and had always continued to do so ever since. He built them in all sizes; from very small to very large, over 6 meters high and 2 meters in diameter.
The man received the journalists from Le Courrier Picard in a small grocery store run by his daughter and in the presence of his wife. He was retired after having worked for many years at the Beuvry power station.
He showed one of his devices to the journalists, but did not let it go because he found the winds unfavorable. The shape was that of a gigantic rugby ball, with a tow made up of old rags soaked in petroleum, which he sets on fire to heat the air and allow the ball to rise.
He then built them with packing paper from the grocery store, advertising papers, and even oil bottles labels glued to each other with methodical care. It took two hours to build a medium-sized balloon, to which should be added the long drying time of the glue.
He explained that before the war, he made them out of silk paper of all colors, and that in Portugal he was asked to build them for local festivals; he hung firecrackers that burst into the air. He expresses his surprise that his activity now caused a fuss, because in the area, everyone was aware of his hobby, and it did no harm.
When the weather was not favorable, he piled his balloons in the hangar where he built them. When everything was going well, he had sometimes dropped two or three of his devices, in the evening, "because that's when their brightness can be best seen."
He had been trying to find out how far his balloons could go, so before the war he added papers with his address and learned that one of his balloons had travelled 17 kilometers. He explained that they reached varying heights depending on the air currents, but often climbed up to 1,000 meters.
Journalists asked him what he thought of the flying saucers; it made him smile and he replied: "Some of them may be simple confusions with my balloons... But anyway, I surely don't make them all..."
He said he released more than 5,000, to which his wife said he was now building exactly the 5,850th.
The man was visibly happy with the publicity; he had received many journalists and photographers who shot him from all angles
The newspaper adds that one had indeed thought to see a "flying saucer" in the sky very close to Sailly; which had amazed three residents before crashing on the ground, where only paper was found "which now awaits another fate on the premises of the Beuvry police station."
Also on October 6, 1954, an article in the regional newspaper Le Nouveau Nord Maritime reported that "some time" ago, mysterious debris were found in a a field near Sailly-Labourse, and one wondered what these debris "of some craft, and appearing to be a hot air balloon" could be. It was made of large papers sheets stuck to the base, and at a "valve", there were remains of burnt tow. The gendarmerie brigades of the region had investigated and discovered that a retired miner of Portuguese nationality, Henri d'Oliveira, manufactured all kinds of craft of different shapes with wooden sticks and paper.
The newspaper said that he allegedly released several thousand of them, of all kinds and of all sizes, and that in his hangar, there was, besides, "a magnificent saucer all ready to be inflated and launched."
From October 5, 1954, on, the French press reported that a 60-year-old retired miner from Beuvry-les-Béthune, known in his commune as a prankster, took advantage of the mystery of the flying saucers to have fun at the expense of the inhabitants of neighboring towns, by manufacturing miniature hot air balloons, like the "Chinese lanterns" well known but still misinterpreted for "UFOs" in France and elsewhere especially between 2005 and 2015.
It is said that his craft, which was three meters in diameter, consisted of sheets of strong gray paper, carefully glued. At the base of this "saucer", he mounted a small receptacle in which rested a tuft of tow soaked in a flammable liquid. It then enough to ignite the tow to see the craft rise and disappear with the winds surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was after the discovery of one of his craft near a haystack to which he had almost put fire, that the gendarmes were led to suspect the pensioner, searched his home and found there many models of his "flying saucers" prototypes that he was preparing to launch in the sky of the Nord region.
The Press claimed that the hoaxer had already built and launched more than a thousand of these machines (which is very doubtful given the amount of paper required); some newspapers would say that the flying saucers in the region were therefore his hot air balloons (but I have spotted so far only two cases in the Nord region that would likely be explained like this).
It is said that he will probably be sentenced to pay a fine for "dangerous amusement."
After being widely reported in the French Press, the case was also very widely published in foreign newspapers.
On October 17, 1954, Radar magazine published an interview with the prankster, Victor Oliviera (probably Oliveira), which allows to know the character better:
"I am not likely to be impressed by the the saucers. Fugure out that I started making them in 1922. I was only 28 years old but I had just read in a history of aeronautics the fascinating adventure of the Montgolfier brothers. These papermakers of the Dauphiné of the XVIIth century, as you know, invented the aerostats. From their experiences I especially remembered this: their oiled paper spheres bore a charcoal stove at the bottom. No doubt, to get the ascensional force, it is necessary to warm up the air contained in the paper envelope. My tests were very satisfying. The ruccus around the saucers made me want to start my little games again. I'm 60 years old, but I'm gay like a pawn. Look at my flying kite. What elegance, isn't it? And it is enough for me to place a flower pot in its lower part and to fill it with inflamed rags, [?] in asbestos, to obtain a speed which is not supersonic, but produces its small effect. But the joke is poorly understood. They want to sue me because, they say, my system is likely to cause fires?"
I found only one photo of one of the flying lanterns of the prnakster, published" changed to "Several photos of the prankster's flying lanterns were published, such as the one published in the newspaper Tintin-Actualités for October 21, 1954:
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[Ref. nmn1:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-MATIN":
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(From our regional editor Fernand VARLET)
[Photo caption:] On the threshold of his garage-arsenal Mr. D'Oliveira comments to our editor on the ascensional technique of his device (Nord-Matin photo)
MODEST neighboring city of Béthune, Beuvry was highlighted, a few days ago, by the birth of a writer-miner who hit the headlines and monopolized the airwaves. A news item, very different from this revelation, having just exploded like a bomb, risks carrying the name of this small town beyond our borders: we discovered in Beuvry a brave Portuguese pensioner who, making balloons and launching them into the sky, brought living water to the mill with flying saucers.
He indulged in this kind of sport for his sole pleasure, like an illuminated balloon maniac, having once, in his distant country, been the neighbor of a pyrotechnician who had opened the secret of his art to him.
Thus, from Beuvry, on evenings when the wind was blowing favorably, paper machines flew away, crisscrossing the sky, taking on the appearance of mysterious saucers!
Last Monday, September 27, around 10 a.m., Mrs. Irma Hennebelle, who lives in rue de Béthune, in Sailly-Labourse, very close to Beuvry, went about her business in the courtyard at her house. The sky of this autumn evening was slowly declining towards the night and, suddenly, high in the clouds, Mrs. Hennebelle saw appear an illuminated machine, blazing red, which seemed to throwing to the earth an
Read more on the last page
under the title:
SAUCERS
[Photo caption:] Test on a reduced model: this miniature saucer seeks to leave its owner for the sky! (Nord-Matin photo).
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indiscreet glance. What would you have done in place of Mrs. Hennebelle? Probably like her: she immediately thought it was a saucer... One talks about them so much these days!
Worried, the housewife called her husband, André, and her daughter, Ghislaine. Then one went to get the uncle, who lives two doors away, Mr. Olivier Dubois. He came with his daughter. Five pairs of eyes then turned towards the dark sky that the curious apparatus pierced with an unusual light.
The saucer - since it had to be called by that name - had the shape of a long cigar flying vertically. It launched red reflections and, as if by transparency inside, one could see the moving shapes of three bizarre shadows.
Mrs. Hennebelle and her family probably thought they were only passing witnesses of an unknown phenomenon. No doubt indeed, the craft was going to continue its route towards the direction of its choice. So go find out more about such a mysterious object that freely moves 300 meters high?
But - oh stupefaction - the luminous craft suddenly lost height and came slowly to the ground, a few meters from the quintet who were watching it.
On the other side of the national road which runs alongside the Hennebelles' house, is a meadow belonging to Mr. Monvoisin, farmer: it is the tender grass of this enclosure that the craft had chosen for its landing.
MM. Hennebelle and Dubois ran across the road and approached the "saucer."
Alas! The whole thing was just a craft made of paper - ordinary wrapping paper - which seemed to have deflated like a balloon. An iron circle formed an orifice at one end and, inside, a tow finished burning.
No mistake, however, this modest object, one meter high, 30 centimeters wide, had a mysterious appearance in the sky!
In the evening, while drinking coffee, one talked about it at length. A few days later, Mr. Hennebelle, worried all the same by this story, went to warn Mr. Raoul Fourgnies, the guard of the commune. The latter told the case to the police station of Beuvry. A peacekeeper was dispatched to return the burlesque remains of a failed saucer to the station.
Its landing could have been dangerous: the tow, as we have said, was consuming itself and the craft had fallen three meters from a haystack. One wondered what would have happened to this haystack if the tow had reserved its last sparks for it?
Rapid deductions and observations made by residents of Beuvry left no doubt: the author of this disturbing farce was none other than a Beuvry resident, Mr. Victor d'Oliveira, Portuguese subject, retired from the electric power plant, living with his daughter, grocer, national road, in Beuvry.
The man did not deny organizing his flights. He welcomed us yesterday with good humor to explain his technique to us. He throws hot air balloons in the air like others raise pigeons or bees! And he said with a smile:
"I've already made thousands of them!"
The shop run by the "manufacturer's" daughter is a stone's throw from the calvary. A small garden succeeds it, itself closed by a garage. It is in this garage and in the attic that overlooks it that Mr. D'Oliveira operates. He led us there, very much regretting that the stubborn rain prevented him from indulging in an experience in front of us in the best conditions. Mr. D'Oliveira has a balloon craze. It dates back a long time. As a teenager he was, in Portugal, a neighbor of a fireworks artist. It was there that he learned to make his machines.
Since then, he has made them in all sizes, from 1.20 m. to 5 meters high. The attic of his garage still reveals a meticulously prepared supply. Mr. D'Oliveira unfolded a huge one in front of us. And you can believe that one easily imagines the impression reserved for the passer-by who sees moving in the sky a thing of such size, shining with all its fires.
Making hot air balloon is a game of patience for Mr. D'Oliveira. He cuts his strips of paper, carefully adjusts them, glues them, then closes his device around a frail iron frame and opens, thanks to a circle, an orifice at one end.
He spends long hours on this delicate task and, passionate about this original kind of sport, admires his achievements with the satisfaction of a job well done.
The craft made, suffice to inflate it and to deliver it to the secrecy of the sky.
For his climbs, Mr. D'Oliveira chooses the evenings when the wind is calm, without whirlpool. So, with the help of his wife, he hung one of the ready-made machines - one day a small one, one day a large one - on a beam in his garage.
Friend readers, you can easily do the same, the operating technique is elementary.
The balloon suspended, Mr. D'Oliveira, very seriously, places under it, just in front of the orifice, a good old democratic flowerpot. He piles up paper there (newspaper paper, please!) And set it on fire in peace. You guessed it: the paper ignites and gives off a smoke which, in the narrow garage, makes your eyes unpleasantly tickle.
This smoke rises, of course, rushes into the paper balloon which, at an extraordinary speed, swells like a weird balloon.
These gestures, Mr. D'Oliveira repeated them so often that it takes him a few seconds to accomplish them. His balloon inflated, he hangs on the inner rods a tow of asbestos more or less large. He soaks it in oil and set it on fire. This slow combustion keeps the air in the balloon at a temperature which makes this gas lighter than air. This is strictly the principle of the hot air balloon.
Such a crafte, provided with rather substantial tows, can, in favorable wind, fly very long, very far and very high.
If Mrs. Hennebelle and her parents saw shadows on the false saucer and could have thought that they were human beings, it is because there were really shadows: those of the stems of the frame, projected by the flaming tow onto the paper.
Mr. D'Oliveira takes particular care in the manufacture of its devices. Sometimes even, he hangs on the opening circle wicks supporting candles!
We guess the disturbing reflection of such a luminous battery strolling at night in the sky. Quite a few people may have believed in the passage of "saucers", especially since these days the Portuguese pensioner has launched some.
A neighbor even told him, being aware of this aerial craze: "People are going to mistake your stuff for saucers!", which made him laugh.
The problem of saucers may not have been solved, however, because Mr. D'Oliveira's machines have certainly never been able to reach Sweden or Spain. But Mr. D'Oliveira's practices undoubtedly explain many of the various appearances in the Nord region.
As we said: the inventor of the system is generous. In recent years, he launched thousands of hot air balloons in the skies of Beuvry. Quite a few must have been found in the surrounding fields that the changing atmospheric circumstances had stopped in their facetious enterprise. But many must have intrigued the earthlings, on the other hand, during their curious ballads.
Mr. D'Oliveira started his work many years ago, under the Portuguese sun. His passion for picturesque fireworks had followed him to France. And in 1939, it almost cost him the worst of mishaps.
In August 1939, he was on vacation in Calais. Some evening, he had released one of his "phenomena" to the wind. The craft, shining with all its lights, followed the coast of the North Sea, taking the direction of an agitated Germany, a few days before the war. At the semaphores, one saw the curious flying "cigar". We weren't talking about modern saucers at the time. The atmosphere was about spying and war secrets. It was supposed that the paper hot air balloon could contain important messages and Mr. D'Oliveira was in trouble for a while because, in Calais, it had been established that he was at the origin of this suspicious ascent.
