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| | Sunday, 28 June 2009 01:59 | Canada's UFOs: The Search for the Unknown Introduction
The Library and Archives Canada collection of government records on UFOs was acquired from the following four federal departments and agencies:
* Department of National Defence
* Department of Transport
* National Research Council
* Royal Canadian Mounted Police
These documents were accumulated between 1947 and the early 1980s and represent all records filed with the federal government on UFOs. There ar e approximately 9,500 digitized documents in a variety of formats, including correspondence, reports, memos and procedures. Some are specifically concerned with particular UFO sightings, while others are more generic in nature; these may consist of reporting forms and procedures for recording events.Although most documents contain a date (pertaining either to a sighting date or the date the document was actually created), some are undated. Similarly, approximately half of the documents refer to a specific UFO sighting location, while the others fail to mention a particular location.
Visit the virtual exhibition Canada's UFOs: The Search for the Unknown
http://www.collecti onscanada. gc.ca/databases/ ufo/index- e.html
Here's one example:
Shirley's Bay, Ontario
Project Magnet, 1952
In 1950, a senior radio engineer from the Department of Transport, Wilbert B. Smith, made a request to his superiors to make use of a laboratory and the department's field facilities in a study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and the physical principles connected to them. Smith spearheaded Project Magnet with the purpose of studying, among other occurrences, magnetic phenomena, which he believed would open up a new and useful technology.
The goals of Project Magnet were fueled by the concepts of geomagnetism, and the belief that it may be possible to use and manipulate the Earth's magnetic field as a propulsion method for vehicles. Tests conducted by Smith were reported in November 1951 and they stated that sufficient energy was abstracted from the Earth's field to operate a voltmeter at approximately 50 milliwatts. Smith believed he was on the "track of something that may prove to be the introduction to a new technology." Smith believed that there was a correlation between his studies and investigations into UFOs: "...the existence of a different technology is borne out by the investigations w hich are being carried on at the present time in relation to flying saucers.... I feel that the correlation between our basic theory and the available information on saucers checks too closely to be mere coincidence" (Smith, Geo-Magnetics, Department of Transport, November 21, 1950).
It was believed by both Smith and other government departments involved, that there was much to learn from UFOs. Investigations into these sightings and interviews with the observers were the starting point for Project Magnet.
In connection with the establishment of Project Magnet, members of other government agencies formed a committee solely dedicated to "flying saucer" reports. This committee was sponsored by the Defense Research Board and called "Project Second Story." Its main purpose was to collect, catalogue and correlate data from UFO sighting reports. The committee created a questionnaire and interrogator' s instruction guide. The reporting method used a system intended to minimize the 'personal equation'. In other words, a weighting factor was created to measure the probability of truth in each report. Smith explained that most UFO sightings fit into two general types: "those about which we know something, and those which we know very little."
In a summary of 1952 sighting reports, S mith noted common significant characteristics of UFOs: "They are a hundred feet or more in diameter; they can travel at speeds of several thousand miles per hour; they can reach altitudes well above those which should support conventional air craft or balloons; and ample power and force seem to be available for all required manoeuvers" (Smith, Project Magnet report, 1952, p. 6).
In his closing, Smith stated, "Taking these factors into account, it is difficult to reconcile this performance with the capabilities of our technology, and unless the technology of some terrestrial nation is much more advanced than is generally known, we are forced to the conclusion that the vehicles are probably extra-terrestrial, in spite of our prejudices to the contrary." (Smith, Project Magnet report, 1952, p. 6).
Smith summed up the possibilities of studying the technology of these vehicles, and suggested that the next steps in the Project Magnet investigation should be a "substantial effort towards the acquisition of as much as possible of this technology, which would without doubt be of great value to us" (Smith, Project Magnet report, 1952).
It was with these goals in mind that Smith set up an observatory in Shirley's Bay, Ontario, 10 miles outside of Ottawa. Based on the conclusions of the 1952 sighting report, Smith thought that these vehicles would emit physical characteristics that could be measured. In October of 1952, he set up the observatory to attempt to measure magnetic or radio noise disturbances. Many more sighting reports were investigated by Project Magnet, but in 1954, the project was shut down.
http://www.collecti onscanada. gc.ca/ufo/ 002029-1400. 01-e.html
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