The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Journal du Pas-de-Calais et de la Somme, France, pages 1 and 8, on October 6, 1954.
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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
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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.