He quickly managed to justify himself. But the mishap did not stop him and he resumed his experiences again.
It's his hobby. He is neither a musician nor a player. He is a "sauceristicer". A genre like any other. He broods his machines with love after having built them in fever. hehas red, blue, yellow, cream and white ones, in wrapping paper or silk paper. They are almost his children.
It would be a great pity if he were forbidden such a fantasy. However, this is what will happen to him. At the very least, the local police will reward him with a fine.
But Mr. D'Oliveira wonders where the crime is and what it is.
"We have the right, he said, to fly one's dragon. Even if it is in the shape of a balloon built in thousands of copies."
And if we mistake it for a saucer?...
[Ref. ner1:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-ECLAIR":
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Hundreds of locals have seen these strange things
WAS THE mystery of flying saucers, discs and cigars, just been clarified by the discovery made yesterday in Beuvry-les-Béthune of this brave Portuguese man who spent the best of his time making huge balloons in paper for the pleasure of making them go up in space according to the same principle which gave birth to ballooning?
Without doubt the dozens of hot air balloons that he has thus "shipped" in recent times can be counted among those that the inhabitants of our region took for saucers or flying cigars. But they cannot give, it seems, a satisfactory and complete explanation for all the luminous objects which could have been observed in regions other than ours.
Can we say, in fact, that they are everywhere hot air balloons made by the hands of an "earthman".
In any case, a burst of laughter will not fail to resound in the northern region when everyone will read today in their newspaper that some of these saucers or cigars seen by the people of our area, were only vulgar balloons made with great care and art by a Portuguese of Beuvry-les-Béthune.
"I made thousands of them..."
Like many journalists from the Nord and Paris, we ran towards Beuvry when, yesterday morning, the news reached us. In the back of a small grocery store on Route Nationale, we found the friendly and cheerful "responsible" there. He received us with kindness, offering to answer all our questions and willingly agreed to our requests for experiments!
This is Mr. Victor d'Oliveira, 40, former worker at the Beuvry power station. A Portuguese veteran, he participated in the fights of La Couture where each year his compatriots came in number to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of the Lys. After the war he returned to his homeland and returned to France in 1922 to settle in Beuvry.
Cheerful as all Portuguese are of course, he participated in all the local festivals. He excelled in making paper balloons, which he sent out on ducasses or on the feast day of July 14. Orders poured in.
"I made thousands, he told us and they were never mistaken for saucers... It must be said that one did not talk about saucers at the time. I made them in all sizes, 3 meters and even 6 meters high. One July 14th, I made some superb, blue, white, red, of the most beautiful effect.
In his little "shack" Mr. d'Oliveira shows us a hot air balloon folded like an accordion, almost ready for flight. At our request, he shows us how it works and agrees to inflate it. In a pot of earth, he placed some newspapers which he set on fire and the balloon soon inflated. It quickly took the shape of an oval or a cigar. He stops there his experiments because he did not intend, he told us, to make new ones. There have been enough like that, he says laughing.
At the base of each "saucer" was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft of tow soaked in a flammable liquid. Sufficed to ignite the tow to see the craft rise and disappear with the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections...
Mystery cleared
We still have to say how the joker was discovered.
A few days ago, Mrs. Hennebelle, residing on rue de Béthune, in Sailly-la-Bourse, saw in the sky, at 300 meters high about a luminous craft on the walls of which loomed three shadows. She called her husband and daughter as well as her neighbor who in turn noticed the presence in the sky of this mysterious craft. They followed it a few moments with their eyes when the fireball having gone out, they saw a dark mass fall vertically in a neighboring meadow. The two men rushed towards the spot of the fall and saw that it was a huge paper balloon containing inside a bundle of three wires to which hung a tow made of rags.
The country keeper was notified and the Beuvry police station informed. There was only one man in the region specialized in hot air balloons, it was Victor d'Oliveira. He will certainly be prosecuted for... dangerous amusements.
J. P.
[Ref. nmn2:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-MATIN":
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Our readers wer able to learn about the exploits of Mr. D'Oliveira, manufacturer of (fake) flying saucer. Here's our man experimenting with a smile.
Above: He shows a reduced model, in white tissue paper. - Below: He runs down a street to deliver a miniature saucer to heaven.
(Nord-Matin Photos).
[Ref. cpd1:] NEWSPAPER "LE COURRIER PICARD":
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LILLE, October 5. -- The discovery, in Beuvry-les-Béthune, of a manufacturer of hot air balloons that were regularly dropped in the skies of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, triggered a certain hilarity in the region. The author of this good prank, Victor d'Oliveira, is 60 years old. Of Portuguese origin, he settled in the Pas-de-Calais, in Beuvry, in 1922, and created his home there.
It was in a small grocery store run by his daughter that the balloon lover received us in the presence of his wife. In retirement after having worked for many years at the Beuvry power station, the Portuguese is having a happy time.
"I learned to build balloons when I was very young in Portugal, and since then I always continued to do so. I like to see them rise in the sky in the evening. I built them in all sizes, from very small to very large over 6 meters high and 2 meters in diameter."
And the inventor shows us one of them; which he inflates to make us happy, but without letting it go, because the winds, he says, are unfavorable today. It is a large oval, comparable to a gigantic rugby ball, inside which to heat the air and allow the ball to rise, Mr. d'Oliveira places, held by two light wires, a tow made of old rags and sometimes asbestos soaked in petroleum, which he sets on fire.
Continued on the second page under the title:
MANUFACTURER OF FLYING SAUCERS
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(Continuation of the 1st page)
"Before the war," he continues, "I found silk papers of all colors and I made very beautiful ones. For local festivals, I was asked to build them and I hung firecrackers on them that burst into the air. I don't understand why people are surprised today by my activity, because here, everyone is aware of it and it doesn't hurt anyone."
The material used for construction is very simple. Wrapping paper from the grocery store, advertising papers, and even labels for oil bottles stuck together with methodical care.
It takes more than two hours to build medium-sized balloons, to which should be added the long wait necessary for the glue to dry. When the weather is not nice or the winds are unfavorable (because Mr. d'Oliveira is a perfect aeronaut, as he practiced this curious sport for long), the balloons pile up in the hangar where he builds them. When everything is going well, he sometimes drops two or three of these apparatuses in the same day, preferably in the evening, "because that's when we can best see their brightness", he adds, with the utmost seriousness.
"I sometimes tried to know how far the objects of my making were going. For that I put papers with my address, and I thus learned, before the war, that one of my balloons had travelled 17 kilometers. In the sky, they reach varying heights depending on the air currents, but it is common for them to climb 1,000 meters and go much further."
As he is asked what he thinks of flying saucers, a broad smile blossoms on his face happy with his creations and he just answers: "Some are perhaps simple confusions with my balloons... But anyway, I certainly don't make them all..."
As for the number of devices manufactured, Mr. d'Oliveira says that more than 5,000 would have been dropped by him, to which his wife adds: "It is exactly the 5.850th that he just manufactured. Details, we care about order."
This unexpected advertisement does not do little to the curious manufacturer, who receives with good grace many journalists and photographers who shoot him on all angles: "If I had known that I would have so many visits, he is satisfied to say, I would have gone to spend the day somewhere else."
But we do know, however, that man is happy to see many people interested in his little craze. And as we leave him, he smiles again, thinking of the "flying saucer" which, in the sky very close to Sailly, amazed three inhabitants before crashing on the ground, where only paper was found; which is now waiting another fate on the premises of the Beuvry police station.
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However, in Le Havre, Mr. André Lefeuvre, taxi driver, who parked yesterday evening around 8 p.m. on the port, saw an incandescent disc which, west of Deauville, rose in the sky, leaving behind it a phosphorescent trail and a slight smoke. This phenomenon, which was visible for ten minutes, was also witnessed by several sailors returning to their boat.
Mr. and Mme Teyssier, from Saint-Etienne, who were camping in Aurec-sur-Loire (Haute-Loire), saw, in the sky, a luminous object giving the impression of a large headlight moving at high speed, at about 2,000 meters above sea level.
The craft emitted a red-orange light beam and followed a North-South trajectory.
When it had disappeared, a second craft, similar to the first one and seeming to follow it, appeared, followed the same direction and also disappeared.
Around the same time, several people saw, above the Aurec steeple, similar craft which, after having stopped for a moment, crossed the sky, at high speed, towards the south West.
Sunday evening, around 11:15 p.m., on the road to Montmoreau-Villebois-Lavalette (Charente), Mr. Jean Allary, 22, saw very clearly in the light of the headlight of his moped, a kind of barrel, about 1 m. 80 high, studded with golden nails, swaying on the side of the road. When Mr. Allary had passed the mysterious craft, he looked back at about ten meters away, but saw nothing anymore.
Witnesses saw, yesterday afternoon, at the very place indicated by Mr. Allary, traces of about seven meters in length, in the grass which borders the road.
Several people said they saw in the region of Epinac-les-Mines (Saône-et-Loire), a kind of big luminous ball moving slowly, in a strange manner, in the sky.
A similar phenomenon was observed in the Ain and in the north of the Rhône department, towards the Echarmaux pass, as well as in the Isère, near Morestel.
[Ref. vdn1:] NEWSPAPER "LA VOIX DU NORD":
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(From our special envoy Jean HAUTEFEUILLE)
With anxiety, we scan the sky.
If it continues to rain like this on the garden of Mr. Victor d'Oliveira we will not be able to send away the "flying saucer". We are more precisely at the home of Mr. d'Oliveira's daughter in Beuvry-lez-Béthune, sheltered in a shed where Victor d'Oliveira, a happy retired mine worker, spends a lot of time and pleasure making curious machines also known as "Montgolfier."
But well, while waiting for the rain to stop, would Mr. d'Oliveira introduce us to the secrets of his activity?
- "It's very simple. I take large sheets of light paper, like tissue paper. I cut them in the shape of a diamond, I stick them in such a way that they can have, when swollen, the shape of a balloon. Here is one of these hot air balloons. It is three feet tall, but you know, I've made some that were six to seven meters high. Anyway, this one is ready. I'm hanging it on a beam, like this, by a piece of wire and I install below, an earthenware flowers pot in which I burn pieces of paper.
The hot air enters my paper bag through the hole I reserved and here is my inflated balloon. But, for it to fly away, it is necessary to renew the supply of hot air. So I combined an asbestos torch that I can hang in the opening of the balloon. I soak it in petroleum, I set it on fire and presto! As long as the torch is burning the balloon remains in the air."
- "How long have you been enjoying this little game?"
- "Since my youth, Sir, that I spent in Portugal. I then helped a fireworks man who made a lot of fireworks for the festivals. I always continued for my personal pleasure. I made thousands of them. Before the war, in Beuvry, the departure of my balloon was even part of the festivities of July 14. Especially in the evening, it's very pretty. The effect of updrafts it can suddenly rise vertically.
- "It never goes very far. Five or six kilometers, as far as Sailly-Labourse for example, it's a nice average. One day anyway, on July 14 precisely, we put a postcard in the envelope (of the balloon). It came back to us from Isbergues, which is 16 kilometers. This is the record."
- "But, isn't this hearth you are sending up in the air dangerous?
- "Not at all. Either there is wind and the paper burns in my hands, just when taking off, or else there is none and it rises. When it falls the fuel supply has run out. The fire is dead."
As it is no longer raining, we insist on witnessing the flight of Mr. d'Oliveira's "saucer."
- "It is too windy, it will not take off. To please you, I will try."
Mr. Oliveira knows his stuff well. The "saucer" did take off before our eyes, but almost immediately a gust of wind set fire to the paper. It has only flown about twenty meters.!
However, Mr. d'Oliveira is the source of strong emotions in the region of Bethune. A few days ago, a mysterious "flying saucer" was seen at Sailly-Labourse. An equally mysterious envelope - marked by fire - was found near a haystack. Mr. Fougnies, country guard, informed the police who retrieved the debris from Mr. Monvoisin's meadow.
Mr. d'Oliveira has perfectly recognized his work.
But no one takes this fun tragically. We believe the retiree when he assures that there is no danger and it is even very possible that we one will ot hold against him the only admissible offense: making a fire within 100 meters of a house.
Perhaps even, we should be grateful to him to finally bring a clear, simple and scientific explanation to the presence in our sky of curious craft.
Because there is no doubt that Mr. d'Oliveira is not the only one who knows the secret of making paper hot air balloons.
Two months ago, for example, in Essars, a "flying saucer rally" was organized. On the occasion of the ducasse, the mayor himself set fire to the wick. The first to arrive at the drop-off point earned 500 fr.
Perhaps one could simply wonder if Mr. d'Oliveira has not taken advantage of the strange rumours of the times to redouble activity?
We don't even believe it. Because this man, who plays flying saucers like others make rock collections, very sincerely confesses: "I do not choose by the days. I choose the weather."
That's right, during the last experience, he had answered the call of weather.
And sighing:
- "It's so beautiful. Sometimes it rises so high that you lose sight of it. And in the evening, with very thin and colored paper, it makes a ball of fire that takes on splendid nuances."
