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William Brockhouse Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1910 Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada |
| Died | 27 December 1962 Ottawa, Canada |
| Education | University of British Columbia |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Awards | Lieutenant-Colonel Keith S. Rogers Memorial Engineering Award |
William Brockhouse Smith (b, Lethbridge, Canada 1910 - d. Ottawa, 1962) was a Canadian engineer, government scientist and author of various patents and technical papers.
Smith received bachelor and graduate degrees in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia, graduating with an MSc in 1934. [1] From 1934 to 1939 Smith was the chief engineer of Vancouver radio station CJOR.
In 1939 Smith joined the federal Department of Transport (DOT) and began work to help develop Canada's wartime signal monitoring system. Broadcasting was in its infancy at this time. Smith's work included researching radio waves and their propagation, ground wave conductivities, frequency and power standards, communications with ships at sea, the design and construction of antenna systems and minimizing interference with US broadcasting frequencies. Smith also investigated various atmospheric effects, auroras, cosmic radiation and geo-magnetism and believed the earth's magnetic field was a potential source of energy.
In 1947 Smith established Canada's farth north ionospheric monitoring system. He was Canada's chief delegate to the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) conferences in 1949 and 1950 that set AM and FM broadcast standards for Canada, the US, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In 1952 Smith helped to implement the Canada - US Television Allocation Agreement. At the time, Smith was Senior Radio Engineer for the DOT's Broadcast and Measurements section. [2]
At the 1950 NARBA conference Smith learned from US scientist Dr. Robert Sarbacher that Americans believed flying saucers were real and their investigations of them, led by Dr. Vannevar Bush, were more highly classified than information about the hydrogen bomb. [3] After his return to Canada Smith wrote a memo dated November 21, 1950 which became classified 'Top Secret' until being downgraded to 'Confidential' in 1969. Smith requested approval to investigate geo-magnetics as a potential way to detect flying saucers and help prove or disprove their existence. His request was approved as a secret project called Project Magnet. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The Project also involved Dr James Watt, a Defense Research Board theoretical physicist, John Thompson, a Department of Transport technical expert, Prof. J.T. Wilson of the University of Toronto and Dr. G.D. Garland, a Dominion Observatory gravitational expert.
In 1952 Smith was appointed to Project Second Storey, a Canadian committee set up to consider "the UFO problem". [9]
The front page of the November 11, 1953 Ottawa Journal newspaper reported on the UFO sighting station at Shirleys Bay near Ottawa that used a magnetometer, gamma-ray detector, radio receiver, gravity meter and recording equipment to detect anomalous readings.
In 1957 Smith was appointed the DOT's Superintendent of Radio Regulations Engineering, Telecommunications Division. Smith claimed his research showed that gravity could be created and controlled and he had been working on an anti-gravity device before he died of cancer in 1962, but had taken it apart, telling his wife that the world was not ready for it. [10] [11] [12]
In 1963 Smith was posthumously awarded the Keith S. Rogers Memorial Engineering Award for dedicated service in the advancement of technical standards in Canadian Broadcasting.
In 2015 the world's first detection of gravitational waves took place at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories (LIGO) located at Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana.
After Smith's death his wife published his unfinished book called The New Science [13] and Arthur Bray, a retired Canadian military pilot, acquired Smith's other papers which later were donated to the University of Ottawa. [14]
An unidentified flying object (UFO), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), is any perceived airborne, submerged or transmedium phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.
UFO conspiracy theories are a subset of conspiracy theories which argue that various governments and politicians globally, in particular the United States government, are suppressing evidence that unidentified flying objects are controlled by a non-human intelligence or built using alien technology. Such conspiracy theories usually argue that Earth governments are in communication or cooperation with extraterrestrial visitors despite public disclaimers, and further that some of these theories claim that the governments are explicitly allowing alien abduction.
Robert Scott Lazar is an American conspiracy theorist. In 1989, Lazar claimed to have been part of a classified US government project concerned with the reverse engineering of extraterrestrial technology; he also purported to have read government briefing documents that described alien involvement in human affairs over the past 10,000 years. A self-proclaimed physicist, Lazar supposedly worked at a secret site near the United States Air Force facility popularly known as Area 51. His story brought additional public attention to the facility and spawned conspiracy theories regarding government knowledge of extraterrestrial life.
The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) proposes that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by extraterrestrial intelligence or non-human aliens, or non-occupied alien probes from other planets visiting Earth.
Donald Howard Menzel was one of the first theoretical astronomers and astrophysicists in the United States. He discovered the physical properties of the solar chromosphere, the chemistry of stars, the atmosphere of Mars, and the nature of gaseous nebulae.
