Los Angeles, California, TIMES, 3 December 1939, page

Solution Sought in Sky Mystery
November Phenomenon Attracts Interest of Coast Astronomers

Solution of a mysterious astral phenomenon was being sought yesterday by J. Hugh Pruett, Pacific Coast director of the American Meteor Society.

The director reported that last Nov. 21 at 4:55 p.m. at a point about 50 miles south of Fresno a long narrow ribbon of brown - something like smoke - was seen low in the southern sky.

The ribbon extended from the southeast to southwest horizons and appeared to be moving rapidly northward. Within 15 seconds its ends were on the eastern and western horizons and its center directly overhead. Within another quarter minute it was fading out low in the north.

Don Hunter, astronomy assistant at the University of Oregon, and Mrs. Hunter witnessed the spectacle and reported it to Pruett.

The society director, whose offices are at the University of Oregon, is seeking additional information regarding the phenomenon, and asks that anyone who saw it write him at the university reporting how it appeard to them.

Pruett pointed out that daylight meteors often leave a trail of smoke across the sky, but that the apparent movement is slow.

Balloon Weather Box Drifts From Maryland to Anaheim

ANAHEIM, Dec. 4. - Pennies from heaven will for the remainder of his life have a real meaning for LeRoy Henderson, 14. For the lad today stands to get $20, via that avenue, from Baltimore, Md.

Perhaps no one was more surprised than young Henderson yesterday when he cast his eyes skyward to see a red parachute descending into a neighbor's back yard. He investigated with results which promise to be highly satisfactory.

STRANGE DEVICE

For to the silken parachute were attached fragments of a rubber balloon and an aluminum-tinted box about 5 inches thick, 8 wide and 10 long. Upon the box were strange words which revealed the device was an automatic weather broadcaster which had been released from Baltimore, Md., Nov. 8.

The remnants of the balloon told their own story. After the device had drifted so high there no longer was sufficient atmospheric pressure to sustain the bag, it burst.

FLOATS TO EARTH

That automatically released the thin parachute from its round cardboard case, permitting the box to float gracefully to earth. It was open at two sides to permit the broadcasting equipment to function, and a small slide permits a view into another portion of the interior.

Printed upon the box are instructions for its return to Baltimore. Any postmaster is authorized to accept the box postage free.

If the mechanism appears to be undamaged and the finder follows printed instructions he is promised $20, and there's where LeRoy's prayer to Santa Claus seems to be answered.

Tomorrow he will mail the box to the United States Weather Bureau in Maryland. After that he will wait at his home, 708 S. Helena for word that his faithfulness will be rewarded.

Los Angeles, California, TIMES, 1 May 1947, page

'Ghost Plane' From East Has R.A.F. Baffled

LONDON, April 30. (AP) - Reports of a midnight "ghost plane" swooping out of the east at tremendous speed gave the British press a sensational aviation mystery today.

Eyewitness accounts said the mystery craft, first plotted by radar early in January, zooms over the East Anglia coast - as though it came from the Continent - and disappears inland at a speed of 400 miles an hour or more.

What is even odder is that the plane has never been seen making the return journey from England to the Continent. R.A.F. night fighters have tried regularly to intercept the "ghost plane" but so far have been unsuccessful.

"Radar has plotted some strange things in its time, from children's kites and raindrops to formations of geese, but it surely never plotted a stranger thing than this," said the Yorkshire Post, adding:

"Is it a diamond or drug smuggler? Is it conveying a secret agent from one foreign power to another?" The only version we have not yet heard - perhaps because of Mr. Bevin's return from Moscow - is that the aircraft's wings have been seen to be covered with snow."

Los Angeles, California, TIMES, 10 May 1947, page

You Weren't 'Seeing Things;' That Meteor Was - a Meteor

No, that wasn't a new jet plane scorching over Los Angeles early last night.

it was a very bright meteor, of the type known as "fireball," according to Dr. C. H. Cleminshaw, associate director of the Griffith Observatory.

Dr. Cleminshaw said that the meteor was seen streaking from east to west at about 7:26 p.m., but that it was difficult to determine whether it landed on the earth.

He asked that anyone who saw the meteor and could accurately describe its path and apparent altitude contact officials at the observatory so they can plot its path.

Los Angeles, California, TIMES, 17 May 1947, page

Nazi War Secrets Hunt Nearly Ended

BERLIN, May 16. (AP) - A report by the American military government disclosed today that Allied technical investigators are nearing the end of their quest after Nazi war secrets - such as the flying bomb - in the western zones of occupation.

PHONE CALLS NO GAG
Flying Saucer Sighters Won't Let Him Sleep

Jack Lyman never saw a flying saucer.

He never hopes to see one.

But he can tell anyhow, he'd rather see some than hear about them all through the night.

Lyman, 35, a television writer, first got involved with the plates from space when he had a telephone put in his apartment at 6231 Afton Place.

The first night the phone rang - late. Lyman answered sleepily.

And So It Started

"I want to report a flying saucer," said a strange voice.

"So report it," growled Lyman.

And hung up.

Then it rang again. And again.

"It began to drive me nuts," Lyman said yesterday. "It went on for a week. I was seeing flying saucers in my sleep - what sleep I got."

Not a Gag at All

He thought it was a cruel gag at first, but finally he decided to check with the telephone company. The telephone people spun some dials and came up with the answer.

Lyman's new number was still listed in the directory as that of the Ground Observer Corps of Hollywood. That number had recently been disconnected, it was explained, and reassigned to Lyman.

So if you see a flying saucer, don't call Lyman.

Call the Pasadena Air Defense Filter Center.

They're used to it.