Well, well...
[Ref. nll1:] NEWSPAPER "NORD LITTORAL":
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Lille, October 5. -- A retired miner from Beuvry-les-Béthune, known in his commune as a joker, did not miss the opportunity offered to him by the mystery of flying saucers, to have fun at the expense of the inhabitants of neighboring localities.
Inspired by the hot air balloon system, the happy retiree made machines that reached three meters in diameter. The envelope consisted of sheets of strong gray paper, carefully glued. At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft of tow soaked in a flammable liquid. It was enough to ignite the tow to see the machine rise and disappear with the winds surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was following the discovery near a haystack to which one of these machines had almost set fire that the gendarmes were led to suspect the pensioner.
At his home were discovered many models of "flying saucers", prototypes that their inventor was preparing to launch in the northern sky.
The hoaxer claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these devices. The former miner will no doubt be sentenced to fines for dangerous amusement.
[Ref. nnm1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU NORD MARITIME":
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A while ago mysterious debris were found in a field near Sailly-Labourse. One wondered what this debris from some craft could be, and appearing to be a hot air balloon. One found large paper sheets stuck to the base. At the valve there were remains of burnt tow. The gendarmerie brigades of the region investigated and discovered that it is a retired minor, of Portuguese nationality, Henri d'Oliveira, who manufactured all kinds of gear of different shapes with wooden sticks and paper.
He would have released several thousand of them, of all kinds and of all sizes.
In his hangar there was also a magnificent saucer ready to be inflated and ready to go.
Boulogne-sur-Mer, 5. - Mr. Marcel Thiébaut, engineer, residing at 74, rue Emile Lemaître in Boulogne, told the representative of our colleague, the "Journal" of Boulogne:
It was around 8:30 p.m. Sunday evening, when returning by car to Boulogne, I saw in the distance on the plateau of Tingry, Two luminous discs, red in color.
"At first I thought it was an optical illusion, and maybe it was a sounding balloon.
"I stopped my car and my family noticed like myself that there were in the sky, at a very approximate height of 700 to 800 meters above the ground, two saucers with very clear and well defined contours.
"They were both on a vertical plane and disappeared from time to time.
"This phenomenon, to which I refuse to give a name, was clearly visible for 30 minutes.
"Besides, other motorists stopped and looked at these luminous vehicles with me."
[Ref. lcx1:] NEWSPAPER "LA CROIX":
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Sunday evening, around 9:30 p.m., in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, a craft with the shape of a pot and spinning was seen in the sky by two people. It gave off a reddish glow and moved quickly.
At the same time, a craft which, this time, had the shape of a crescent, was noticed in the sky, in Liévin. After hovering for a few minutes, the crescent split in two. The upper part remained motionless, while the other landed in a field, between two haystacks. Soon after, it flew away to go reattach the stay-in-air part.
Also on Sunday evening, around 11:15 p.m., on the road to Monmoreau-Villebois-Lavalette (Charente), Mr. Jean Allary, 22, saw very clearly, in the light from the headlight of his moped, a sort of barrel about 1.80 m. high, studded with golden nails, which dangled on the side of the road. When Mr. Allary had passed the mysterious craft, he looked back, at a distance of about 10 meters, but saw nothing.
Between Annoeuillin and Provins, near Lille, around one hundred people saw "flying crescents" in the sky.
A miner from Annoeuillin, Mr. Gaston Lecoeuvre, had alerted the customers of a cafe, telling them that he had just seen a crescent-shaped luminous machine, about 3 meters high, land in his garden. When consumers left the cafe, the "flying croissant" was flying through the sky with two other similar craft.
Soon a hundred people, both in Annoeuillin and in Provins and in the neighboring villages, were gazing at the three objects which only disappeared after twenty-five minutes. The gendarmerie brigades of the region have already collected numerous testimonies.
Saucers, cigars, discs, balls and other "flying" objects were seen in Chancelade (Haute-Vienne), Willer (Haut-Rhin), Gouesnach, near Quimper-Beautignecourt, Ambazac (Haute-Vienne), Dijon, Marcoing, near Cambrai, Pommier (Indre), Rouen, Ajaccio, La Rochelle, Quimper, Cholet, Valves.
A retired miner from Beuvry-lès-Béthune (Pas-de-Calais), known in his town as a joker, did not miss the opportunity offered by the mystery of the flying saucers to have fun at the expense of neighboring localities.
Inspired by the hot-air balloon system, the happy retiree made devices that reached 3 meters in diameter. The envelope was made up of sheets of strong gray paper, carefully glued. At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft of tow soaked in a flammable liquid. It was then enough to ignite the tow to see the machine rise and disappear with the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was following the discovery, near a stack of straw, of one of these devices, which had almost set fire to it, that the gendarmes were led to suspect the pensioner.
One was actually to discover at the latter's many models of "flying saucers" prototypes that their inventor was preparing to launch in the northern sky.
The hoaxer claimed he had already built and launched over a thousand of these devices. The ex-miner will undoubtedly be condemned to tickets for dangerous amusement.
[Ref. ads1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ARDENNAIS":
Saucers, cigars, barrels, discs, pots, crescents and other objects continue their dance in the sky.
It even seems that for a few hours, this luminous carrousel intensified, unless the French, worried about the extent taken for some time in their newspaper by "the saucers chronicle" began to scrutinize feverishly the sky in order to finally see one of the mysterious machines one talks about so much.
Here is a new list of the latest public events of the "Uranids" and their extraordinary nacelles.
LE HAVRE. -- Mr. André Lefèbre, cab driver, who was stationed Monday evening, around 8 p.m., on the harbor, saw an incandescent disk which, west of Deauville, rose in the sky, leaving behind a phosphorescent trail and a slight smoke. This phenomenon, which was visible for ten minutes, was also witnessed by several sailors returning to their boat.
LYON. -- A Lyon journalist claimed to have observed with a binocular, above the St Foy hill, south of the Fourvière basilica, an orange red light disc.
This was followed by other shiny, smaller discs. The phenomenon lasted about 20 minutes.
NANCY. -- Thirty people claimed to have seen a luminous disc of green color descending on the village of Benestroff between Vergaville and Kerprich (Moselle) on Sunday evening.
(Read more on page 5)
(Continued from page 1)
Several witnesses drove by motorcycle to the alleged landing site of the craft, but when they arrived, the craft had resumed altitude and disappeared.
A few hours later, a disc of the same color was observed over the same region. A circular craft had been seen the day before at the same hour.
Saucers, cigars, discs, balls and other "flying" objects were seen at Chancelade (Haute-Vienne), Willer (Haut-Rhin), Gouesnach, near Quimper, Beutignecourt, Ambazac (Haute-Vienne), Dijon, Marcoing near Cambrais, Pommier (Indre), Rouen, Ajaccio, la Rochelle, Quimper, Cholet and Vannes.
LE PUY. -- Mr. and Mrs. Teyssier, of Saint-Etienne, who camped at Aurec-sur-Loire (Haute-Loire), saw in the sky a luminous object giving the impression of a large headlight which moved at a rapid pace at about 2000 meters of altitude.
The craft emitted an orange-red light beam and followed a north-south trajectory. When it had disappeared, a second craft similar to the first and seeming to follow it appeared, followed the same direction and also disappeared.
At about the same time, several people saw similar apparatuses flying over the Aurec steeple which, after stopping for a moment, crossed the sky at a brisk pace towards the southwest.
ANGOULEME. -- Sunday evening, around 11:15 p.m., on the road to Montmoreau - Villebois - Lavalette (Charente), Mr. Jean Allary, 22, saw very clearly, in the light of his moped headlight, a kind of barrel about 1 m 80 high, studded with golden nails, which swayed on the edge of the road.
When Mr. Allary had passed the mysterious craft, he looked back, at a distance of about 10 meters, but saw nothing.
Witnesses saw Monday afternoon at the exact spot indicated by Mr. Allary, traces of about seven meters in length in the grass that borders the road.
LYON. -- Several people reported seeing a kind of large luminous ball in the Epinac-les-Mines (Saône-et-Loire) region moving in a weird way in the sky.
A similar phenomenon has been observed in the Ain and in the north of the Rhône department, at the Col des Echarmaux, as well as in the Isère, near Morestel.
Should the witnesses who reported all these things be held to be sincere? It is hard to say. But in general, let us welcome their statements with a lot of reservations. Many mystifications have already been discovered, mystifications that will also cause some trouble to their authors. One does not joke with the saucers with impunity.
LILLE. -- A retired miner from Beuvry-les-Bethune, known in his community as a joker, did not miss the opportunity offered to him by flying saucers, for to have fun at the expense of people in nearby communities.
Inspired by the hot-air balloon system, the happy retiree made craft that was three meters in diameter. The envelope was made up of sheets of gray paper that had been carefully glued. At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft if rags soaked in a flammable liquid. It was enough then to ignite the tow to see the craft rise and disappear with the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was the discovery near a straw stack to which one of these machines had almost set fire, that the gendarmes were brought to suspect the retiree. One also found many models of "flying saucers" prototypes that their inventor was preparing to launch in the northern sky.
The hoaxer claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these machines. The ex-miner will probably be sentenced to a fine for dangerous amusement.
Melun. -- Roadmenders who worked along the Coulommiers-Meaux road, said they had noticed, several days ago, around 5 p.m., in a field not far from the aerodrome of Voisins, Maisoncelles commune, a flying saucer resting on three crutches.
One of them, Mr. Goujon, even said that 150 meters from the machine, he had been paralyzed by an electric beam while the saucer rose slowly in the sky to disappear. The roadmender, who had provided the journalists with all the details, had also shown to various witnesses the traces left by the crutches of the saucer.
The Coulommiers gendarmerie decided to question the witnesses. Many retreated immediately stating that they had bad eyesight, that they were not very sure of what they had seen, or even that they had not seen anything at all. But the principal concerned, Mr. Goujon, remained very firm in his statements.
So the gendarmes took him there, in the presence of several Parisian scientific personalities. The holes left by the saucer were photographed; they had been dug out by the hand of the roadmender, whose fingerprints the earth had kept.
The roadmender admitted to having made up this strange story from scratch. He was brought before the judge of Coulommiers.
[Ref. dmi1:] NEWSPAPER "LA DEPECHE DU MIDI":
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Lille. -- A retired miner from Beuvry-les-Bethune, known in his commune as a jester, did not miss the opportunity offered to him by the mystery of the flying saucers to amuse himself at the expense of the inhabitants of the neighboring localities.
Inspired by the system of the hot-air balloon, the happy retired man made machines that reached three meters in diameter. The envelope was made of sheets of strong gray paper, carefully glued. At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which was placed a tuft of tow impregnated with a flammable liquid. It was then enough to ignite the tow to see the machine rise and disappear at the whim of the winds surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was as a result of the discovery near a hay stack to which one of these machines had almost set fire that the gendarmes were led to suspect the retired man.
In fact, many models of "flying saucers" prototype were found at the latter's home, that their inventor was preparing to launch into the sky of the Nord.
The mystifier claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these devices.
The miner will no doubt be sentenced to fines for dangerous amusement.
[Ref. prs1:] UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER FOR OCTOBER 6, 1954:
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Lille, 5 October. - A retired mine worker of Beuvry-les-Bethune, known in his commune as a prankster, did not miss the opportunity offered to him by the mystery of the flying saucers to amuse himself at the expense of the inhabitants of the neighboring localities.
Inspired by the hot air balloon system, the happy retired man built machines that were three meters in diameter. The envelope consisted of sheets of gray paper, strongly glued together. At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which lay a tuft of tow impregnated with a flammable liquid. It was then enough to ignite the tow to see the machine rise and disappear at the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was after the discovery of one of these devices near a stack of straw, to which it had almost set fire, that the gendarmes were led to suspect the retired man. In fact, there were many models of "flying saucers" at his place, prototypes that their inventor was preparing to launch in the sky of the Nord.
The mystifier claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these devices. The ex-mine worker will no doubt be sentenced to fines for dangerous amusement.
Le Havre. -- Mr. André Lefèvre, a taxi driver, who was parked yesterday evening at 8 p.m. on the harbor, saw an incandescent disk which rose to the west of Deauville, leaving behind a phosphorescent trail and a slight smoke. This phenomenon, which was visible for ten minutes, was also witnessed by several sailors returning to their boat.
The Puy. -- Mr. and Mrs. Teyssier, of Saint-Etienne, who camped at Aurec-sur-Loire (Haute-Loire), saw in the sky a luminous object giving the impression of a large headlight moving at a rapid pace at about 2000 meters altitude. The craft emitted an orange-reddish light beam and followed a north-south trajectory. When it had disappeared, a second apparatus, similar to the first, appeared to follow it, in the same direction, and disappeared in its turn.
At about the same time, several persons saw above the bell-tower of Aurec similar machines which, after being immobilized for a moment, crossed the sky at a rapid pace towards the south-west.
