Topside: Wilbert Smith and the Ottawa Flying Saucer Club

[natecull]

I keep forgetting Wilbert B Smith's (of Canada's dubious "Project Magnet") exact connection to Townsend Brown, but according to Linda they both used the phrase "the boys [from] Topside" to describe... well, who exactly is the question, but my assumption has always been that Wilbert literally meant "UFO entities" with that phrase. It's possible that Townsend may have meant someone else.

Today I learned that the Ottawa Flying Saucer Club, with Smith as a core member, had a newsletter titled "Topside". It was presumably a phrase that Smith really, really liked. Thanks to UFO-Sweden / Archives for the Unexplained, multiple issues of it from 1960-1967 are up on the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/search?query=topsid ... 22texts%22

I don't expect to learn much about actual science from reading Topside, but it's interesting to see W B Smith's actual writing in print, in a more conversational tone than in the weird "physics" essays of his that I've read.

Issue 1 discusses the Canadian TV program "Contact" of Feb 16, 1960 on CBOT Channel 4:

Mr. W. B. Smith, Senior Engineer of the Radio Regulations Engineering Division, Dept. of Transport, and "STAR" member of the Ottawa Flying Saucer Club, was interviewed. He disclosed that his interest in UFO's dates back to 1950 when a number of sensational sightings all over the globe received a great deal of news coverage. He said that a variety of possible explanations could be found for some 85% of phenomena in the Heavens, such as brighter planets, certain atmospheric conditions, jets, weather balloons, birds in flight, etc., some 15% of sightings defied explanation and could be taken for mysterious objects. The latter he divided roughly into three categories:

1) small objects, 4" to 18" in diameter
2) bell shaped objects, 35' to 150' in diameter, with a lower skirt, a cabin with a little light on top, and what appears to be landing gear underneath
3) cigar shaped objects of abnormal size, but rarely observed

In issue 2, June 1960 ( https://archive.org/details/Topside_Iss ... ew=theater ) I see Smith is already referencing both Leonard Cramp and Meade Layne as authorities on UFO propulsion, as well as a "Michel" who I can't currently identify. Issue 3 (September 1960) report on a Gravity Research Foundation "Gravity Day" as well as a suspected UFO sighting (by Smith) accompanying an attempt to sight the satellite Echo-1.

Regards, Nate

[natecull]

From Topside #7 (Fall 1961) I finally receive an answer for my question about "what was Vladimir Fock's graviplane concept" that was weighing on Agnew Bahnson's mind in February 1957. I love archival librarians!

The main problem is that it was never actually Fock who talked about the graviplane - it was Kirill Stanyukovich.

SOVIET RESEARCH ON GRAVITATION
SUMMARY by K. W. Rodie

The Russian scientists it seems are also Interested in the possible control of this phenomena termed "gravity", A lengthy volume concerning the progress of Soviet Research along this line has been published. This volume is an analysis of the literature published by the Soviet Union over a period of several years.

Several Russian scientists have proposed theories concerning various ways In which gravitational force is produced and concluding from these concepts various ways which this can be practically applied. One outstanding Russian scientist, Dr. Kirill P. Stanyukovich has made many startling public statements alluding to certain "forthcoming advances" in Soviet capability to overcome the pull of the gravitational force on flying machines and space vehicles. Dr. Stanyukovich has put forth many concepts concerning hew he would use gravity as a positive force. In essence, these are his statements:

1. The possibility of developing a graviplane - a machine not subject to the force of gravity.

2. By lowering the temperature cf matter to absolute zero, a considerable decrease in gravitational forces and possibly their disappearance might result, thereby creating "weightless matter". This weightless matter could then be used in the construction of a graviplane.

3. He proposed a theory which states, "that the gravitational field of ponderable masses is caused by multibillion superhigh-frequency vibrations of matter and by the ejection from the vibrating body of energy in the form of gravitational quanta or "gravitrons" resulting in a gravitational attraction to other bodies. The “gravitatonal radiation", Stanyukovich stated, "would be more intense at a high temperatures and conversely, reduced to virtually zero at low temperatures, near 0 deg. K."

4.. He predicted the future use of antimatter (matter made up of antiprotons and positrons Instead of protons and electrons as in ordinary matter) to overcome gravitation.

In the overall picture Dr. Stanyukovich emerges as a brilliant physical and engineering theorist, yet he appear to be addicted to sensational headline indulgence, while other equally brilliant scientists stay in the background. Many of his statements have been disavowed by loading Soviet scientific authority.

VIEWS OF OTHER SOVIET SCIENTISTS

V. A. Fok, Head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Leningrad State University, has never deviated from his long-held views which in essence coincide with those of Einstein. Fok directly negates Sanyukovich's assumption that anything done to affect the hypothetical emission of gravitational waves or gravitrons from a body will affect the weight of the body. This is the main argument separating those two scientists.

D. D. Ivanenko, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Moscow State University, is one of the creators of the theory that gravitational waves may carry energy. Ivanenko writes in response to Stanyukovich's statements, "There is no solution to date of the question of whether or not a moving body loses some of its energy, no matter how insignificant the amount, into gravitational radiation." Thus, Ivanenko denies any support of Stanyukovich's claim that gravitrons actually are known to exist and that gravitational attraction can be "annihilated" by a lowering of the temperature of a mass to absolute zero.

Thus it seems that a great majority of Russian scientists, besides Fok and Ivanenko disagree with Stanyukovich's statements. Stanyukovich himself has not substantiated his remarks with any scientifically-founded reasoning. But the Russian scientists must be watched with a close eye, for out of this confusion of concepts might stem a new understanding of this phemonena termed "gravity".

Also in this article is a lengthy summary of Paul Voigt's theory of gravity, which like Joseph Brown's circa 1969 "brutino" theory, is a "particle gas" model, like LeSage pushing gravity. Voigt, born 1901, was a radio guy like Townsend Brown, and circa 1960 was a colleague of Wilbert Smith at the Ottowa "Radio Regulation" body (presumably inside the Ministry of Transport). Radio people and weird gravity speculations: they just seem to go together.

Stanyukovich may have held to a similar idea. This conference in 2016 celebrated 100 years since his birth:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1 ... 1/1/011001
with papers available to view here: https://iopscience.iop.org/issue/1742-6596/731/1

International Conference on Gravitation Cosmology and Continuum Mechanics (dedicated to the centenary of Kirill Petrovich Staniukovich) 3–4 March 2016, Moscow, Russia

International Conference - Gravitation, Cosmology and Mechanics of Continuous Environments (devoted to the 100th anniversary K.P. Stanyukovich's birth) was held in Bauman Moscow State Technical University on the 3th and 4th of March. More than 100 papers were presented by K.P. Stanyukovich's students, faculty, various universities staff and representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Kirill Petrovich Stanyukovich (3 March, 1916 - 4 June, 1989) - an outstanding physicist, mathematician and engineer made a significant contribution to the development of various fields of science: gas dynamics, physics of explosion, magnetic hydrodynamics, astronomy. He developed a hydrodynamic model of gravity, the theory of gravity with a variation of the effective gravitational constant, with a variable number of particles, he offered one of the first Universe evolution scenarios from the initial vacuum stage.