In ufology, the psychosocial hypothesis, abbreviated PSH, argues that at least some UFO reports are best explained by psychological or social means. It is often contrasted with the better-known extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), and is particularly popular among UFO researchers in the United Kingdom, such as David Clarke, Hilary Evans, the editors of Magonia magazine, and many of the contributors to Fortean Times magazine. It has also been popular in France since the publication in 1977 of a book written by Michel Monnerie, Et si les ovnis n'existaient pas?.
Shirleys Bay is a bay of the Ottawa River, about sixteen kilometres from downtown Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Shirleys Bay also includes a significant wetland and nature preserve that is part of an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area the Lac Deschênes-Ottawa River IBA.
Jacques Fabrice Vallée is an Internet pioneer, computer scientist, venture capitalist, author, ufologist and astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California and Paris, France.
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is a 1956 American science fiction film from Columbia Pictures. It was produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Fred F. Sears, and stars Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor. The stop-motion animation special effects were created by Ray Harryhausen. The storyline was suggested by the bestselling 1953 non-fiction book Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Maj. Donald Keyhoe. The film was released as a double feature with The Werewolf.
Below is a partial list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Canada.
Project Magnet was an unidentified flying object (UFO) study programme established by Transport Canada in December 1950 under the direction of Wilbert Brockhouse Smith, senior radio engineer for Transport Canada's Broadcast and Measurements Section. It was formally active until mid-1954 and informally active until Smith's death in 1962. Smith eventually concluded that UFOs were probably extraterrestrial in origin and likely operated by manipulation of magnetism.
From July 12 to 29, 1952, a series of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings were reported in Washington, D.C., and later became known as the Washington flap, the Washington National Airport Sightings, or the Invasion of Washington. The most publicized sightings took place on consecutive weekends, July 19–20 and July 26–27. UFO historian Curtis Peebles called the incident "the climax of the 1952 (UFO) flap"—"Never before or after did Project Blue Book and the Air Force undergo such a tidal wave of (UFO) reports."
A flying saucer, or flying disc, is a purported disc-shaped UFO. In science fiction, reported UFO sightings, and UFO conspiracy theories, they are typically piloted by nonhuman beings. The terms flying saucer and flying disc can be used generically for a mysterious flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has gradually been supplanted since 1952 by the United States Air Force term unidentified flying object (UFO), the downside of which being that, according to the term, absolutely anything can be a UFO. Early reported sightings of flying saucers usually described them as silver or metallic, sometimes reported as covered with navigation lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly, either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft, and exhibiting high maneuverability.
American interest in "gravity control propulsion research" intensified during the early 1950s. Literature from that period used the terms anti-gravity, anti-gravitation, baricentric, counterbary, electrogravitics (eGrav), G-projects, gravitics, gravity control, and gravity propulsion. Their publicized goals were to discover and develop technologies and theories for the manipulation of gravity or gravity-like fields for propulsion. Although general relativity theory appeared to prohibit anti-gravity propulsion, several programs were funded to develop it through gravitation research from 1955 to 1974. The names of many contributors to general relativity and those of the golden age of general relativity have appeared among documents about the institutions that had served as the theoretical research components of those programs. Since its emergence in the 1950s, the existence of the related gravity control propulsion research has not been a subject of controversy for aerospace writers, critics, and conspiracy theory advocates alike, but their rationale, effectiveness, and longevity have been the objects of contested views.
The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/h). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold's description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs.
Project Second Storey, also known as Project Second Story, Project Flying Saucers and also Project Theta, was a committee set up on April 22, 1952 in Canada, to deal with material concerning Flying Saucers.
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) is a consortium of astronomers who share a common goal of detecting gravitational waves via regular observations of an ensemble of millisecond pulsars using the Green Bank Telescope, Arecibo Observatory, the Very Large Array, and the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). Future observing plans include up to 25% total time of the Deep Synoptic Array 2000 (DSA2000). This project is being carried out in collaboration with international partners in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array in Australia, the European Pulsar Timing Array, and the Indian Pulsar Timing Array as part of the International Pulsar Timing Array.
Samaya Michiko Nissanke is an astrophysicist, associate professor in gravitational wave and multi-messenger astrophysics and the spokesperson for the GRAPPA Centre for Excellence in Gravitation and Astroparticle Physics at the University of Amsterdam. She works on gravitational-wave astrophysics and has played a founding role in the emerging field of multi-messenger astronomy. She played a leading role in the discovery paper of the first binary neutron star merger, GW170817, seen in gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation.
The Flying Saucer Conspiracy is a 1955 book authored by early UFO researcher Donald Keyhoe. The book pointedly accused elements of United States government of engaging in a conspiracy to cover up knowledge of flying saucers. Keyhoe claims the existence of a "silence group" of orchestrating this conspiracy.
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects is a 1956 book by then-retired Air Force UFO investigator Edward J. Ruppelt, detailing his experience running Project Bluebook. The book was noted for its suggestion that a few UFO sightings might be linked to spikes of atomic radiation. Contemporary media summarized four topics discussed in the book:
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