Lens. -- Sunday evening, around 9:30 p.m., in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, a machine that had the shape of a pot and which rotated on itself was seen in the sky by two people. It emitted a reddish glow and moved quickly.
At the same time, a craft which, this time, had the shape of a crescent, was seen in the sky of Liévin. After hovering for a few minutes, the crescent split in two. The upper part then remained motionless, while the other landed in a field between two haystacks, from which it took off shortly afterwards to join the part that was in the air.
Angoulême. -- Sunday evening, around 9:15 p.m., on the road from Montmoreau to Villebois-Lavallette (the Charente), Mr. Jean Allary, 22, saw very clearly, in the light of his moped's headlight, a sort of barrel high of about 1.50 meters, studded with gilded nails, which swayed on the side of the road. When Mr. Allary had passed the mysterious machine, he looked back, at a distance of about ten yards, but he saw nothing.
Witnesses saw, yesterday afternoon, at the very place indicated by Mr. Allary, traces about seven meters long in the grass that borders the road.
Autun. -- Several people said they saw in the region of Epinac-les-Mines (the Saône-et-Loire), a kind of large luminous ball moving slowly in a bizarre manner in the sky.
A similar phenomenon has been observed in the Ain and in the north of the Rhone department, towards the Col des Echarmaux, as well as in the Isère, near Morestel.
Nevers. -- In Chateau-Chinon, five persons whose sincerity could not be doubted, saw a phenomenon which occurred several times before their more astonished than frightened eyes.
At 9 o'clock a luminous spot of oval shape, seemingly motionless at a very high altitude, appeared in the sky. At one point the spot began to rotate at full speed, changing color several times. Then all went out, but after a few minutes the luminous spot reappeared, split again, and began to rotate.
[Ref. jpc1:] NEWSPAPER "LE JOURNAL DU PAS-DE-CALAIS ET DE LA SOMME":
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Lille, 5. -- A retired miner, from Beuvry-les-Béthune, known in his commune as a joker, did not miss the opportunity offered to him by the mystery of the flying saucers, to have fun at the expense of the inhabitants of neighboring localities.
Inspired by the hot air balloon system, the happy retiree manufactured devices that reached three meters in diameter. The envelope consisted of sheets of strong gray paper, carefully glued.
At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft of tow soaked in a flammable liquid. It was enough to ignite the tow to see the apparatus rise and disappear with the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was after the discovery, near a straw bale to which 7 of these devices had
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
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(Continued from the first page)
almost set fire, that the gendarmes were led to suspect the pensioner.
It was dicovered at his home many models of "flying saucers" prototypes that their inventor was preparing to launch in the Nord sky.
The hoaxer claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these devices. The former miner will no doubt be sentenced to tickets for dangerous amusement.
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
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Lille, October 5. -- A retired miner, of Beuvry-les-Béthune, known as a prankster, did not miss the opportunity the flying saucers offered to him, to have fun at the expense of the residents of the nearby localities.
Inspired by the Montgolfier principle, the merry pensioner manufactured machines three meters in diameter. The envelope was made of strong gray paper sheets, carefully glued. At the base of the "saucer", there was a small receptacle in which a tuft of packing soaked with a flammable liquid rested. It was then enough to ignite the packing to see the machine rise and disappear with the liking to the winds, surrounded by yellowish and oranges reflections.
It is after the discovery, close to a haystack in which one of these machines had almost set fire, that the gendarmes were brought to suspect the pensioner. In addition, many models of "flying saucers" were found at his home, prototypes which the inventor was getting ready to launch in the sky of the Nord.
The mystifier claims that he already built and launched more than one thousand of these machines, but as he is a prankster he perhaps brags. As for his "saucers", they of course follow the direction and the speed of the wind and they thus cannot compare with the usual machines which move at high speed in all the directions, stop short, etc...
Anyway, the prankster will be sentenced for dangerous fun.
[Ref. lib1:] NEWSPAPER "LIBERTE":
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(See our information, on page 6).
Could the secret of the flying saucers be in Beuvry? The story we tell, on page 6 suggests this and its hero, Mr. D'Oliveira, retired miner, known as a joker in the town, has just lifted a veil of the mystery that has surrounded for some time the "flying objects." Rest assured, Mr. D'Oliveira is not an astrologer; the famous saucer seen in recent days, in the northern sky, was simply made by him...
A joker, that is!
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From our private correspondent: Georges CARPENTIER
Would the mystery of saucers, cigars, discs, pots, croissants, barrels... phew!... and other flying objects be clarified? This is a very annoying little story for journalists in need of sensation on off-peak days.
Just yesterday, an impressive quantity of dispatches made mention of a surprising appearance in the skies of France, all the more mysterious since no one had yet been able to detect its origin.
24 hours ago, a journalist from Lyon claimed to have observed using binoculars, above the hill of Sainte-Foix, south of the basilica of Fourvière, (admire the precision) a bright, red disc orange. This, he said, was followed by other, smaller brilliant discs.
Our region also had its saucers. Why not? Who does not remember the excitement caused in the Valenciennes region Reims, barely a month ago and expertly exploited by a regional weekly. And the waltz of the saucers and its congeners would have continued six ... here begins our story.
A few days ago a brave woman from Beuvry (near Béthune) Mrs. Hennebelle, was going about her household chores, when a strange object crisscrossing the sky caught her eye. Calling her daughter Ghislaine, the two women observed with amazement the extraordinary craft, which had neither the shape of a cigar nor of a saucer, moving at some 300 meters in height get down suddenly in the middle of a field. Guided by a strange light and after a frantic race, the witnesses arrived just in time to extinguish the start of a fire that a trunk of straw had indeed involuntarily caused.
The mysterious flying object was just a balloon, for now, miserably deflated.
The envelope consisted of sheets of dark gray paper, carefully glued. At the base of the saucer was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft soaked in a flammable liquid. It was enough to ignite the tuft to see the craft rise and disappear with the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections. We had to learn it later, the inventor of these prototypes was inspired by the hot air balloon system.
Because immediately alerted, the gendarmerie helped by Raoul Foulquier, municipal guard, began an investigation not very easy from the start. To the great disarray of the constabulary... and specialized journalists, the delinquent, the maker of flying saucers was found. The latter one, a good brave man, retired miner, known in the commune as a cheerful joker did not have any difficulty to confess.
Because Mr. D'Oliveira, a Portuguese national, living with his daughter, has a mania, a passion... he loves making balloons...
Already in his native country, a few decades ago, Mr. D'Oliveira delighted his fellow citizens by organizing spectacular releases in the village square. In France his commune employed him at the festivities, this is how in 1939, he experienced his first adventure.
On vacation in Calais, his hobby took on again and he launched, on a beautiful summer night, a magnificent balloon. It took height and went straight over Germany. It was a few days before the declaration of war. spotted, this first saucer triggered the judicial system. The case was not followed up.
Such is Mr. D'Oliveira, a cheerful, very nice guy who, smiling, did launch into the northern sky, more than a thousand of these machines. It would even appear that he would be tempted very soon by the Martians... Thus, the mystery would be completely cleared up.
But like any farce it has its bad side, Mr. D'Oliveira will no doubt be fined for dangerous amusement. It was worth the trouble.
[Ref. tbs1:] NEWSPAPER "THE BALTIMORE SUN":
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Lille, France, Oct. 5 (Reuter). Now to make a "flying saucer," you take some strong gray paper and fashion it on the fire-balloon principle.
Then you light some kerosene-soaked rags, and the warm air lifts the burning "saucers" off into the winds. That's how you get the orange and yellow lights.
That, at least, is the way a retired miner of Beuvry-les-Bethune village did it, police said tonight. And that may account for at least some of the hundreds of "flying saucers" reported in the sky here recently.
They said the miner, whose name was not disclosed, claimed he made over 1,000 of these "saucers" as a joke. Police found him out after one of his gadgets landed near a haystack and nearly set it on fire.
But the "saucer sightings" go on in France - and not only around Lille.
Several Parisians reported seeing a "flying saucer" over the capital today.
A traveling salesman, Pierre Allouis, who saw it from a taxi, said it was a big silverish disk which made a loud whistling noise.
Painter Gibert Bacon said he saw the same "saucer" but described it as triangular shaped, like a flying wing.
[Ref. bre1:] NEWSPAPER "LA BOURGOGNE REPUBLICAINE":
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Lille, 5 (A.F.P.). - A retired miner, from Beuvry-les-Béthune, known in his town as a joker, did not miss the opportunity, offered to him by the mystery of the flying saucers, to have fun at the expense of the inhabitants of the neighboring localities.
Inspired by the hot-air balloon system, the happy retiree made devices that reached three meters in diameter. The envelope was made up of sheets of strong gray paper, carefully glued. At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft of tow soaked in a flammable liquid. It was then sufficient to ignite the tow to see the machine rise and disappear with the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was following the discovery, near a stack of straw to which one of these devices had almost set fire, that the gendarmes were led to suspect the pensioner. One was to discover at the latter's, many models of "flying saucers", prototypes that their inventor was preparing to launch into the sky of the Nord.
The hoaxer claimed he had already built and launched over a thousand of these devices. The ex-miner will undoubtedly be condemned to fines for dangerous amusement.
[Ref. lcd1:] NEWSPAPER "LA CROIX DU NORD":
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The unfortunate combination of circumstances which had until now deprived journalists of hanging, them too, "their" saucer or "their" cigar in the register of various facts and personal memories have just been swept away by the wind. I saw a flying cigar which, at night, shows the famous red glow... I felt it from every angle and even participated in the launch of one of these craft that some claim to be coming from another planet. This is neither a crazy story, nor even a debauchery of the imagination after reading some anticipatuin novel. There is no need to pinch yourself to be convinced of the reality of the thing. The clarity of the evidence would have struck the most skeptical minds and those most reluctant to the hypothesis of an exploration of the earth by some space travelers.
It is a long, a very long story whose starting point is in Portugal at the beginning of this century. H.C. [sic, G.] Wells, the author of "The War of the Worlds" did not yet have the slightest awareness of his advance on the Future... In fact of flying machines, Clément Ader and the Wright brothers were only trying to give practical application to the theories of "heavier than air"...
In a small Portuguese village, when the light wind coming from the sea subsided, a young boy, Victor Oliveira, made "hot air balloons" which he then inflated with hot air... The well-known principle of the lighter than the air made fly these graceful envelopes, which drifted according to the whims of the wind.
Arrived in France shortly before the 1914 war, Mr. Oliveira bravely fought and took part in the battle of La Couture. After a short stay in Portugal, he settled in 1922, in Beuvry-les-Béthune. Until his retirement last December, he held the post of burner operator at the Beuvry Power Station.
However, the favorite pastime of his younger years did not suffer from the well-known phenomenon of disaffection that stamp collections suffer, for example, in adolescence. Married, surrounded
Read more on the last page, under the title: "CIGARS"
Mr. Antoine Bonte, I.D.N. engineer, professor of applied geology at the Faculty of Sciences of Lille, kindly provided us with a scientific explanation of the phenomenon observed by dozens of people on Sunday evening in our region. He writes to us: "I was impatiently awaiting this morning's newspaper and I took great pleasure in reading the accounts of your correspondents, because on Sunday evening I also saw the 'flying saucer'."
"The descriptions given of it agree in every way with my personal observations. I only disagree with their interpretation because, in this case, it was simply a moonset.
"Sunday, at nightfall, the moon shone on a clear day first in the form of a crescent. Later it disappeared into the hazy area above the horizon, only to reappear for a few moments, reddish is distorted - which is normal at this height - and crossed out with a line when passing behind a stratus. Finally, it faded definitively when entering again in the clouds.
"So, in this particular case, it is quite a trivial phenomenon that our fathers would not have even paid attention to.
"Moreover, in most of the other cases, it is about analogous phenomena as I could note it several times. The psychosis of the flying saucers is a phenomenon of collective hallucination which responds to a natural need for the marvelous maintained by a large-run press and fed by a whole category of illustrations for children or... adults. The descriptions of the so-called Martians are so close to Tintin-style spacesuits that we cannot stop smiling.
Continued on last page,
in the sixth column, under the title
"SAUCERS"
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"If the Martians - assuming they existed - were really to visit us, do you think they would have exactly our physical looks, that they would use devices and clothing similar to those designed by our engineers or who only saw the light of day in the overflowing imagination of the authors of anticipation novels: do you believe above all that the nature and the degree of their scientific evolution can be analogous to ours. improbabilities!
"Happy journalists who haven't seen your flying saucer! Take comfort in thinking that, for serious readers, this is a guarantee of honesty and objectivity. But do more, by welcoming only with undisguised skepticism the testimonies of correspondents whom-we-can-be-trusted, in good faith or who prefer to remain anonymous. It is even your duty to fight against this weakening of critical thinking which characterizes our era of culture, universal, but far too superficial."