In 1944 K.P. Stanyukovich defended his candidate's thesis, and in 1946 - a doctoral thesis. After the war he worked as a senior teacher at the F.E. Dzershinskiy Artillery Academy, then he worked as a head of the laboratory at the Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and then as a head of the department in the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School, apparently without interrupting his cooperation with the so-called "Kaftanov Commission ", resulting in his theoretical solution (co-authored with Landau) on the problem of a convergent shock wave (implosion), which was the basis of one of initiation embodiments of a nuclear explosion in the Soviet atomic bomb development, first tested in 1949.

In 1950 - 1960 K.P. Stanyukovich, continued theoretical developments in the field of gas dynamics and magneto hydrodynamics, he related them to the problems of meteor astronomy and meteoritics, such as the theory of cratering in a collision of meteoroids with planet surface, calculation of planetary substance fragment emission at cratering, theory of thermal explosion at the ice body hypersonic flight in the atmosphere (with reference to the comet's version of the Tunguska phenomenon), description of air shock waves system during the flight of large bolides and others. Independently and in co-authorship with V.V. Fedynskiy, F.A. Baum, G.I. Pokrovskiy, S.K. Vsekhsvyatskiy, V.A. Bronshten, A. K.Mukhamedzhanov, V.P. Shalimov and others) he worked on some problems of cosmogony, using higher mathematics and gas dynamics methods. In 1952 he was awarded the title of professor. In 1958, in co-authorship with F.A. Baum and S.A. Kaplan he published the monograph "Introduction to the cosmic gas dynamics".

Among K.P. Stanyukovich's fundamental works in the field of physical gas dynamics and physics of explosion we should mention the monograph "Unsteady motion of a continuous medium (1955, 1960, 1971) and" Physics of Explosion "(1959, 1975, 2002, co-authored), that withstood several editions. His active lecture and popularization activity in the field of astronomy, cosmology, rocket and space technology are widely known. Back in the late 1950s K.P. Stanyukovich became interested in the universe structure and evolution problems and this came to reality in the monograph "The gravitational field and elementary particles" (1965).

Since 1967 until his death K.P. Stanyukovich scientific activity took place mainly in the system of the State Standard of the USSR, where he formed a unique team of theoretical physicists specializing in astrophysics, cosmology and gravitation fields.

In the years 1969-1972 K.P. Stanyukovich was a chairman of the Moscow branch of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodetic Society. In 1974 he was awarded the honorary title "Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR" and in 1981 for his work on special subjects he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR.

In 1983 he co-authored with V.N. Melnikov published a monograph "Hydrodynamics, Fields and Constants in the Theory of Gravitation".

So Stanyukovich might have been brash but wasn't entirely a dumb guy. Obviously he was coming at gravity from the fluid media / gas dynamics approach, so that coloured his theory. Interesting that even after shooting his mouth off circa 1957 and being shot down by the rest of the Soviet physics establishment, he went on to "form a unique team" working on gravity. The question of course is did he find anything, or was it just boring theoretical cosmology as normal?

This essay from the 2016 conference by Stanyukovich's colleage Melnikov suggests that the Russian post-1950s gravity scene fell into the same pit of mainstream but unproductive mathematical cosmology that the Western scene did. Lots of excitement in the 1950s, then decade after decade, a crushing pile of ever-tinier and more abstract "success" that looks, from the outside, indistinguishable from failure.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... Dimensions

K.P. Stanyukovich and GR Extensions by his colleagues in Diverse Dimensions
V N Melnikov
Head of Center for Gravitation and Fundamental Metrology, VNIIMS, Moscow, Russia
Professor, Institute of Gravitation and Cosmology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia,
Moscow, Russia

Since 1961 K.P. Staniukovich successfully worked at the problems of gravity theory and cosmology, their connection with particle physics and problems of possible variations of fundamental physical constants [1, 2]. The second half of the 20th century in the field of gravitation was devoted mainly to theoretical study and experimental verification of general relativity and alternative theories of gravitation with a strong stress on relations between macro and micro-world phenomena or, in other words, between classical gravitation and quantum physics. Very intensive investigations in these fields were done in Russia by K.P. Staniukovich and M.A. Markov from mid 60's, then by Ya.B. Zeldovich, A.D. Sakharov with their
colleagues and many others.

K.P. Staniukovich elaborated a hydrodynamic model of the gravity “mechanism", versions of the gravity theory with a variable number of particles, proposed the first scenarios of evolution of the Universe with an initial vacuum stage and the decay of super heavy particles, obtained relationships for characteristic lengths and masses of various fundamental interactions, which was an important step on the path of creating a unified theory of all physical interactions [1, 2] etc. His last work was devoted to new solutions of nonlinear difference equations. Once N.N. Bogolyubov told his own colleagues and students at the informal discussion in the Moscow State University: “if you can not solve a nonlinear equation, go for help
to Kirill Petrovich Stanyukovich, he will do it, or it is not solvable now”.

For many years K.P. Staniukovich had been the Editor-in-Chief of the annual "Problems of Gravitation Theory and Particle Theory", which played a crucial role in the development of new trends in gravitation theory and especially cosmoparticle physics and which is essentially the predecessor of the international journal “Gravitation and Cosmology”.

But the main achievement of Prof. Staniukovich was the foundation in 1967 of a large group of young scientists effectively working in the fields of gravitation, cosmology, cosmoparticle physics and theory of gravitational experiment in the Russian State Committee for Standards. Many of them became leading Russian scientists in these fields. One should mention the fundamental works of G.A. Vilkovysky on gravitational field quantization, M.B. Mensky on groups theory and continuous measurements, V.A. Belinsky on the general solution of Einstein equations near the singularity, G.A. Sokolik and N.P. Konopleva on gauge fields theory, Yu.N. Barabanenkov on statistical physics and quantum cosmology, V. Yakimov on ASTRON Project, G.N. Shikin on exact solutions with nonlinear fields in gravity, O. Karageoz on very precise absolute G measurements.

Also, the author and K.A. Bronnikov with colleagues and their students - on exact solutions of Einstein equations with scalar and electromagnetic fields and their interactions, the first quantum cosmological model with a cosmological constant Melnikov and Kalinin (creation from nothing) (1972); first classical cosmological models for conformal scalar field (1968) and quantum cosmological models with minimal and conformal scalar fields (Melnikov and Reshetov, 1971), first nonsingular cosmological model with spontaneous symmetry breaking (Me1nikov and Orlov, 1978-79) of the nonlinear conformal scalar field, exact solutions for nonlinear electrodynamics, including Born-Infeld one, first exact solution for dilaton-type interaction with electro-magnetic field in GR, first non-singular field particle-like solution with gravitational field (Bronnikob, Melnikov, Shikin and Stanyukovich, 1979). Also, the conclusion that only G may vary with respect to atomic system of measurements in the Jordan frame (Zaitsev and Melnikov, 1978). See realization of all this program in [1].

