Daniel Tarr (et.al)
The Betz Sphere
- A review -
2014.
The mysterious silver ball that seemed to move on its own came to a Florida family in 1974. Was it alien?
Strange sphere baffles U.S. navy
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - The United States Navy says it is mystified by a metal sphere found by a family here.
"There's certainly something odd about it," CPO Chris Berninger said after initial attempts at identifying the 25-pound object that the Antoine Betz family says appeared outside their home here recently.
(In the picture to the right, 12-year-old Wayne Betz wonders if the sphere is some kind of bugging device.)
"We're going to use a more powerful machine on it and also run spectograph tests to determine what metal it's made of," Berninger said.
The family said the ball moves strangely, apparently of its own volition, and throbs as though a motor were running inside.
The sphere, slightly smaller than a bowling ball, appears to be made of stainless steel.
[ Source : NOUFORS ] |
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The Betz Mystery Sphere
It was March 27, 1974, and members of the Betz family were in Florida, inspecting the damage done by a small brushfire near their property on Ft. George Island. The island is a patch of dry ground among the coastal marshlands of northeastern Florida, well timbered with beautiful moss-draped trees and tropical scrub. Antoine and Jerri Betz, accompanied by their 21-year-old son Terry, happened to stumble upon a surprising object: a bright metal globe, about the size of a bowling ball, just sitting there in the grass. It was quite heavy, but otherwise unremarkable. They guessed it might have been an old cannonball; the island has a long history going all the way back to a 16th century Spanish mission. For whatever reason, they liked the ball and decided to take it home. And that's when the Betzes' lives changed.
It began when Terry was playing guitar. The family reported that the ball strangely resonated the music. And then it began to move around, all on its own. The Betzes experimented with it, placed it on their table, and watched it navigate its own way around the perimeter without falling off. Doors began slamming themselves around the house. Mysterious organ music filled the residence, even though there was no organ. Finally the Betzes had had enough, and contacted the newspapers in the hope that someone might tell them what the bizarre artifact was.
The Jacksonville Journal sent a photographer, Lou Egner. Mrs. Betz told him to put the sphere on the floor:
"It rolled a ways then stopped. So what? She said, 'Just wait a minute.' It turned by itself and rolled to the right about four feet. It stopped. Then it turned again and rolled to the left about eight feet, made a big arc and came right back to my feet."
What followed was something of a media frenzy. One of the many callers was Carl Willson from a holistic institute in Baton Rouge, LA called Omega One. Willson spent six hours examining the ball at the Betz home, and reported not only that it had a powerful magnetic field, but it was also transmitting a radio signal.
The Ball from Space
Terry Betz was a twenty-one year old pre-med student. He and his father, Antoine, were inspecting 88 acres of newly acquired timberland located on Fort George Island just east of Jacksonville, Florida, when they came across a highly polished, round, metal ball, approximately the size of a bowling ball. The date was May 27, 1974.
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Terry decided to take the ball back home. Later on he gave it a closer examination and found it to be a perfect sphere, slightly smaller than a regular size bowling ball. Its weight was 25 pounds. Terry soon also discovered that the ball seemed to move with a mind of its own. When he rolled it, it always rolled away from him as any ball would do, eventually stopping. However, once it paused, it would roll back to him! Sometimes it would veer off to the side, stop, then vibrate for a short time, but always returned to the person who rolled it.
Lou Egner, a reporter and photographer for a Jacksonville newspaper, was sent to do a story on the unusual sphere. Being very skeptical of the unknown ball, the reporter gave it a roll. He later said that the ball stopped, made a turn rolling four more feet, then stopped again. It then rolled another eight feet, made a big arc, then rolled right back toward him, stopping at his feet.
The reporter took the time to examine the ball closely, he later wrote in his story, and found that it was made of some sort of metal, very similar in appearance to stainless steel. The ball had no seams on it, and only a small triangular mark on its surface. One spot on its surface attracted metal as would a magnet.
The family continued to play with the ball for several weeks and found many more amazing things it was able it was able to do. For example, when Terry struck the ball with a metal object (like a metal tool) it produced a ringing sound, and strumming his guitar near it caused the ball to emit a sound as if responding to the guitar. They also found the ball was sensitive to weather conditions: sunny days produced more activity than cloudy days. Direct heat or infrared seemed to have no effect on it. |
Yet, the most amazing feature of the ball was how it performed when placed on a flat surface above ground level. When placed on a piece of glass above the ground, it would roll to the edge, but not fall off... it would go right up to the edge, stop, reverse direction and stop at the other edge. It seemed as if the sphere had some sort of built-in sensing or guidance system. It the case of the piece of glass, it would eventually roll along the edge of the glass as if trying to find a way to get off.
At this point, the Betz family began to consider the possibility that they might be in possession of some type of alien space probe, so they decided to have scientific test done on the object. The “ball from space” was examined by Dr Carl Williston of Omega Minus One, an institution located in the state of Louisiana at the time. In his six hours of testing, Dr Williston found that the sphere contained three magnetic poles and a possible fourth. He stated that the aspect of the magnetic field was a mind bender, the flux density of the field appeared to vary in strength based on an unknown pattern. Simply stated, the power of the magnetic portion varied up and down. Back in 1974, this phenomenon was not part of our known physics. The same applied to the multiple poles.