In a study that he was kind enough to share with us, Mr. Bonte also examines several cases of celestial phenomena reported in recent years and gives an explanation for each of which we will appreciate the strength. He demonstrates that the majority of alleged flying saucers are natural phenomena that occur at high altitude. He observed and photographed in particular, in the region of Lons-le-Saulnier, "a luminous trail that was red orange and stood out clearly against the dark background of the sky. This trail came from a dot which moved slowly from the south to the south - north in the western part of the sky of Lons-le-Saulnier.
"Witnesses of this display would have gladly seen in this meteor a manifestation of a flying saucer; they unhesitatingly rallied to my explanation.
"This was the wake of a jet plane moving at great altitude and at great distance, hence the apparent slowness of the luminous trail and the lack of the characteristic roar. The red in the wake was simply due to the altitude of the aircraft which was still lit by the sun, although it had been set down for a long time. Everyone saw stratus clouds colored in red above the horizon after the disappearance of the sun, which obviously corresponds to the same phenomenon."
"... There are also other phenomena which, unknown to the uninitiated or even to specialists, have credited the legend of the flying saucers... The Director of the Algiers meteorological station has revealed that the alleged saucers observed in this region were none other than sounding balloons equipped with a luminous device; the currents prevailing in the upper atmosphere made these devices move in an apparently disconcerting manner.
"The illumination of clouds by powerful light sources can also give rise to bewildering maneuvers of shiny objects. The intersection of the light beam with the surface of a cloud can give images of all shapes from the circle up to more or less elongated ellipses, the images being able to be uniformly bright or, on the contrary, dark in the center, and brightly lit at the edges. This phenomenon could explain the extraordinary speed of certain "saucers" and their instantaneous changes of direction, characteristics reported by some observers.
"Recently, an American physicist, Mr. W, Scott, demonstrated that it was possible to artificially produce meteors similar to flying saucers in the laboratory, as spheres surrounded by shiny rings. This is not unlike the rings that occur when puffs of smoke are passed through a circular hole, and all smokers have had fun "making circles" with their mouths. Atomic experiments may not be unrelated to the formation of previously unknown meteors.
"Scott's experiment has been criticized by Professor G. Ray Watt, of the Carnégie [sic, Carnegy] Institute in Washington, who claims that the conditions necessary for the formation of these rings do not exist in upper atmosphere. Meteorology is, however, a very young science to authorize such assertions: the normal atmosphere is already not so well known, let alone the upper atmosphere.
"The most important argument to demonstrate the inanity of flying saucers is certainly this information which comes to us from America. A formation of flying saucers having been reported in the skies of Washington, Andrews Air Force bases and of Ballingfields are ordered to intercept them at all costs. Courageously, the jets rushed at 1,000 an hour, one can say "in the fog", and cross without suffering the slightest damage, their supposed adversary who was nothing else than kinds of clouds.
"What then to think of certain disturbing testimonies emanating from informed observers such as airplane pilots, professor of scientific institutions, etc.? Let us first recall that the phenomena which occur in the atmosphere are far away to be all known, even from specialists. On the other hand, critical thinking is sometimes lacking even in respectable scientists. Finally for those who know the atmosphere of certain military circles, the mystification is not excluded vis-à-vis of some more naive comrades.
"Meteors have been observed all along, but they weren't given the same attention as today when everyone wants to see their flying saucer. This is a trivial case of collective illusions from which scientific circles themselves are not exempt.
"It is possible, however, that new aircraft sometimes cross the sky. There is no doubt that the Americans and the Russians, each on their side, are seeking to develop new weapons and some of the flying saucers are perhaps a reality. But both sides have an interest in ensuring that their research is ignored by the adversary, hence the flood of contradictory news.
"It is announced, for example, in America, that the flying saucers are a myth; the next day a craft of the same name is discovered in Spitsbergen and its measuring devices bear inscriptions in Russian language. As if by chance, the drop-off point is in an uninhabited region.
"Depending on the circumstances, we feign ignorance or, on the contrary, we boast of an unbeatable superiority. We know too much, to have suffered from it, of the misdeeds of propaganda to be influenced by information that is lacking impartiality. If there really are new aircraft, there will always be enough time to worry about them when they are used, if they are ever used. There is absolutely no need to worry beforehand.
"In conclusion, it can be said that 90%, if not 99%, of the alleged flying saucers are due only to incomplete observations of natural phenomena and are a matter of pure imagination. Some are undoubtedly attributable to meteors of known or new origin. Finally, in a few special cases, they may be new aircraft being tested.
"As for the extraterrestrial origin of the flying saucers, it is not based on anything positive and we could sleep soundly if we had only this apprehension. We have, alas, more to fear from our neighbours than from Martians."
of his children, Mr. Oliveira continued to glue paper and inflate his hot air balloons. Somewhat surprised at first, his neighbors were quick to put this little dangerous distraction into the realm of normal things. Mr. Oliveira? Ah! yes, the one who makes hot air balloons? "Some breed pigeons, assures Mr. Oliveira, others train roosters for fights. I do this..."
Of medium height, mischievous eye behind large-rimmed glasses, tanned complexion, wearing a gray jacket and patched knee-length pants, lively despite his sixties (he looks barely forty) Mr. Oliveira seems completely surprised by this sudden entry into the news. Sometimes he wants to send journalists and photographers to hell and barricade himself in the shed cluttered with paper from packing cases, which serves as his manufacturing workshop.
He lives in fact with his children, Mr. and Mrs. Lenfant, who run a food house, route de Béthune, in Beuvry.
Spread over a few crates, the carcass of one of the machines awaits inflation. Something to inspire the imagination of some people in need of flying saucers and contact - at a distance - with the Martians or other neighbors of our planet, since it now seems accepted that the "evening visitors" can come from another system as that where the Earth continues its eternal gravitation.
The appearance of the hot-air balloon immediately reveals the primary character of a technique that dates back several centuries. The one that will serve as experience and testimony is about three to four meters. It takes the shape of a diamond very swollen in the center and made of simple wrapping paper, thin and resistant. A circular opening, reinforced with a thin wire, serves as a base. Apart from the frame itself, Mr. Oliveira has a tripod of wire which holds a large piece of tow soaked in petroleum, gasoline or oil. The fuel issue is hardly a problem.
Now let's tackle the "launch" part of the balloon. It is kept in the vertical position. Under the opening, Mr. Oliveira has some newspapers in a baste [sic] terracotta pot... We are far from the ramps of V1, V2 and others... Under the action of the hot air, the carcass inflates rapidly and tends to undertake its upward movement. Mr. Oliveira then inflames the gasoline rag, hangs the tripod on the wire which keeps the opening rigid and... the machine begins its course which can be prolonged very far if it encounters favorable winds; which gives it very few jerks. During an experiment made in the morning, the hot air balloon lay down and caught fire about ten meters above the ground.
Spirits beiieving in the probability of flying saucers will smile. Those who claim to have seen one of these craft in their exploration of the earth's crust will shrug their shoulders in a gesture of generous commiseration. The fact remains that, in the dark, the red glow given off by the flaming rag, combined with the reflections which it makes dance on the paper, can abuse the most reasonable. It would also be necessary to possess a critical mind and a very extraordinary amount of modesty not to proclaim oneself the witness of the phenomenon that one automatically assimilates to the "incomprehensible."
Since 1922, Mr. Oliveira has launched nearly 5,800 hot air balloons. No one in the area is moved by it anymore. But outside of this small circle, some people are likely to be troubled and their certainty of not being the victim of a hallucination further strengthens their intransigence. To such an extent that a person from Sailly brought back to the Beuvry police station a hot-air balloon spotted on the inside with drops of oil and blackish marks. Everyone laughs and the carcass, with burnt shreds, does not even constitute evidence.
What begins almost like a fairy tale can end like a fable dear to La Fontaine. How to disentangle the illusion from reality? The difficulties encountered by this concern for accuracy and truth only make the problem more complex. But it also serves as a reassuring argument for those who fear an interplanetary invasion.
We do not believe that we are authorized, because of this personal experience, to settle the debate. Let us only wish that this report inspires more measure and restraint to some people. Flying saucers and cigars get really bulky. There are jokes that should not be prolonged too much beforehand.
[Photo caption:] Mr. OLIVEIRA had a lot of fun reading, in a sensational weekly, a report on flying saucers.
Jean MAERTEN
The region of Saint-Amand-Nivelle would also have had its flying saucer, at least according to the words of young Marcel Sénéchal, 20, living in Saint-Amand at a place called La Pannerie.
It was in the night from Saturday to Sunday, around 1 a.m.
That evening, Marcel Sénéchal had, as usual, spent the evening with his fiancée in Hauterive-Nivelle. He then returned by bicycle to Saint-Amand along the course of the Scarpe.
Arrived at the level of the "Vandeville pasture" he suddenly heard a conversation in an unknown language, which came from his right.
Turning his head quite naturally in this direction he then saw to his great agitation, a luminous mass in the shape of a haystack and two 1.20 meter-tall human in shining garment. A ray of light came out of the mysterious craft.
The frightened young man pedalled away at full speed to return to his home where quite upset he reported these facts to his family and neighbors.
Informed by public rumor, the commissioner of Saint-Amand, Mr. Gravet and two inspectors in charge of the Air Police, attached to the Lesquin aerodrome, went to the scene yesterday and proceeded to research. They could not find any trace.
[Ref. sme1:] "SEMAINE DU MONDE" MAGAZINE:
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THE PORTUGUESE ARE ALL GAY (AND SOMETIMES JOKERS)
Should we hope that the fad of Mr. Victor d'Oliveira, retired, residing at the Calvary of Beuvry-lez-Béthune, will contribute to clarifying the problem of the origin and the identification of the "flying saucers?. One can suppose it, although the multiplication of these appearances, in various spots of the Nord region and throughout France would suggest, in this hypothesis, that the pranksters are still numerous...
Victor d'Oliveira, who is of Portuguese origin, kept a strong taste for making and launching hot air balloons from his childhood. This innocent "fad" which is a bit like the passion of a Dickensian character for kites is well known to the population of Beuvry: on July 14, one had benefited many times to the ingenious talents of Mr. D'Oliveira to elevate the municipal festival by launching an aerostat. No one has ever seen anything wrong with it... Since he returned to Béthune after the war in 1922, our astronaut-amateur declares having launched two or three thousands balloons of various sizes and shapes. Some, which he cut out of old wrapping paper, reached, when deployed, a height of seven to ten meters. He inflated them with hot air, by a fire of newspaper sheets and he hung a "hearth" inside them made up of pieces of asbestos soaked in petroleum which, not being incandescent, limited the risk of fire. He even hung a crown of "candles" on the spherical and a supply of firecrackers that exploded and lit up during the ascent.
- It's really a magical sight, at night, when the weather is fine, he himself says, his eyes shining with pleasure.
It happened that, the other evening, one of Mr. D'Oliveira's hot air balloons landed in a meadow in front of some residents of Sailly. After a few moments of astonishment and cautious reflection, when one was sure that no gnome landed from Mars or Venus was taking possession of the land after having swept it with a petrifying ray, one carefully picked up the machine, of which the rural policeman took possession very properly.
And the flying saucer lands administratively in the offices of the Béthune police station where its inventor is well known.
Should a report be drawn up? Rules and codes were searched. What to hold against Mr. D'Oliveira? Conduct aimed at disturbing public order? Launches of dangerous machinery likely to injure a third party? And why not "obstructing air traffic?"
As the whole thing could result in a fine of 900 francs, one decided to ignore it and Mr. D'Oliveira was sent back to his innocent games.
[Photo captions:]
The rural warden of Beuvry: "the machine, according to the witnesses whose statements I collected, was heading at a slow pace, in the direction of the South-West".
While Mr. D'Oliveira activates the newspaper fire, under the balloon, his wife and sister-in-law unfold the sides of the spherical which will take flight.
A heat source allows the balloon to rise. A hearth, placed inside, maintains the current of hot air and illuminates the spherical.
[Ref. ner2:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-ECLAIR":
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Our readers must have had a lot of fun yesterday reading the pleasant exploits of a retiree of Beuvry, emeritus "saucers" launcher. It can only be an agent of the American F.B.I., responsible for diverting the attention of the populations who would worry about German rearmament (Si non e vero ... the communist press said about the saucers).
What amuses us even more is the enormous publicity he was given. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the most sensational news of the year! Paper hot air balloons! Come to see! Come to see! Increeediible! The saucers? The cigars? It was paper! Hot air!
We said it yesterday: it is therefore difficult to keep balance... Because, for us, a problem on which it is so much discussed, and whose demonstrations go far beyond the boundaries of our region, is not not settled by the jokes of a retiree.
[Ref. nmn3:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-MATIN":
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Around 4 a.m. yesterday morning, M. Pierre Lucas, a baker in Loctudy (Finistère) who was busy fetching water from the bakery courtyard, suddenly saw a machine in the shape of a 2 m saucer overnight. 50 to 3 meters in diameter. He saw an individual about 1 m tall come out of it. 20 who approached him and tapped him on the shoulder, articulating unintelligible words. The worker-baker managed to keep his cool by going back to the bakery where the individual followed him.