Later, from 1987 in the frames of multidimensional Einstein equations, which are the low energy limit of unified models, the author mainly with V.D. Ivashchuk and also with V.R. Gavrilov and K.A. Bronnikov with students and post-graduates using mainly sigma model approach were realizing the second program in arbitrary dimensions in cosmology and gravitation [3-6] obtaining exact solutions with different sources: with a cosmological constant , also with a scalar field (we singled out nonsingular, dynamically compactified, inflationary solutions, 1994); a perfect fluid (PF), a PF with a scalar field (e.g., nonsingular, inflationary solutions); a viscous fluid (e.g., nonsingular solutions with generation of mass and entropy, quintessence and coincidence in a 2-component model, Melnikov and Gavrilov); oscillating behavior near the singularity, billiards in Lobachevsky space for systems with different sources (Ivashchuk and Melnikov). In all cases mentioned above, solutions with Ricci-flat factor spaces were obtained for any n, also with curvature in one factor space; with curvatures in 2 factor spaces - only for the total dimensions D = 10; 11; with fields: scalar and forms of arbitrary rank (Ivashchuk and Melnikov, 1998); inflationary solutions generated by forms (p-branes); first billiards for models with branes (Ivashchuk and Melnikov, 1999); quantum generalization (solutions to WDW-equation) for certain cases where classical solutions were obtained; solutions for models with dilatonic fields with potentials, billiard behavior for them also and recently quantum billiards for D-dimensional cosmological models of generalized Bianchi-I type (all this with Ivashchuk). Some of these integrable models were also used for calculation of temporal and space variations of the effective gravitational and fine structure constants, including the case with nonlinear in curvature model (with Bronnikov). Comparison with the present experimental bounds allowed us to choose particular models or to single out some classes of solutions.

A class of solutions depending on the radial variable in any dimensions was found as well (with Ivashchuk and Bronnikov): generalized Schwarzchild, Tangherlini solutions where black holes (BHs) were singled out, also with a minimal scalar field '; generalized Reissner-Nordstrom solutions (BHs were also singled out), the same was done with scalar field (no BHs); multi-temporal solutions; for dilaton-like interaction of scalar and electromagnetic fields (BHs exist only for a special case); stability studies (stable solutions only for the previous case); for obtained dilaton-forms (p-brane) interaction, the solutions' stability was found only in some cases, e.g. for one-form. PPN parameters for most models were calculated. Some new results on constants their variations and quantum billiards see in [7-9].

After the discovery of the dark energy and dark matter we see that our present knowledge of the Universe is very poor but we still may hope that the possible discoveries of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves will help us to move forward in the endless way of understanding the Nature may be
through the better understanding the nature of gravitation as a missing link to unification of known physical interactions !

I want to finish these short remarks saying that K.P. Staniukovich was an open-hearted person, with a good sense of humour, who maintained a pleasant creative atmosphere in the research group he headed for about three decades. It was always a real pleasure to work and contact with him!

This is all very exciting and worthwhile, probably, for the mathematical paper publishing industry at least, but none of this appears to add up to a graviplane.

Nate

[natecull]

Yikes, in Topside #8, Winter 1962, Smith gives a very approving review of a book by William Dudley Pelley ("No More Hunger", 1933). https://archive.org/details/Topside_Iss ... ew=theater

I guess Smith didn't get the memo that Pelley ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dudley_Pelley ), as well as claiming to be a UFO Contactee, was an actual, no-joking, Hitler-saluting Fascist. It would however have been quite hard to miss that memo, since Pelley was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1942 and went to prison until 1950.

Nate

[natecull]

Topside #9, Spring 1962, includes another article about Russian gravity speculations - much more sober than the last - which is literally just retyped from Missiles and Rockets, March 19, 1962. This happens to be up on the Archive so here's the original article:

https://archive.org/details/missilesroc ... ew=theater

soviet affairs
by Dr. Albert Parry

Gravity is increasingly one of the most important Space-Age subjects of Soviet research and controversy. "Gravitational Waves — Do They Exist?" is the title of a recent extensive symposium in the Moscow magazine Znaniye — Sila (Knowledge Is a Force). Four well-known Soviet physicist-theoreticians participated. One of them, Profesor Dmitry D. Ivanenko, an outstanding atomic scientist, is noted for his work on the quantum theory of gravitation. In this symposium he declares that, in the study of gravity, mankind is "on the threshold of new discoveries."

After reciting the Western record of research on gravity, Dr. Ivanenko praises recent Russian work in this field, particularly that done by the team of V. B. Braghinsky and G. I. Rukman. These two physicists have suggested the idea of locating gravitational waves with the aid of complicated and costly equipment consisting of tens of thousands of cylindrical piezocrystals made of titanate of barium. Describing their proposed equipment and method in some detail, Professor Ivanenko comments: "It is a difficult experiment, of course! But it is most desirable to try it out. Nowadays solutions of great problems of principle have often to be wrested from nature at the price of enormous efforts." In effect, he pleads for governmental funds to make such experiments possible.

What practical results may there be? Will weightlessness be reduced or even eliminated? It is of course too early to give any definite answers to such questions, the attempt to discover gravitational waves is so far a task of pure science only, Professor Ivanenko admits, yet he adds that such a discovery, if made, "will inevitably lead in the future to various applications in technology as well." He writes: "Mankind will perhaps (thus) find an entirely new route of generating gravitational waves and will be able to utilize these waves' wonderful capacities in all their wide scope, including their remarkable ability to penetrate any handicaps wtihout perceptible changes." Gravitational waves may in time be exploited by man for his communications purposes, the Soviet professor suggests.

But the very existence of gravitational waves is questioned as "problematic" by Professor M. F. Shirokov, another participant in the symposium. "Even if they are finally discovered," he argues, "it is hardly possible that they will have a technical application." The middle-of-the-road position in the symposium, is expressed by M. E. Gertsenshtein, a younger physicist. He says that he is convinced of the existence of gravitational waves in nature, but that "the road to their discovery, reception, and generation is very long." He criticizes the current proposals of equipment to locate and use such waves as "to clumsy and expensive to be put into practice." He speculates nevertheless on the possibility of building, in time, a graviotelescope with unprecedented strength. But he hastens to say: "The creation of such a telescope is an extraordinarily far-off thing." Gertsenshtein is joined by Professor A. S. Kompaneyets, who also does not doubt "the real existence of gravitational waves" but feels that an instrument to intercept and relay them, although possible in principle, would take miles of space to construct, "and perhaps more." He sumarizes: "It is premature to speak about a practical application of gravitational waves. However, should discoveries be made that would cut down on the quantitative requirements of such technology, the question can be posed quite differently."

If not a reduction of weightlessness, then new communications inventions can be the result. "The day may come," the editors of the Soviet symposium say in closing, "when a graviotelescope, griovatelephone, and graviotelevision will be flesh and blood of our engineering installations."

[natecull]

And in Topside #11, Fall 1962, sooner than I expected:
https://archive.org/details/Topside_Issue_11_1962_Fall

It is with deep regret and a very real sense of personal loss that we must report the untimely death of our friend and founder of the Ottawa Flying Saucer Club, Dr. W. B. "Wib" Smith. Wib died on the 27th of December 1962 in the Sacred Heart Hospital in Hull, Quebec, following a long and valiant struggle to overcome an abdominal cancer.