In the light Mr. Lucas was able to stare at the visitor: he had an oval face, all covered with hair and eyes the size of a crow's egg. The young man called his boss but, before he had time to come down, the stranger had disappeared as well as the saucer of which no trace was found.
A Concarneau beer merchant stated that he saw in the sky two luminous discs in the shape of round tables extended of a kind of tail. One of the disks was stationary while the other was moving nearby. The two discs disappeared after ten minutes after launching a rocket.
Two saucers were seen on Tuesday around 6:45 p.m. near Clermont-Ferrand, the first, 10 kilometers from Beaumont. The witnesses declared that the object approached them and became less and less brilliant. When it was only 150 meters away, they felt a "curious feeling" and were frozen on the spot. At that time there was a smell of nitro-benzine. As soon as the craft moved away, the discomfort ceased and the "saucer" disappeared.
The other saucer was seen above the Chanturgue hill, near Clermont. It moved vertically and was bright white.
A saucer was also seen in Billom by a group of 30 people.
- Several residents of Saint-Brieuc saw on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, a flying saucer which took the shape of a cigar before disappearing. They were able to observe it for over an hour.
The same phenomenon was observed in Trégueux where a cyclist returned home frightened by what he had seen.
- Several people from Thouare-sur-Vie (Vendée) also saw in the sky a dozen luminous objects having an elongated shape and passing at a very high speed and at high altitude.
Last Monday, around 8:10 p.m. while he was maneuvering the American S8, doctor Leven, in the airlock of the Watier lock in Dunkirk, captain Emmanuel Dubois, 20-year-old, 34 rue Carnot in Mers-les-Bains saw a white glow that ran along the coast, heading from East to West.
Observing this phenomenon for several seconds, he suddenly thought of the flying saucers and called his crew to make them check out what he saw. But when the first sailor arrived, the glow had suddenly disappeared.
Yesterday around 10:15 a.m., while waiting for the bus, 3 residents of Cassel, MM. Guy Ver[?]ghe, 27, Grand-Place, Romain Scheerf, rue de Lille and Guy M[?] rue Constant Moncelay, saw a reddish disc in the shape of a saucer which moved a few hundred meters above their heads.
After observing the phenomenon for a good minute, they saw it suddenly disappear on the horizon.
In the evening of Sunday an orange "disc" moving at near ground level was seen and observed at length by several residents of Boves and Demuin near Amiens. The statements of these individuals, collected separately, are absolutely consistent. The "orange disc" followed almost at ground level, a west-east direction.
Another testimony confirms the presence of this saucer in the Picardy sky. It is a baker from Moreuil, this time, who reports it. Mr. and Mrs. Dedier, indeed returned from Moreuil, with their children Mr. and Mrs. Quenneben, when, around 9:15 p.m., between Foucaucourt and Estrées, they saw the luminous object.
Same description as that given by previous witnesses, same observations on the direction of travel.
But the most astonishing tale is that of a shopkeeper from Amiens, Mrs. Nelly Mansart, grocer, 8 rue de la Mari[]e who, Sunday returned from Hérissart. Mrs. Mansart was accompanied by neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Delaf[?]rée.
Motorists had just left Hérissart when they saw a bright ball in the sky which, when better observed, then appeared to them like a rim of a bright orange mushroom. The diameter was about 6 to 8 meters. The "mushroom" let escape from its upper part, flames turning from purple to greenish, while some kind of cables hung below.
Mrs. Mansart, who was driving the car, was frightened, all the more so since the "saucer" seemed to follow the progress of the car, standing at a distance of about 130 meters and flying at low speed.
When we crossed a village, Mrs. Mansart said, the craft bypassed it and reappeared at the exit, It followed us like this for ten kilometers approximately.
When I left Pierregot, I stopped. The saucer stopped and waited, turning in a spiral for three or four hundred meters. As I restarted, it followed us again.
It was only in Raineville, near Amiens, that the craft left us definitively, heading west to get lost in infinity at a prodigious speed."
You will agree that this is an impressive story. We must also add that of a butcher of Rue (Somme), Mr. Galland who with his wife and son, was returning from Berck by car. They too were followed, for a time, by a mysterious craft of elongated shape and orange in color.
The object was flying at low altitude at a speed not exceeding 30 per hour. It finally disappeared in the direction of St-Quentin-en-Tourmont, towards the sea.
Other people also observed the phenomenon, always at the same time, around 9 p.m., Sunday evening.
The discovery of generous distributions of (fake) saucers by a Beuvry retiree caused a stir and the police, like the gendarmerie, endeavored to seek yesterday the disturbances which could have been caused by the persistent joke of Mr. D'Oliveira.
How many people have mistaking the paper balloons, cleverly adjusted by the Portuguese, for mysterious spacecraft from Mars? We will probably never know.
It was possible that the numerous Sunday appearances throughout northern France were caused by the Beuvry resident. But no, we have to find another explanation for these. Because, that Sunday, Mr. D'Oliveira had not devoted to his favorite pastime. This point could be quickly verified. What could have troubled the brave Santennese?
Certainly, if one of these craft had struck against a haystack, it caused the risk of causing a fire. Mr. D'Oliveira protested moreover forcefully: he uses, as he says, asbestos, thus taking all precautions. And yet the hot air balloon landed at Sailly-Labourse was indeed starting to burn, three meters from a haystack by the way.
And that's why Mr. D'Oliveira will "benefit" from a fine. Could this be the end of his invention? An old law of May 31, 1924, rules the use of aircraft, establishing that they can only be launched into the sky with the authorization of the prefect, on the advice of the mayor.
And the legal requirements define that any object capable of rising in the air must be considered as an aircraft.
These are therefore 5,000 aircraft that Mr. D'Oliveira has delivered to the clouds!
Rest assured that he will not be a fined for all of them, he began his exploits before 1918, at a time when that law did not exist. And there is prescription for crimes prior to 1931.
This being stated very seriously, of course.
[Ref. ppe1:] NEWSPAPER "PARIS-PRESSE":
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... While in Paris, a cardboard salesman sees a "flying disc" above the Porte Dorée
AGAIN a Martian. Each department will soon have its own. It was in the Finistère that the last specimen of the species appeared. This time, he showed himself without a helmet, with his face uncovered. He was not pretty.
A baker from Loctudy, Mr. Pierre Lucas, saw him disembark yesterday at 4 a.m. in a saucer flying three meters in diameter, in the courtyard of the bakery.
- He was no more than 1 m. 20 tall, he says. He approached me and tapped me on the shoulder with unintelligible words.
"I managed to keep my cool," continues the courageous bakery apprentice. The visitor followed me into the bakery. In the light, I could stare at him. His face was covered with hair and eyes the size of a crow's egg. I called my boss, but the Martian, when he arrived, was already gone. And the saucer was gone."
That same night, a Concarneau beer merchant saw two luminous round tables in the sky, extended by a sort of tail.
In the Nord, one did not see a Martian, but the gendarmes of Beuvry-les-Béthune wrote up a report against a manufacturer of flying saucers. He is a pensioner, named d'Oliveira. He is not Martian, but Portuguese. A whole stock of saucers was found in his attic. In fact, they were paper balloons 1 m. 50 to 5 meters in diameter, and of all colors.
I launched thousands of them, he said. It was so beautiful. In the evening, it looked like fireballs...
The saucer factory is now closed. The industrialist will be prosecuted for "having set off flaming devices within 100 meters of the homes".
Bad day yesterday for the saucers in the Nord: an investigation, carried out at Bray-Dunes, near Dunkirk, allowed to establish that the craft seen in this region were jet planes from the Belgian base of Coxide.
A resident of Haubourdin however observed a "flying tram", and a child saw a saucer land at Cheny, near Lille; which left traces "like that, he said, of a frog man". The gendarmes examined these traces; they looked very similar to those of horse hooves.
Paris, which the saucers have neglected until now, was favored by an appearance yesterday afternoon. A flying disc, followed by a plume of smoke, flew at 4:30 p.m. over the Porte Dorée under the eyes of Mr. Allouis, cardboard salesman. Several other people confirmed his testimony. But a spoilsport suggests that the flying disc, which he also observed, was, it seemed, a flying wing.
One saw yesterday a good twenty saucers, cigars, fireballs, light globes, at Limoges, at Brive, at Azat-le-Ris and at Magnac-Laval (Haute-Vienne), at Forgès and Le Mazin (Corrèze), at Payzac (Dordogne), at Chàteau-Chinon, at Nassier, in the Poitou marshes, at Vix (Vendée), at La Rochelle, at Albi.
Near Clermont-Ferrand, two saucers which, in passing, gave off a smell of nitro-benzine; near La Rochelle, another one that left oil stains when it landed in a meadow.
Finally, a technician from the weather station at Mans-Arnage observed yesterday morning at 6:08 a.m. two strong dark red lights.
- They were, he said, neither planes, nor sounding balloons, nor meteors. But I will not go so far as to claim that these are flying saucers...
[Ref. lqh1:] NEWSPAPER "LE QUOTIDIEN DE HAUTE-LOIRE":
A retired miner, of Beuvry-les-Béthune, known in his commune as a prankster, did not miss the occasion offered to him by the mystery of the flying saucers, to have fun on the residents of the nearby localities...
Inspired by the system of the Montgolfier, the retired chap manufactured machines which reached three meters in diameter. The envelope was made of strong gray paper sheets, carefully stuck. At the "saucer's" base was a small receptacle in which a tuft of packing soaked with a flammable liquid rested. It was then enough to ignite the packing to make the machine to rise and disappear at the liking of the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections. It is after the discovery, close to a haystack in which one of these machines had nearly set fire, that the gendarmes were brought to suspect the pensioner. One was to discover besides at his place many "flying saucers" models, prototypes which their inventor was preparing to launch in the sky of the Nord. The mystifier claimed that he already had built and launched more than one thousand of these machines. The ex-miner will undoubtedly be condemned to infringements for dangerous recreations.
[Ref. fio1] NEWSPAPER "LE FIGARO":
To have fun at the expense of his fellow-citizens, a retired minor of Beuvry-les-Béthunes manufactured ... flying saucers, in series. Taking as a starting point the principle of the montgolfier, this pensioner built, using extremely carefully glued strong paper, machines which reached a diameter of two meters.
At the base of the "saucer," a small receptacle containing was a piece of packing soaked with gasoline, the liquid being ignited, the apparatus rose in the airs and disappeared surrounded of yellow and orange reflections.
But one of these saucers landed close to a haystack which it had almost set fire to. An investigation was opened and the facetious manufacturer discovered. The former minor claims that he had already built and launched more than a thousand "saucers". He will see himself inflicted infringement for... dangerous recreation.
[Ref. age1:] NEWSPAPER "THE AGE":
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PARIS, October 6 (A.A.P.). -- A retired miner built many of the hundreds of "flying saucers" reported in the sky near Lille (northern France) recently just for a joke.
Police said yesterday that the miner of Beuvry-les-Bethune village, made his "saucers" out of strong grey paper on the fire balloon principle.
After paraffin soaked rags had been lit warm air lifted the "saucers," some about 10 feet in diameter, and off they went into the winds, displaying an orange and yellow light.
[Ref. cds1:] NEWSPAPER "THE CORSICANA DAILY SUN":
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LILLE, France, Oct. 8. (INS) -- The "Flying Saucers" which have been appearing over the Lille area for some time turned out today to be paper hot-air balloons launched by a retired miner. Police said the miner made 10-foot balloons out of strong paper and attached kerosene-soaked rags to them. He was caught when one of his "saucers" nearly set a haystack on fire.
[Ref. tcp1:] NEWSPAPER "THE COURIER-POST":
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Lille, France, Oct. 8 (INS) -- The "flying saucers" which have been appearing over the Lille area for some time turned out today to be paper hot-air balloons launched by a retired miner.
Police said the miner made 10-foot balloons out of strong paper and attached kerosene-soaked rags to them. He was caught when one of his "saucers" nearly set a haystack on fire.
[Ref. lej1:] NEWSPAPER "THE LUBBOCK EVENING JOURNAL":
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LILLE, France, Oct. 8 INS -- The "flying Saucers" which have been appearing over the Lille area for some time turned out today to be paper hot-air balloons launched by a retired miner. Police said the miner made 10-foot balloons out of strong paper and attached kerosene-soaked rags to them. He was caught when one of his "saucers" nearly set a haystack on fire.
[Ref. tnn1:] NEWSPAPER "THE NEW CASTLE NEWS":
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LILLE, France, (INS) -- The "flying Saucers" which have been appearing over the Lille area for some time turned out today to be paper hot-air balloons launched by a retired miner.
Police said the miner made 10-foot balloons out of strong paper and attached kerosene-soaked rags to them. He was caught when one of his "saucers" nearly set a haystack on fire.
[Ref. ppe2:] NEWSPAPER "PARIS-PRESSE":
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[Photo caption:] "What a pity," he said, "my saucers were so beautiful!" By his own admission, Mr. D'Oliveira, "Martian" of Portuguese origin, launched more than a thousand into the northern sky. They were paper hot air balloons with a flaming tow inside. The illusion was perfect. But one of the landing saucers almost set fire to a haystack. Which means that the manufacturer will be sued.