Although internationally known for his work in Radio Communications with the Canadian Government Department of Transport, Wib was probably best known to UFO investigators as head of "Project Magnet", which he organised and directed for a period of about four years, utilizing the vast field facilities of the Department of Transport.

Due in part to the persistent badgering of the Press, Project Magnet was officially closed. However, up until the time of his death Wib continued his own personal investigations and studies and his many published articles and talks on the Saucers and the philosophy behind them have done much to raise the subject to a position of scientific respectability.

He is survived by his wife, Murl, two sons, Jim and Dick, and a daughter Norma Ann, in Ottowa, and by his other, Mrs. Maude Smith, and a brother, Dr. L. S. Smith, in Vancouver, B. C.

Topside #12, Winter and Spring 1963, is a memorial edition containing a number of articles by Smith.

https://archive.org/details/Topside_Iss ... ew=theater

PROJECT MAGNET
THE CANADIAN FLYING SAUCER STUDY
W. B. SMITH

Project Magnet was authorized in December 1950, following a request made to the Canadian Department of Transport by W. B. Smith, for permission to make use of the Department's laboratory and field facilities in a study of unidentified flying objects and physical principles which might appear to be involved.

The program consisted of two parts. The first part was the collecting of as much high quality data as possible, analysing it, and where possible drawing conclusions from it. The second part consisted of a systematic questioning of all our basic concepts in the hopes of turning up a discrepancy which might prove to be the key to a new technology.

Unfortunately, the program was plagued by well meaning but misguided journalists who were looking for spectacular copy, or copy which could be turned to political account, to such an extent that both those who were working on the project and the Department of Transport found themselves in an embarassed position. Consequently, when the Project Magnet Report was made and permission sought to extend the scope of the investigation through Federal financial support, the decision was finally made in 1954 that this would not be advisable in the face of the publicity from which the whole project had suffered.

Project Magnet was officially dropped by the Department of Transport in October 1954, although the Department indicated its willingness to permit the continued use of laboratory facilities, provided that this could be done at no cost to the public treasury.

The project has been continuing under these conditions, and to this extent may be said to have gone underground. The Government of Canada are not participant in the project and not in any way responsible for its conclusions.

The conclusions reached by Project Magnet and contained in the official report were based on a rigid statistical analysis of sighting reports and were, as follows: There is a 91% probability that at least some of the sightings were of real objects of unknown origin. There is about a 60% probability that these objects were alien vehicles. (Alien meaning not of earthly fabrication).

The conclusions based, on studies of the basic physical concepts were as follows: Many of our fundamental concepts are inherently ambiguous and' quite a different philosophy can be built up on the alternatives. Several of these alternatives lead to much simpler arithmetic, and presentations which do not have to resort to patchwork corrections to make them all embracing. Furthermore, some of our ideas with respect to fields and their behavior are wrong.

Recent Project Magnet activities have dealt with following up any and all leads. Many of these leads were dead ends, but a few were quite significant and well worth the overall effort. At the present time a definate pattern is emerging, and the groundwork is being laid for a new technology which may literally lead us to the stars.

By Issue #13, Summer and Fall 1963, the Ottawa Flying Saucer Club had renamed itself to the Ottawa New Sciences Club:

https://archive.org/details/Topside_Iss ... l/mode/1up

Rearders of "Topside" will probably have noted from our front cover, that the Ottawa Flying Saucer Club has taken on a new name, viz.. The Ottawa' New Sciences Club. Our readers are assured, however, that we are still as interested as ever in flying saucers and related subjects, but having extended our area of interest to other scientific and metaphysical subjects, members of the Club thought it appropriate to indicate this wider scope of interest in the name of the Club.

The choice of title Is also an indirect tribute to our founder, the late Wilbert B, Smith, who spent some of the latter years of his life writing a highly technical treatise on what he termed "The New Science" in which, among many other things, he claimed there are no less than twelve dimensions on this planet. "The New Science" was developed from information obtained by Mr. Smith through his contacts "the boys from topside", as he frequently referred to his extra-terrestrial helpers, and it is expected that this unusual work will be published in book form In the near future.

(Mrs) Carol Halford-Watklns Assistant Editor

"The New Science" did indeed get published, in 1964, and it's fairly incomprehensible. Rex Research has a retyped copy:

http://www.rexresearch.com/smith/newsci~1.htm

An article reprinted from the Florida Times of 9 June 1963, by Norma Lee Browning, establishes that Soviet interest in ESP - which by 1969 would trigger a US military response leading to CIA/Navy interest in "psychotronics" and then the Remote Viewing projects that became Star Gate - was already starting to heat up at this point.

FOR YEARS ANY ATTEMPT TO STUDY TELEPATHIC phenomena 'n Russia was denounced as mysticism and idealism.

Today under the impetus of a Communist decree to push ahead with the biological sciences in relation to space research, mental telepathy is getting the full-scale treatment as a form of "biological radio communication."

THE GREEN LIGHT GIVEN TO MENTAL TELEPATHY for biological investigation is largely the results of the work of B. Kazhinsky, an electrical engineer whose book, ''Biological Radio Communication" was published last year by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Leonid L. Vasiliev, 71 year old head of the physiology department of Leningrad University and correspondent member of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences. Vasiliev established in 1960, within the university's Institute of Physiology, a laboratory - first of its kind in the Soviet Union - especially designed and equipped for the study of telepathic phenomena, or "biological radio communication," as the Russians prefer to call it.

And that would be the origin of the Russian ESP term "biocommunication", I assume.

Issue #14, September 1964, heralds the publishing of "The New Science", massive worldwide interest in the newsletter due to Smith's death, and some more of Smith's biography from the introduction to TNS (which is not in the Rex Research version):

https://archive.org/details/Topside_Iss ... ew=theater

Wilbert Brockhouse Smith was born at Lethbridge, in the Province of Alberta, Canada, on the 17th of February, 1910, He exhibited early in life an eager interest in the nature of things. At the age of 15, he wrote a treatise dealing with the controversial concept of perpetual motion. He was also the author of several scientific novels. After having obtained his B.Sc, and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1933 and 1934, he spent four years on the staff of Radio Station CJOR in Vancouver, B.C., where he became Chief Engineer. In 1939 he joined the Department of Transport of Canada, where he continued his work in the Broadcasting field and deserved much credit in advancing the technical aspects of broadcasting in Canada. He participated in the development of the Canada - United States FM Broadcasting Agreement in 1947, and the Canada - United States Television Allocation Agreement in 1952. He was Canada's chief delegate to the Third North American Regional Broadcasting Conference at Montreal and Washington in 1949 and 1950.

During World War II, he was engaged in engineering Canada's wartime monitoring service. In 1947 he was responsible for establishing a network of ionospheric measurement stations throughout the Dominion. In 1957 he was appointed Superintendent of Radio Regulations Engineering, responsible for the engineering aspects of all matters concerning the use of radio in Canada, including equipment standards, radio relay systems, broadcast facilities, interference studies, and many others.