[Ref. jds1:] NEWSPAPER "JOURNAL DU SANTERRE":
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Appearances in the region
Martians spend their weekends on earth. They are reported everywhere, from North to South, from the shores of the Ocean to the banks of the Rhine.
Besides, they are not Martians, because according to our most learned astronomers, neither Mars nor Venus can be inhabited. Mars is too cold and lacks oxygen. As for Venus, it is currently in the middle of the carboniferous period, much like Earth, 300 million years ago.
The unknown beings, piloting the diabolical crockery, are Uranians, the German professor Hermann Oberth, rockets specialist, revealed recently.
The whole world is lost in guesswork. There are supporters of the thesis of craft coming from another planet. There are those who believe them to be terrestrial, something like improved V2s. Finally, there are those who see it as the object of hallucinations.
We are looking for explanations: fireballs, false suns, false moons, refraction phenomena, comets, meteors, rockets. Nothing satisfactory. Nothing final.
There are many testimonies. Many are fragile. Some apparently solid do not always resist observation or lack precision which can guarantee authenticity.
The enigma is complete, the file of the saucers remains open but the windows of the museum of unknown objects remain empty.
***
After the Abbeville region, it's several people from Boves who have just seen "flying saucers", or at least one strange glow that moved slowly. According to these people, the craft seemed to fly off from the edge of the Boves soccer field. The "saucer" was therefore seen by Mr. and Mrs. Dhelly and Mr. and Mrs. Quin, as well as by Mr. Laurent Laporte, seller at Pont de Fouencamps.
We learned shortly after that other people from the village of Demuin had also noticed the craft. According to Mr. and Mrs. Deslandes, it was a kind of "phosphorescent lampshade" which moved without noise and sought to land. When these people alerted neighbors, the object was gone.
Sunday evening, a resident of Moreuil, Mr. Julien Béder, baker, rue Thibeauville, came back, with his wife and children, Mr. and Mrs. Quenehen, butchers in Péronne, by car, on the Amiens-Saint-Quentin road when between Foucaucourt and Estrées, he saw, around 9:15 p.m., a luminous object moving at ground level, towards Montdidier, at a distance which was, it will be understood, impossible to assess.
The shape and (apparent) size of a "four pound loaf" (sic) curved on the top, the "thing", the color of minium, was motionless, and the occupants of the car, after stopping, were able to observe it at leisure, while making the most diverse assumptions. A dark vertical bar, occupying about 1/5th of its width, appeared in the middle of the luminous dot, and remained there all the time that the observation lasted, about 10 minutes.
Also, we learn that a retired miner from Beuvry-les-Béthune confessed to have made flying saucers himself made of paper that functioned like hot air balloons.
The hoaxer claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these devices.
***
Finally, a young man from Montdidier returning to Etelfay, on September 30, was reportedly dumbfounded when he saw a strange craft, around 11 p.m. o'clock, above Faverolles.
[Ref. ent1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ECHO NOGENTAIS":
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- Disillusionment... When a large number of French people began to believe that the flying saucers and other mysterious craft were really of Martian or Venusian origin, we learn that a retired miner from Beuvry-les-Béthune was manufacturing to distract himself hot air paper balloons 3 meters in diameter with a container containing a tow soaked in alcohol at their base. The liquid in flames, the hot air made the "saucer" rise in the sky, with yellowish and orange reflections.
[Ref. tbt1:] NEWSPAPER "THE TAMPA BAY TIMES":
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Lille, France, Oct. 8 (INS) -- The "flying saucers" which have been appearing over the Lille area for some time turned out today to be paper hot-air balloons launched by a retired miner. Police said the miner made 10-foot balloons out of strong paper and attached kerosene-soaked rags to them. He was caught when one of his "saucers" nearly set a haystack on fire.
[Ref. tdt1:] NEWSPAPER "THE DAILY TIMES":
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LILLE, France, Oct. 8 (INS) -- The "flying saucers" which have been appearing over the Lille area for some time turned out today to be paper hot-air balloons launched by a retired miner.
Police said the miner made 10-foot balloons out of strong paper and attached kerosene-soaked rags to them. He was caught when one of his "saucers" nearly set a haystack on fire.
[Ref. las1:] NEWSPAPER "LIBRE ARTOIS":
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The discovery of the generous distributions of (fake) flying saucers by a Beuvry pensioner caused a stir and the police services, like those of the gendarmerie, endeavored to seek yesterday the troubles that the persistent jokes of Mr. D'Oliveira may have caused.
How many people could have mistakenly the sent paper balloons, cleverly adjusted by the Portuguese, for mysterious envoys from Mars? We probably never will be.
It was possible that the numerous appearances on Sunday throughout northern France had the Beuvry resident for author. But no. For these, we must find another explanation. Because, this Sunday, Mr. D'Oliveira had not devoted to his favorite pastime. This was quickly verified. What has the brave fanciful been much more troubled about?
Certainly, if one of these devices had struck against a haystack, it ran the risk of causing a fire. Mr. D'Oliveira protested forcefully however: he used, as he said, asbestos, thus taking all precautions. And yet, the hot air balloon landed at Sailly-Labourse was indeed starting to burn, three meters from a haystack by the way.
And that's why Mr. D'Oliveira will "benefit" of a fine.
Will this be the end of his invention? An old law of May 31, 1924, regulates the use of aircraft, establishing that they can only be launched into the sky with the authorization of the prefect, on the advice of the mayor.
And the legal requirements define that any object capable of taking off in the air must be considered as aircraft.
These are therefore 3000 aircraft that Mr. D'Oliveira delivered to the clouds.
Let him be reassured, he will not be fined for all of them. He began his exploits before 1914, at a time when said law did not exist. And there are prescriptions for crimes prior to 1951.
This being stated very seriously, of course.
[Ref. dos1:] NEWSPAPER "DOUAI SCARPE":
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The flying saucers seem to invade the Nord region. An explanation could be given this week to this mystery. A "joker" from Beuvry-les-Béthune counted in his spare time making small hot air balloons inflated with hot air.
Our reporter held - with his hands held - and even supported Beuvry's flying saucer. The inventor (crouching, on the right) will launch it into the interplanetary (or approaching) spaces. He lit a firebox under the hot air balloon that will inflate the hot air balloon.
[Ref. sme2:] "SEMAINE DU MONDE" MAGAZINE:
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FLYING SAUCERS AND PRANKSTERS. Do the pranks of Mr. D'Oliveira, writes to us Mr. Gérard D..., rue Nationale, in Lille, really seem to you an explanation to the phenomena grouped together in the chapter of the "flying saucers". After all, your retiree from Beuvry sent hot-air balloons which could hardly cover a distance greater than 15 or 20 kilometres. And the appearances of Quarouble? And that of the Somme? And finally, all those mentioned daily by your colleagues in the morning and evening press?... Do we have to admit that, by a mysterious coincidence, hundreds of French people today are passionate about the art of inflating balloons? and to mystify their compatriots? Or should we not, with more logic and a little effort of the imagination, admit that we are in the presence of a phenomenon inexplicable for the general public. And the frequency of repetition forces us, whether we like it or not, to believe in it, while waiting to understand it...
[Ref. laa1:] NEWSPAPER "L'AVENIR D'AUCHEL":
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A Martian:
- Mr. D'Oliveira's house, please
- !!!
- He just ordered this saucer, given the success of... his test balloon...
[Ref. rdr1:] "RADAR" MAGAZINE:
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BEUVRY-LES-BETHUNE. -- I, said without laughing Victor Oliviera, am not likely to be impressed by the the saucers. Figure out that I started making them in 1922. I was only 28 years old but I had just read in a history of aeronautics the fascinating adventure of the Montgolfier brothers. These papermakers of the Dauphiné of the XVIIth century, as you know, invented the aerostats. From their experiences I especially remembered this: their oiled paper spheres bore a charcoal stove at the bottom. No doubt, to get the ascensional force, it is necessary to warm up the air contained in the paper envelope. My tests were very satisfying. The ruccus around the saucers made me want to start my little games again. I'm 60 years old, but I'm gay like a pawn. Look at my flying kite. What elegance, isn't it? And it is enough for me to place a flower pot in its lower part and to fill it with inflamed rags, [?] in asbestos, to obtain a speed which is not supersonic, but produces its small effect. But the joke is poorly understood. They want to sue me because, they say, my system is likely to cause fires?
[Ref. ner3:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-ECLAIR":
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The flying saucers continue to invade the sky... and the columns of the newspapers.
The psychosis of these celestial craft continues to develop.
Public opinion, which is passionate about this problem today, is divided into two: the "saucerists" and the "anti-saucerists."
After the discovery, not far from their home, of the Portuguese joker who sent paper "saucers" into the sky... the people of Bethune were not the last to mock these kinds of unusual craft.
Thus, supporters of the existence of "flying saucers" were only a small minority.
It is no longer so since yesterday, an abrupt change of majority took place by the news of the appearance in the Béthune sky of a "real flying saucer!"
From the pharmacist to the butcher, from the butcher to the deli, from father Thomas to father Camus, the news spread around town like wildfire: two men, one from Vendin-lez-Béthune, the other of Beuvry, had "seen with their own eyes", for a few seconds, "a disc of fire similar to the full moon... which suddenly lengthened by the base, like a rugby ball, then took on the indigo color, then withdrew towards the southwest of Bethune (towards Annezin), sketching a trail of sparks."
These two witnesses are called Mr. Louis Decourcelle, 54, transporter, rue de la Mairies, in Vendin-lez-Béthune; the second, Mr. Julien Vanarien, 35, from Beuvry-Gorre. The latter was accompanied by Mr. Julien Vannée and Mr. Jules Delbart.
These people think that others, like them, may have witnessed this bizarre appearance.
Will there be other testimonies?
[Ref. tin1] "TINTIN ACTUALITES":
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It is the great joke of the day. Of all the azimuths fresh news are coming about the "Martians" and their "flying saucers"; which would be mounted, hold on tight, by "plants gifted of reason", the Uranides! This is at least what Dr. Oberth, the V-1 engineer, claims.
When by chance a truly mysterious and worrying machine will land on our earth, and wanders in our atmosphere, nobody will believe in it anymore! An example among so many others:
A mine-worker of Bouvry-les-Béthunes (Nord), Mr. Victor d'Oliveira, 60, manufactured flying saucers himself... And the machines which he launched (secretly) in the sky of the Nord intrigued the inhabitants of the close localities extremely. They were small strong paper montgolfiers, inside whose an ignited piece of stuff heated the air and thus allowed them to fly away. The machine rose then and sailed with the liking of the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections of the most mysterious effect. Alas! one of these "saucers" while landing, almost set fire to a stack of straw... The gendarmes had quickly discovered the culprit and Mr. d'Oliveira had to stop his manufacture. One sees on the right one of these saucers-montgolfiers in the inflating process.
[Ref. tdo1:] NEWSPAPER "THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN":
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Paris, Oct. 10 -- "Flying saucers" are soaring in France.
Saucer-shaped, cigar-shaped and wing-shaped objects have been reported sighted over different parts of France.
Three people in Paris claimed to have seen an apparition. They agreed on the time and on the fact that "it" made a high-pitched noise and was followed by a streak of flame. Two of them thought it looked like a disembodied wing.
A member of the assembly has called on the air ministry to explain what it is all about.
Meanwhile a number of simple explanations are coming to light in their own way.
In Lille, a retired miner had been producing paper "flying saucers" with kerosene-soaked tapers. Aloft in the night, they fulfilled all the fantasies of flying saucers, moving through the air with a yellowish light.
The miner, who claims to be fascinated by fireworks and balloons, is now charged by police with what is termed "dangerous amusement." One of his saucers, it seems, nearly set fire to a haystack.
[Ref. lbt1:] NEWSPAPER "LE LIBERTAIRE":
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You have ... or you don't have the saucer complex!
Much more than a question of belief, it's a matter of logic.
But we have to believe that common sense is no longer the fundamental quality of the average Frenchman, since several tens of thousands of apparently healthy individuals buy "France-Poire" [=joke about the France-Soir newspaper] only to document themselves on flying saucers!
This is a good sign of ... let's say ... gullibility!
Because, apart from the fact that "France-Poire" is certainly not the paper to choose to get valid information on anything, it takes a commendable application in stupidity to think for a single moment that the inhabitants of any planet could consider Earth as a possible vacation spot. We have what it takes - as moral monsters - to deter the rest of the Universe...
As implausible as it sounds, there are people out there who believe it! As in the Bible. As in the Christ of Montfavet! The flying saucers have a merit however...: thanks to them, to the legend with which they are haloed, the nuts go out of their shells! The saucers allow us to unmask, to identify all that our sweet France has of crazy, hallucinated, repressed and mentally challenged people. They are given the opportunity to manifest themselves, they use it, profit from it, abuse it. They believe it, they see it, their poor disturbed heads are filled with saucers of all formats, bearded and unbearded Martians, green or red rays of light. It's Jules Verne for weak brains. All these people are ready for the asylum, for a drug shot... and the subscription to "France-Poire"! One even cites cases of collective dementia.