Nate

[natecull]

Topside #16, Autumn 1965, reposts a review by Smith from late 1962, of a book "New Principles in Quantum Mechanics" by H C Dudley. The book appears to be a fringe critique of mainstream physics, yet the author is "Chief of the Radio-Isotope Laboratory at the U.S. Naval Hospital at St Albans, N.Y."

https://archive.org/details/Topside_Iss ... ew=theater

From Prabook, an odd little "biographical wiki" (because Wikipedia doesn't judge Dudley notable enough), so results may vary, it appears that Dudley was in the US Navy in WW2, and then a radiation physicist. But yes, he had off-the-map physics ideas.

https://prabook.com/web/horace_chester.dudley/1692299

Horace Chester Dudley, American scientist. Achievements include patents in field. Decorated Bronze Star, Secretary Navy medal; recipient National prize, American Chemical Society, 1929, Outstanding Alumnus award, Southwest Missouri State University, 1982; grantee, Atomic Energy Commission, 1963-1964, National Science Foundation, 1963, 1965, University Illinois, 1970, 1972, University Southern Mississippi, 1965-1967.
Background

Dudley, Horace Chester was born on June 28, 1909 in Saint Louis. Son of Horace Chester and Rhoda Olivette (Mc Adoo) Dudley.
Education

AB, Southwest Missouri State College, 1931. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry, Georgetown University, 1941. Postgraduate, University California, 1948.

Postgraduate, New York University, 1957.
Career

...
Lab. assistant United States Bureau Standards, Washington, 1931-1932. Junior chemist Bureau Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1933-1934.

Assistant chemist div.med. research Chemical Warfare Service, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland., 1934-1936;biochemist United States Public Health Service, Bethesda, Maryland., 1936-1942.

Commissioned Lieutenant, United States Navy, 1942, advanced through grades to captain, 1955. Explosives specialist, commanding officer units Pacific Theater of Operations, 1942-1947.

Head division biochemistry Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, 1947-1952. Head section allied science Medical Service Corps, Washington, 1949-1952.

Head radioisotope laboratory, department radiology Naval Hospital, Saint Albans, New York, 1952-1962.

Retired, 1962. Professor physics, department chairman physics, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, 1962-1969. Professor radiation physics, chief physicist University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, 1969-1977, retired, 1977.

With Rad. Safety Associations, 1976-1985.

Member committee cooperative clinical studies, member medical library staff Virginia Medical Center, Hines, Illinois, 1980-1985. cons.in field
Achievements

Horace Chester Dudley has been listed as a notable scientist by Marquis Who's Who.

Despite his distinguished career, he seems to have had off-the-map physics ideas, but exactly what those ideas were is hard to verify:

https://www.gfwilkinsonbooks.com/produc ... Relativity

[2 items] The Theory of Relativity: A Re-examination. A Challenge to Those of Inquiring Mind, Based on the Neutrino Hypothesis. [Together with] Hyperspace: The Mathematical Basis of Relativity.

THEORY: 39 pp.; 8vo; blue wrappers which are loose, pulled from the staples, but text block is clean and intact. HYPERSPACE: single sheet folded to 4 pages, 11.25" x 8.5", which has been folded again horizontally with resulting fold crease. ALSO: Publisher's circular for Dudley's, New Principles in Quantum Mechanics, a single sheet; 10.75" x 6.5" printed on one side, with two horizontal fold creases. According to the title page of Theory, H. C. Dudley was a Captain in the Medical Services Corps., United States Navy, and according to Hyperspace, he was in the Radioisotope Laboratory at the U. S. Naval Hospital, St. Albans, N. Y. One finds him as a contributor to Analog, Science Fact & Fiction Magazine in 1960, 1961, and a few copies of his New Principles of Quantum Mechanics can be found online. Theory of Relativity is apparently more scarce, and only one copy of Hyperspace is listed on Worldcat.

And at least one of his Dudley's Analog articles, with a very Townsendian flavour, ended up on Rex Research:

http://www.rexresearch.com/dudley/dudley.htm

Analog Science Fact and Fiction (November 1960, p. 83-94)
"The Electric Field Rocket"
by Horace C. Dudley

During a lecture on nuclear theory, the professor explained the disintegration of uranium. At the end of the lecture, he stated, “This system of mathematical theory shows a definite probability that an airplane may pass through a rocky cliff and come out the other side unscathed”.

It was here that the writer parted company with “modern” nuclear theory. My flying days began when I ran away from home about 1921 to sneak my first ride in a Jenny. Since then having experienced one air crash, and witnessed many others, no amount of calculations can convince me that which is impossible, can be possible. Out of this came a critical examination of all mathematical theory, which led to some theorizing on my own (1).

The state of our theorizing has been well summed up (1953) by a Nobel prize winner, Louis de Broglie: “The history of science shows that the progress of science has constantly been hampered… by principles that we have come to assume without discussion”. Prof. J. C. Bailar, President of the American Chemical Society pointedly reminded scientists (1959) that the theories of today have superseded those of yesterday, and that they in turn will be superseded by those of tomorrow, even if today’s seem perfectly logical.

As a starting point it is suggested that one examine several of the references which discuss atmospheric electricity (2, 3, 4). It will be found that the old concept of current flow (+) to (-) is often renamed in these writings. Here then is the indication tat our present concepts of charge, field, and current flow are in a chaotic state. If our electron and x-ray tubes function by reason of electron passage, then current flow must be electron flow, (-) to (+). And there is current flow, ionosphere to earth!

Theoretical studies of charge, fields and gravity led to the prediction that the earth is a (+) charged “particle” spinning in a hue (-) charged field (1). But theorizing is one thing and experimentation is still another. So a series of privately financed experiments were begun, utilizing both laboratory apparatus, and small rocket. The procedures and results are outlined below.

Laboratory Experiments

In October 1957, preliminary experiments were begun with a small Van de Graff generator producing a maximum electrostatic (+) charge of about 75,000 volts. This unit was used to study the action of various one-quarter to one-half inch spheres and various powders under the influence of a (+) charged field.

These preliminary tests indicated that a large electrostatic generator would be useful. After several modifications, the final unit constructed was a van de Graff generator having a spherical collector head 12 inches in diameter, capable of producing a (+) charge of 425,000 volts. The capacity of he ES generator was increased by employing an electronic high-voltage generator, and applying a (+) potential of 25,000 volts on the groundside brush of the Van de Graff.

These units were used to study the movement of (+) charged one- to four-inch diameter hollow spheres in various (+) and (-) charged electric fields. The spheres were made of glass, plastic, or aluminum. The inner and/or outer surface of the non-conductors were rendered conducting by spraying with lacquer containing aluminum powder. In the case of glass spheres, one of the best sources of supply was ordinary Christmas tree ornaments which contain inside a flashing of metallic silver. This can easily be removed with a few drops of nitric acid. A non-conducting body does not take a charge and therefore is not repelled.

As a result of the laboratory experiments outlined above, it was postulated tat a rocket may become a (+) charged body, repelled by the (+) charge of the earth and simultaneously attracted by the (-) charged zone above. This reduced to its simplest, is a macro reduction of R.A. Millikan’s oil drop experiment (1909), in which he, at will, augmented or counterbalanced the force of gravity on charged oil droplets, by means of electrostatically charged plates. For this Millikan received the Nobel prize for determining the nature of the unit charge on the electron.

Quoting Millikan is something that Townsend also did.

From 200 firings carried out by the author, the following general facts emerge.

(a) Both high humidity and high temperatures decrease the rise of a rocket so constructed as to be an accelerating, charged body.

(b) Conversely, low temperature and low humidity greatly favor the rise of a rocket so constructed as to retain its charge during acceleration.

(c) A completely non-conducting rocket shows erratic flight characteristics in cold, dry weather.

(d) An accelerating, conducting rocket becomes a moving charge in an electric field and thus establishes concentric magnetic lines of force. These lines of force couple with the magnetic flux of the earth, stabilizing the flight of the rocket. This effect causes the rocket to resist changes in its vertical path, such as the force of crosswinds might induce.

(e) Under optimum conditions the electrostatic field of the earth may be utilized to aid the thrust of a rocket motor.

However the rest of the page is an article by Harry Stine of the National Association of Rocketry, in Analog (month unknown) 1961, claiming that the NAR attempted in October 1960 to January 1961 to replicate Dudley's results, and were unable to.

Dudley continues to fascinate me as one of the peripheral characters around Townsend, and I'd like to get hold of either or both of his paper on Relativity or his book on Quantum Mechanics, to see just how far from the mainstream he was while remaining a practicing radiation physicist.

Dudley has a patent (US3095167A, filed 1960, granted 1963) on his electrostatic-charged rocket idea, which... yes, cites Townsend Brown.

Rex Research patent images: http://www.rexresearch.com/dudley/dudley.htm
Google patents: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3095167A/en

Patent Citations (5)
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US1974483A * 1930-02-07 1934-09-25 Brown Thomas Townsend Electrostatic motor
US2102527A * 1937-06-14 1937-12-14 Everett M Hadley Air resistance reducer
GB635784A * 1946-07-19 1950-04-19 Zygmurit Stefan Jablonski Apparatus for reducing fluid friction
US2946541A * 1955-04-11 1960-07-26 John R Boyd Airfoil fluid flow control system
US3022430A * 1957-07-03 1962-02-20 Whitehall Rand Inc Electrokinetic generator

The Internet Archive does however have a borrowable copy of Dudley's 1976 "The Morality of Nuclear Planning?" which, despite its title, seems to recap his fringe physics theories! So that's one step forward.

https://archive.org/details/moralityofn ... ew=theater

Regards, Nate

[Jan Lundquist]

If there are any direct connections between Harold Dudley and Townsend, I don't see them. Maybe I should have played with more Tinker Toys or stayed awake in science class. But there are a few places where the two might have crossed paths, workwise:

• He was in the Standards Lab at the time Townsend wrote up the Lab report for the Meinescz Gravity Cruise.
  
  As an "Explosives specialist, commanding officer units Pacific Theater of Operations, 1942-1947", he was assigned to Command Level support at some place like CINCPACFLEET. In that role, he may have sat in on MEP briefings.
  
  I often forget that the Medical profession leads the other sciences in isotope research. If Dudley was head of the radioisotope laboratory, at the Naval Hospital, Saint Albans, New York from 1952-1962, he got into the game very early and was in it from Barium enemas to PET scans. I wonder if his lab ever worked with isotopes of bismuth?

I love the fact that he finishes his research with instructions for the wanna-be DIY-er. "First, get yourself some Aerobee rockets" Did the poverty-stricken experimenter wait for the BOGO deals?

Things or lack of things that make me go hmmmm: The attempt to replicate his efforts failed, but absent in both reports, was any mention of testing on a sidereal cycle.



As for "The Boys Topside." you know my love for facts on the ground, but there aren't enough for me to conclude that Townsend and Smith used them in the same context. I will say, though, that claims that Project Magnet was created for UFO research are likely to be a highly simplified version of the truth.

What was being researched at those field stations Wilber established, was the changing shape of the atmosphere and the ionosphere, and the relationship of those to known and observed deviations in gravitational fields, magnetic fields, solar radiation, and flows of as yet unnamed particles. The program was an iteration of the the ongoing work that had been spawned in the first quarter of the century, by the development of solar spectrophotography and gravity mapping technologies.

This work reached its public peak with the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58, which encompassed

eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping), meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity.[2] The timing of the IGY was particularly suited for studying some of these phenomena, since it covered the peak of solar cycle 19.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... sical_Year.

Jan

[David Osielski]

Recent video highlighting links to ROBERT SARBACHER as well...

Apologies, Jan & Nate (&Paul) if you've already traversed these rabbit trails...

I'm still reading, reading, reading by night...and buying, buying, buying library books during the day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7DyJRf14nU

[David Osielski]

Apologies, Jan & Nate (&Paul) if you've already traversed these rabbit trails...

But if you haven't..."The Synchronicity is strong with this one"

[natecull]

I will say, though, that claims that Project Magnet was created for UFO research are likely to be a highly simplified version of the truth.

What was being researched at those field stations Wilber established, was the changing shape of the atmosphere and the ionosphere, and the relationship of those to known and observed deviations in gravitational fields, magnetic fields, solar radiation, and flows of as yet unnamed particles. The program was an iteration of the the ongoing work that had been spawned in the first quarter of the century, by the development of solar spectrophotography and gravity mapping technologies.

Hi Jan. Yes, this sounds like a plausible explanation for what the actual Project Magnet was. From reading a bunch of Topside (up to 27, Winter 1968) it seems that what happened in the UFO context is that Wilbert Smith in 1953, while performing his other radio regulation duties, received permission to also set up one speculative "UFO detection field station" in a hut at an existing field station (Shirley's Bay, Ottowa), using spare equipment (apparently including a magnetic field recorder and a gravimeter). The UFO station at this site ran in a semi-automated mode for about one year and detected nothing, because no UFOs were visually spotted in its vicinity.

From an article now only the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050513085 ... eys_ba.htm

In 1953, Smith was provided with staff and a small laboratory built on Shirleys Bay Campus, a "flying saucer sighting station," as it was known, in which was found instruments such as a magnetometer, a gamma ray counter, a radio receiver and a recording gravimeter.
Just one year later, on August 8, 1954, Smith and his small group reported to the media that they detected a large magnetic disturbance believed to be from an extra-terrestrial spacecraft flown over Shirleys Bay. Fearing bad publicity from the already extensive press coverage, the Federal Government cancelled his funding and officially closed his laboratory, though Smith continued his research in his spare time.
Smith continued this research on his own until his death from cancer in 1962 at the age of 52. What he really wanted to know was how these craft were built, where they got their energy and how they were able to do things that our spacecraft were unable to do.

That laboratory is now known as CRC's building 67 - located on the side of Carling Avenue and property of CRC's Terrestrial Wireless System Directorate. CRC researcher Peter Bouliane has been working in that laboratory on and off since 1973. His work is not connected to UFOs and he wasn't aware of the research previously performed in building 67.
As for the equipment that Wilbert Smith used for his research, it was probably disposed of with the rest of the equipment in the building when it became property of the Department of Communications in 1971.
Though we can only speculate about Smith's discoveries, UFO research is an intriguing chapter in the history of Shirleys Bay Campus.