The rotten press is there, well there, creating the psychosis of fear, of the occult! Too bad if the degenerates get excited! What does it matter to defeat the primary scums of the poor buggers! You have to create the myth of the saucers, it rises the sales! Let us flatter the public's lower instincts, organize the ignoble publicity hype, on this enormous joke!
So they all buy it together, the poor sods from the provinces and elsewhere! Panic, cowardice, anxiety, all cowardly reflexes are unleashed. Without shame.
Very recently a character shot at his neighbor who was cleaning his car and who had been caught in the beam of headlights for a moment!
He mistook him for a Martian! In the suburbs of Paris (at Les Lilas) a group of idiots called "France-Poire" (naturally). They had just seen a large object land in the area! Quick check: it was only a police car which searched the wasteland with its headlights, to unmask tramps, prowlers...
By the way! What did the police want with them, with these tramps, these prowlers? Provide them with accommodation, work? Give them the means to become men again? We are not told...
Never mind, to equate our cops with Martians is to do them a lot of honor! And it is lack of courtesy for the "others"!
From every corner of the province, testimonies are pouring in. A peaceful army of bearded and hairy Martians occupies our smallest villages. The French hamlet which, at present, would not have had its saucer, would be dishonored!
There is no particular social category to classify saucer voyeurs in. It concerns the roadmender, the garage owner, the grocer and the local idiot... as well as the notary. Sometimes it is the mayor himself who poses as a visionary. And he is left in office... But the privileged, the lucky guys, they are still the cops! It's as we tell you: the Martians, not disgusted for two cents, easily sympathize with the gendarmes and the country guards!
There it is... the prestige of the uniform!
Bah.,. "THEY" will change their minds! Ultimately, there are only people whose job is to scan the sky (astronomers, observers) who, although equipped with powerful detection devices, have never seen a saucer! No chance! It doesn't do them any good in their profession! Soon, we will point the finger at "the man-who-has-never-seen-a-saucer". And he will be locked up in the mental house as long as he protests! So goes our planet...
Let us not forget the pranksters who have cheap fun; by inflating brightly painted balloons and sending them to wander in the atmosphere... and terrorizing all the crackpots of towns and villages.
The day we realize that the saucers - if there are any - are of purely terrestrial (and human) design they will no longer interest anyone. Or almost. It will only be science! What a disappointment for all the occult, for all the lunatics of the Mars complex!
In the meantime, the topic is gold for "France-Poire"! It will be pressed to the end. This stimulates sales and allows the ... "largest French newspaper" to put in the background - behind the saucers and the escort girls - the problem of world rearmament and social demands. For the government press, it is obvious that the favors of "Martine or Lolo" and the idyll of the Martian and the gendarme are much more important than unemployment and non-reconstruction!
We tell you, the saucers are useful for something...
René TERRIER.
[Ref. tbg1:] NEWSPAPER "THE BOSTON GLOBE":
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Craze Matches Witch-Hunting
PARIS (Reuters) -- Frenchmen have taken to the flying saucer craze with all the enthusiasm that their medieval forebears devoted to witch-hunting.
Not a day passes without reports from all over France of "flying saucers," "flying cigars," "flying mushrooms," and "flying bells" piloted by 20th century sorcerers.
Villagers seize shot guns and pitchforks and sally forth valiantly to meet any saucer reported landing nearby. Police spend hours following up reports.
Flying saucer stories and speculation about their origin fill the national press. They have even driven sex from the front pages of some popular weekly newspapers. One has offered a reward of 1.000,000 francs (about $2800) to the reader who sends in the first authentic photograph of a flying saucer.
The Mayor of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a wine village of 1600 people has decreed that any flying saucer which lands in his village will be impounded.
Flying saucer stories come from all levels and ages of the population.
A select few claim that they have actually seen the creatures who pilot the saucers over France. They generally agree that the creatures, usually referred to as Martians, are shorter than human beings in size and appear to be very hairy. Most of these creatures, if they speak, utter unintelligible sounds, but some have made themselves understood in French and even Russian.
Thirteen year-old Gilbert Lafay [sic], of Chateaubriant, said that he saw in a field a flying saucer piloted by a man who spoke to him in French.
Baker's assistant Pierre Lucas of Loctudy claimed that he met a four-foot flying saucer pilot with a hairy oval face and eyes as big as crow's eggs.
A workman, Louis Ujvari, met a flying saucer pilot near Epinal who spoke Russian and asked how far it was from the German frontier.
The saucers seem generally to be piloted by males. One exception was reported by a schoolmaster, Mr. Martin, who said he met two beautiful Martian girls on the island of Oloron [sic] off the French Atlantic Coast. They were about four feet, four inches, and wore leather helmets, gloves and boots.
The strange visitors from outer space are said to be equipped with "ray guns" which stop witnesses in their track with an electric shock effect and temporarily immobilize automobile engines, but no really unfriendly act by them has so far been reported.
Frenchmen are less well disposed towards their uninvited guests and some accidents have occurred in the hunt for Martians. At Sinceny, Jean Faisan fired two shots at his farmer neighbor, Maurice Ruan, who was repairing his car one night, narrowly missing his head but damaging the radiator.
Faisan explained that when he saw a figure illuminated by two lamps he thought he was in the presence of a "Martian repairing his flying saucer." He ran for his shotgun and fired.
In the village of Troussey, sugar beet gatherer Alexandre Ronneji, who had not had a haircut for several months, was manhandled by a crowd who mistook him for a hairy Martian.
At Tain-l'Hermitage, in central France, a wineyard worker decided that his neighbor, M. Neyret, looked "extraordinary" in the dusk and attacked him savagely, beating him so severely that one ear was torn off. Only then did he find that Neyret was not a Martian.
Press cartoonists and practical jokers are having a field day over the whole affair. Newspapers and popular weekly magazines fill their cartoon pages with saucer jokes.
A worker at a Paris railway depot started his mates on a Martian hunt by capering about in a welder's helmet with a green light inside.
But the king of the saucer jesters was a retired miner of the village of Beuvry-Les-Bethunes, near Lille, who built some flying saucers in his backyard. He made his "saucers" out of gray paper on the fire-balloon principles and lit a paraffin-soaked rag at the base. The warm air lifted the "saucers", some of them over nine feet in diameter, and off they went with the wind showing orange and yellow lights from the flames.
Police found him out after one of his "saucers" had landed near a haystack and almost set it on fire.
Attempts to explain the saucer phenomena have varied from "mass hallucination" to a suggestion that they are new experimental aircraft built in cigar form which can take off vertically.
Another theory is that, under certain atmospheric conditions, exhaust fuel from jet aircraft solidifies and may form "saucer" shapes. It has been said to reach the ground in the form of a rubbery material which dissolved on being touched. Such a material has often be reported to have been found on saucer landing sites.
[Ref. hws1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:
However, everybody who regarded these disturbing visitors as merely the sport of hoaxers, "spoofing dupes," took heart of grace and confidence again, when the police of Lille trailed a rascal of a miner at Beuvry-les-Bethune, who said he had made saucers out of strong grey paper soaked in gasoline, and having lit a fire under them, sent them - 1000 of them (sic) - into the wind, with yellow and red lights. The police found one on a haystack. While this may be partly true, it would be distinctly unwise to jump to the conclusion that what these people saw all over France, a pretty big country, were just a miner's prank.
[Ref. gbr1:] GRAY BARKER:
One thousand of the strange sky craft were manufactured by a Beuvry-les-Bethunes miner in his own backyard. They were balloon, made of strong gray paper, and filled with hot air by attaching paraffin-soaked rags to the 10-ft. "saucers." The balloons displayed orange and yellow lights, and were responsible for many of the saucers stories until one of them almost set a haystack on fire and got the inventor into trouble with the police.
[Ref. via1:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "VIMANA 21":
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6: TO MYSTIFY HIS FELLOW CITIZENS, A PRANKSTERS MADE FLYING SAUCERS -
Lille - A miner known in his commune as a joker, retired, did not miss the opportunity that the mystery of the flying saucers offered him, to have fun at the expense of the inhabitants of the neighboring localities. Inspired by the Montgolfier system, the happy retiree made machines that had a diameter of 3 m, an envelope made of a sheet of gray paper, very carefully glued. The base of the saucer was formed of a small receptacle where rested a tuft of tow soaked with a flammable liquid. It was then sufficient to ignite the tow to see the craft rise and disappear in the direction of the wind. It was after the discovery of one of these machines that the gendarmes were led to suspect the pensioner. One found a lot of models of saucers at his home. He said he made and launched more than 1,000 machines.
The source is said to be the newspaper Le Bien Public.
[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:
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"Paper flying saucers." Not all UFOs were "spaceships." A [sic] Bouvry-les-Bethune miner, M. Victor d'Oliveira, manufactured and sent aloft over 1,000 ten foot high balloons made of strong grey paper, the hot air supplied by payloads of burning paraffin-soaked rags. The miner's creations were impressive in flight, appearing yellow and orange in color and no doubt were responsible for many saucer sightings. The "paper saucers" were a well kept secret until one balloon nearly set a haystack ablaze which attracted the attention of the police. 185. (See newsclipping)
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Hand-crafted Chinese lanterns.
Chinese lanterns are one cause of some old tales of UFO sightings: During the "airship" wave of 1896 - 1897 in the USA, during the wave of 1972 in the US Midwest, etc.
Since these miniature hot air paper balloons can be ordered on the Internet at very low cost - they also commonly found in France now in stores - there is no need anymore to take the trouble of manufacturing them yourself.
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Above: A Chinese lantern. |
Of course, this file is not exactly a "UFO sighting" file, as the first source is about the explanation of unspecified sightings. Nevertheless I feel that such facts should not be concealed.
Beuvry-lès-Béthunes (Pas-de-Calais) (and not "Bouvry-les-Béthunes (Nord)") amalgamated with Béthune at the end of 1993 and took the name of Beuvry.
Cases more or less explainable by the Chinese lanterns of the Beuvry prankster:
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Beuvry, Pas-de-Calais, Bouvry-les-Béthunes, Beuvry-les-Béthunes, Beuvry-les-Béthune, Henri d'Oliveira, Victor d'Oliveira, gendarmes, police, fire, Chinese lanterns, Nord, montgolfiers, negative case, hoax, prank
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 14, 2016 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | December 24, 2016 | Addition [dmi1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | December 30, 2016 | Addition [prs1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | September 16, 2017 | Additions [tbs1], [age1], [tnn1], [lej1], [tcp1], [cds1], [tbt1], [tdt1]. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | April 3, 2019 | Addition [via1]. |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | May 26, 2019 | In the Explanations, addition of the "Cases more or less explainable by the Chinese lanterns of the Beuvry prankster" part. |
| 1.6 | Patrick Gross | June 21, 2019 | Additions [rdr1], Summary. |
| 1.7 | Patrick Gross | December 18, 2019 | Additions [ppe1], [ads1], [ent1], [tbg1]. |
| 1.8 | Patrick Gross | January 17, 2020 | Additions [ppe2], [tdo1]. |
| 1.9 | Patrick Gross | February 25, 2020 | Addition [nnm1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraphs "On October 6, 1954, an article in the regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard..." and "The newspaper said that he allegedly released several thousand of them..." |
| 2.0 | Patrick Gross | March 12, 2020 | Addition [jds1]. |
| 2.1 | Patrick Gross | March 24, 2020 | Addition [dos1]. In the Summary, "I found only one photo of one of the flying lanterns of the prnakster, published" changed to "Several photos of the prankster's flying lanterns were published, such as the one" |
| 2.2 | Patrick Gross | April 12, 2020 | Addition [ner2]. |
| 2.3 | Patrick Gross | April 14, 2020 | Addition [nmn1]. |
| 2.4 | Patrick Gross | April 18, 2020 | Addition [nll1]. |
| 2.5 | Patrick Gross | April 22, 2020 | Additions [vdn1], [laa1]. |
| 2.6 | Patrick Gross | April 24, 2020 | Addition [nmn2]. |
| 2.7 | Patrick Gross | June 1, 2020 | Addition [ner2]. |
| 2.8 | Patrick Gross | June 9, 2020 | Addition [las1]. |
| 2.9 | Patrick Gross | June 18, 2020 | Addition [ner1]. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | June 23, 2020 | Addition [lib1]. |
| 3.1 | Patrick Gross | June 28, 2020 | Addition [jpc1]. |
| 3.2 | Patrick Gross | January 5, 2021 | Addition [bre1]. |
| 3.3 | Patrick Gross | January 17, 2021 | Addition [lcx1]. |
| 3.4 | Patrick Gross | February 23, 2021 | Addition [lcd1]. |
| 3.5 | Patrick Gross | June 2, 2022 | Additions [sme1], [sme2]. |