Another article about this, including photos, is here:
http://www.treurniet.ca/Smith/crcstation.htm

In October, 1953, Wilbert Smith wrote the following in a letter to an acquaintance. "For your information we are placing in operation an observation post near the DRB establishment at Shirleys Bay, for the purpose of getting measurements on various reported factors, should we be fortunate enough to have one of the 'objects' pass near. The equipment will detect and measure simultaneously gamma radiation, radio noise, magnetic variations, and gravity variations. It will also trigger the ionospheric recorder and get a trace of anything which happens to be overhead. According to past statistics we should be pretty sure of a sighting here within a year."

The following photos taken by Wilbert Smith show several pieces of equipment that he may have used in the attempt to detect the passage of alien aircraft nearby. The photos were made available by James Smith in 2006. The equipment in the photos was identified by John Wilson, a technician at the Radio Physics Laboratory (RPL) at Shirley's Bay when the saucer detection station was established. John recalls that "as a technician at RPL I shared a field hut down near the brick Department of Transport building. Wilbert Smith had been permitted to use the same hut for his flying saucer searches. I was the one who visited the site almost daily and volunteered to check his equipment, i.e., retune any drifting receivers and make sure the Esterline Angus pen recorders had paper in them and were well inked up - that sort of thing. It was common knowledge at the time that Wilbert wanted to measure anything that changed if the area was visited by his IFO friends. I don't remember any of us who completely discounted his quest, mostly 'a wait and see' attitude. The parameters most likely considered for examination were: LF, HF and VHF signals or noise changes, atomic radiation, seismic activity, magnetic disturbances, gravity changes, and temperature. As I recall, there was nothing special in there, a collection of equipment not needed elsewhere. I do recall a geiger counter and one receiver tuned to the 500 kcs emergency frequency".

After viewing the left photo, John recalled that the scales at the top were set to record any changes in gravity if a flying saucer flew near. The smaller item at the left is a General Radio tachometer, probably model 'Strobotac 631-Bl'. The lens for the strobe light is just out of sight on the right side of the box. Its only purpose would be to measure the speed of a rotating device. Below the scale and mounted on an inertial platform is such a rotating device, belt-driven by a fractional horsepower GE motor. It probably was the target for the tachometer. For stability, the platform rested on bedrock below ground level. The apparatus mounted on it somehow measured changes in seismic activity. Even with the closer view in the right photo it is not obvious how this was achieved. Also sitting on the platform is a box containing what appear to be scale weights. The tachometer is resting on a custom-made device (with two panel meters), perhaps a single-frequency LF receiver (500 kcs). If so, its purpose would be to monitor the international emergency LF frequency. There were other receivers set on HF frequencies.

A third photograph of Wilbert Smith's lab equipment is shown below. On the bench, according to John, is a chart recorder with a scale from 0-50. It is a multi-purpose instrument and it could be hooked up to record anything with a voltage output. Below the bench sits what looks like a multi-purpose power supply or regulator. The device on the right is a Stoddart field intensity meter. The co-ax cable suggests VHF input. An instrument such as this, calibrated and with an appropriate antenna, is used to measure the field intensity or the field strength of radio waves or signals. Such fields were thought to exist around alien craft, and so this device would have been an appropriate addition to the saucer detection station.

John recalls that he could never be sure whether anything worked or not, since during his tenure all output graphs were noisy spike-less lines.

John thought that the device resting on the pedestal in the above picture measured seismic activity, probably because it rested on a stable platform on bedrock. However, it is not clear how the mechanism would be used for that purpose. Instead, one might expect Wilbert Smith to use some of the new theoretical insights he received from the "people from elsewhere" in designing an instrument to detect the saucers, especially since he believed that the alien technology was based on this new science. For instance, he maintained that a saucer's propulsion system distorts the ambient tempic field, sometimes enough to severely refract light coming from the object. Also, he thought of gravity as an electric field associated with the precession of basic particles. He differentiated this "motional electric field" from the field associated with the particle's static spin. His gravity control experiment (which he claimed was successful) appears to have been designed to create a motional magnetic field in order to generate the motional electric field. William Hooper, another gravitation theorist with whom Smith corresponded, seemed to have had similar ideas.

In November, 1953, several newspapers, including the North Bay Daily Nugget and the Sudbury Daily Star reported that a new type of gravimeter was developed for the saucer detection station. The newspapers also reported that the gravimeter, which measured the acceleration and deceleration due to gravity, was built by the staff of the station with the assistance of Professor J. T. Wilson of the University of Toronto.

It is interesting to speculate that the equipment in the upper left photo may be that gravimeter. Of possible significance is that the pedestal appears to consist of concrete blocks alternating with layers of what appear to be wood. Also, the chemical balance is positioned above the pedestal, and the weights on the scale are such that the position of the scale pointer is centered. Further, one side of the balance is positioned almost directly over the disks of the device on the pedestal. So, we have a pedestal with alternating layers of materials with different properties such as permittivity. On this pedestal is a device that seems intended to spin a pair of disks on a common axle, and these disks are directly below one side of the balanced scale. Perhaps Smith believed that the presence of an unusual tempic field gradient from a nearby saucer would combine with the rotating disks to modify the gravitational field of the earth acting on one side of the balance. The gravitational field might have unusual properties after passing through the stone and wood layers of the pedestal. However, these clues are difficult to interpret without knowledge of the physics that Smith was beginning to understand.

There's at least one other somewhat famous Canadian UFO believer who made reference (circa 1967) to Smith being on a UFO committee, and has made wilder statements more recently: Paul Hellyer. But Hellyer was only Minister of Defense for Canada from 1963-1967, after Smith had died. Since Smith wasn't working in the military but just in the Department of Transport, I suspect he had closer friends in his immediate workplace who supported his UFO ideas and who formed the backbone of the Ottowa Flying Saucer Club, and that that Club was the "UFO committee".

As for "the boys Topside": It is possible that Townsend might have used Smith's signature phrase with a very different sense. He might even have invented the same phrase at right about the same time, somehow. But for Smith and his circle of friends in the Ottowa radio-regulation and UFO-fandom club, this phrase seems to have always had one meaning, and it wasn't human beings.

In the grand esoteric tradition going back to Blavatzky of "our zombies are different" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... eDifferent) applied to mediumship (in which metaphysical groups having regular telepathic chats with invisible friends always come up with some newly invented words to describe their experience because the old words are embarrassing), Smith's friends were a bit snippy about his particular invisible friends being classy and upmarket and nothing so unfashionable as "spirits". From Topside 28:

As for the charge of "Spiritualism", this, of course, is a lot of nonsense, and it is somewhat amusing to observe the way in which some scientists, whose closed minds cannot grasp anything beyond their measurable 5 senses, use this expression almost as if it were a dirty word! Like WBS, we in the Ottowa New Sciences Club endeavour to keep an open mind on all subjects and therefore we do not deny whatever truth there may be in Spiritualism, but the fact remains that we are not and never have been practicing spiritualists or occultists. Let it therefore be categorically stated that Wilbert Smith, first and foremost a scientist, never wasted his valuable time dabbling in spiritualist activities; his profound study of the UFO Mystery led him inevitably to the Science of Metaphysics at which, having an open mind eager to learn all truths, he became an Advanced Adept and it was by this means that he secured invaluable scientific and philosophic data from the Space Brothers, always using the scientific method of independent confirmation of information received, as described earlier in this editorial. These messages were received by a specially-selected intermediary through direct telepathic communication with the Space Brothers - and since mental telepathy and ESP are now accepted facts by many Earth scientists who have made a serious study of these phenomena, it should not be too difficult for skeptics to accept that if thought transference is possible at great distance on this planet, then the exchange of pure thought between any intelligent beings must be equally possible throughout the wider distance of Outer Space. Natural Laws of the Cosmos are not confined to this planet alone.

As regards the scientific data WBS obtained from his space friends, "The Boys from Topside," he was able to test their genuineness and practical workability by protracted tests and experiments in the laboratory...

Honestly, I'm fine with invisible friends, and I don't care what one calls the specially-selected intermediary who passes on the direct telepathic messages, but we do already have a perfectly good word for that job, and it's "medium".

I guess if we were parsing for human organizations one could perhaps take "Science of Metaphysics" and "became an Advanced Adept" to mean "Smith joined some kind of metaphysical organization", and one could then speculate as to what organization that might have been using that specific language in 1950s Ottowa.


Regards, Nate

[natecull]

Recent video highlighting links to ROBERT SARBACHER as well...

Apologies, Jan & Nate (&Paul) if you've already traversed these rabbit trails...

Hi David. Yes, Sarbacher himself pretty much is the link between Townsend Brown and Wilbert Smith, if I remember correctly. That and the phrase "The Boys Topside". If there are other more specific links, I've temporarily forgotten them.

I'm not sure what specific points about Sarbacher this video is making, could you summarise them in text? I really can handle text much faster and easier than I can handle video. And text is more citeable/searchable and more trustworthy (because it's more citeable and searchable). Videos are usually trying to create hype and emotion, and that's often a bad fit for finding the truth. One exception is oral interviews with retired people, who are awesome and often talk more on video than they put on paper.

The general shape of the idea in my head is that Townsend Brown and some of his friends, such as Sarbacher - and others specifically in the Navy and WW2 radio scenes - represent the first generation of the "UFO Invisible College" that Jacques Vallee would later describe (in the 1970s I think). Vallee would be the second generation. Recent activists like the "Skinwalker Ranch" cluster are something like the third generation.

That first generation of the Invisible College were pretty good at keeping their mouths shut, because they had direct war and intelligence experience, which is why we don't hear so much about them. I think they all have some kind of somewhat esoteric outlook on life, and were connected to military and academic communities without actually being either military or academic. I think they were very good at networking and quietly keeping up links without looking like they were doing it; that after all is a key intelligence skill.

I think that the Invisible College basically IS the "UFO Program" and that it's not really an organized enterprise as such. I don't think anyone in it did UFOs as their "day job", because UFOs don't appear on cue and so no matter how many resources you put into hunting them, they would idle and be wasted. Rather I think the UFO IC is just the set of people who, each independently, found themselves drawn to the UFO mystery and who happened to have enough resources to attempt to do various investigations, sometimes on the government's dime, sometimes on a corporate payroll, sometimes just on their own. Some of them inside walls of secrecy and some of them outside. I don't think there's an overall plan and while I think there may be some interesting old documents in the secret world, as there are outside, the UFO fans "inside" the secret world don't actually know any more than the ones "outside". But everyone, even the secret ones, are haunted by the hope/fear that somewhere, somehow there MUST be some kind of "really secret UFO program" with all the answers. I doubt though that there is.

Regards, Nate

[natecull]

Reading Topside circa 1967-68, I'm noticing that the legend of Nikola Tesla features prominently in the Ottowa UFO circle, as is mentions of a person I didn't know about before: Arthur H Matthews, "Tesla's last assistant". There seems to be a Canadian (particularly Quebec) connection with Tesla that I wasn't aware of.

For example, this 2020 transcript of an audio tape allegedly by Matthews ( https://www.patreon.com/posts/arthur-h-nikola-40893482 ) describes a camp with Tesla and a "Major Henry Sanford, from New York City" in Quebec in some unspecified year (but from context later in the transcript, probably 1932). It then continues with Matthews mentioning that in 1969, he was involved with trying to analyze the Ottowa Flying Saucer Club's "mystery chunk of hardware". Matthews' claims about Tesla's 1932 prototype hardware, including color television (barely possible but would rewrite TV history if true) and an audio recorder with "no moving parts" (not plausible at all), and what sounds like an EMP weapon (possible in vague theory at the time, but not at all likely to have been built), stretch the bounds of credibility.

The "Major Henry Sanford" involved appears to have been this gentleman, who died June 17, 1940 aged 1963, and whose obituary I can't otherwise read:
https://www.nytimes.com/1940/06/18/arch ... ad-of.html

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 17-- Henry Sanford, who served in France in the World War as major in the Quartermaster's Department, died this afternoon at his residence, the Mayflower Hotel, of a pulmonary ailment after a week's illness. Apparently recovering, he suffered a sudden relapse.

With all this Canadian scene, I'm wondering at what point William Stephenson in his retirement might have ever crossed paths with the Ottowa government radio UFO circle. Or whether he was more happy to hang out in the Bahamas with his other spy friends.

Regards, Nate

[Jan Lundquist]

I really can handle text much faster and easier than I can handle video.

Ditto.

Nate, I think you have summarized the UFO field very eloquently, though I would put it a bit differently: Nobody knows nuttin'.

I am so happy that your decades long diligent research was recognized in the video. I think the guys found information and anti-grav researchers from you that they would not have located on their own. To summarize and save you the watch, it's a recap of the commonly accepted Sarbacher story, veering from UFO to anti-gravity.

I still maintain that Irving R Sarbacher, known as Irving before the war, served on an ALSOS mission as army Lt. Col, Robert Staver from the Jet propulsion lab, accompanied by "an engineer named Hull." The link to that story is probably in the Sarbacher records on this forum.

Newspapers.com has many stories on "Robert Starbacher." Though there are stories from DC, Florida, Georgia, and other places. there is only a brief mention of his wartime service as involved with Radar research

Frustratingly, though I can also find several stories about Townsend, alas, most of them are from the Zanesville papers. I would think that mastering gravity would have been picked up by larger papers, the only one I've found that carried the 1929 story was the Montreal Gazette.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 120577530/

Interestingly, this article is not a reprint of the 10-day old Zanesville story, but a highly simplified, yet competent explanation that includes details that were not published in the Zanesville account.

but Montreal is not Ottawa, and Louis Cornillion, a specialist in French Antiques, is the only possible 6 degrees of separation connection from there to Townsend. This Cornillion was old enough to be the father of antiques dealer, Jacques, who maintained homes in DC and Washington.



jan

[natecull]

It amuses me that one of the repeated correspondents in Topside is a "Miss Rey d'Aquila", who also appears in Marc Hallet's "A Critical Appraisal" as an Adamski co-worker in Amsterdam.

I wonder whether the writers of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" were aware of this person when they named their protagonist.

Regards, Nate