An x-ray was taken of the object which revealed 3 similar spheroid shapes within the ball. Curiously, these 3 shapes had a “halo” surrounding them, as though they were surrounded by a material with a different density. The metal was similar to stainless steel, but had some unknown content making it slightly different.
Conclusions: This unusual ball was a magnetic sphere sensitive to magnetic fields, numerous sound emissions, and mechanical stimulation. It was both passive and active. If it was an extraterrestrial probe, it might possibly be in a damaged state.
Where is the Betz ball today? There is no certainty as to its present location. At one point though, the mysterious sphere had created enough excitement that both Dr J Allen Hyneck and Dr James A. Harder (former APRO Director of Research) wanted to perform their own testing; however, I am not sure if the tests were ever carried out. Unfortunately, both men are now deceased.
If someone made the metal sphere, they apparently went through a lot of trouble (and money) to create it as well as they did. It makes no sense that they did not bother to try and retrieve it. Perhaps, the “ball from space” might, indeed, be just that... something from beyond our Earth.
[Source : Godlikeproductions ] |
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The Betz Mystery Sphere: Alien Artifact or Doomsday Device?
This bizarre, allegedly self propelled, seamless metallic orb was discovered by members of the Betz family in 1974, and rapidly became the object of fascination, controversy and alarm for scientists, military officials, ufologists and the general public as the story of this mystery sphere spread like wildfire through the international media.
On May 26, 1974, Terry Mathew Betz, a 21 year-old pre-med student, along his mother Gerri and his marine engineer father, Antoine, were inspecting the damage caused by a brush fire that had raged across an 88-acre swathe of woodland that they had recently acquired on marshy Fort George Island, which is nestled just east of Jacksonville, Florida.
At first the trio found nothing out of the ordinary, but before their expedition was over they stumbled across a peculiar highly polished, metal orb that was just under 8-inches in diameter. The only delineating mark that the three could find on the eerily unblemished object was an elongated triangular shape stamped into its surface.
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Stunned, Terry and his parents wondered whether or not they might have stumbled across some kind of downed NASA or maybe even Soviet satellite.
Perhaps they even speculated that the friction induced heat of this object plummeting from its orbit might have had something to do with the fire that had ravaged the property, but none of them could find any signs of an impact crater or any indication of collision or heat damage on the gleaming metal globe.
The trio then surmised that it might be an “old fashioned canon ball, which someone had silver plated,” as a souvenir. Intrigued by this extraordinary find, Terry decided to heft the 22 lbs., bowling ball sized sphere into their car and take it back to their castle-like home, where he showed the unusual object to a 12 year-old relative named Wayne. He was just as perplexed by the mystery object as the rest of the family had been. |
The young medical student then placed his strange prize on a window seat in his bedroom, and there the anomalous object remained, virtually forgotten, until approximately two weeks later when Terry decided to entertain his friend, Theresa Fraser, with an impromptu guitar recital in his room, eliciting some decidedly unusual reactions from this enigmatic orb.
THE MYSTERY SPHERE AWAKENS
According to Terry’s report, moments after he began strumming his guitar the metallic ball started to “vibrate like a tuning fork,” and began emitting a curious throbbing sound in response to certain notes. This sound was accompanied by what seemed to be an inaudible — at least to human ears — resonance that deeply disturbed the Betz family’s dog.
Days later, in the April 15, 1974, edition of the Palm Beach Post, Gerri Betz was quoted as saying: “There must be high frequency waves from it. When we put our poodle beside the ball, she whimpers and puts her paws over her ears.”
In the days that followed this strange performance, the Betz family began to notice some of the sphere’s other peculiar attributes. They observed that when the orb was pushed across the floor it would stop, vibrate for a moment, change direction (often more than once) and invariably return to whoever first rolled it. In one unprecedented circumstance it rolled for 12-minutes straight without a single pause!
As if this weren’t astounding enough, Terry and his family soon realized that the sphere — in defiance of all logic — appeared to be responsive to weather conditions; becoming noticeably more active on bright days as opposed to overcast ones, as if it were being directly affected by the solar energy. Although it was clearly influenced by sunlight, the sphere did not register any obvious changes when exposed to direct heat or infrared light.
The steel globe would also sporadically vibrate at a low frequency as if “a motor were running inside” and, just as intriguingly, had just one, relatively small, intensely magnetic spot on its surface. |
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Terry — displaying the kind of inquisitive instincts that all science students should — began to conduct a series of homespun experiments on the object.
His initial efforts were rudimentary and consisted of tapping the orb gently with a hammer, which resulted in a distinctly bell-like “ringing” sound, but it wouldn’t be until Terry placed the object on the flat, glass surface of his mother’s coffee table in order to display his unique find that things would get really interesting.
In one attempt after another, the smooth sphere would consistently roll right to the precipice of the glass surface, pause and then reverse its direction; only to stop again at the opposite edge and repeat the maneuver.
The Betz family began considering the possibility that this object was equipped with a sophisticated guidance system or was perhaps being intelligently controlled either from within or by some enigmatic external force. The family decided that the sphere almost certainly appeared to be striving to get safely to the ground without falling.
An even more bizarre event occurred when one of the family members decided to slant the table at an upwards angle and the orb began to spin up the incline utilizing its own momentum. This seemingly impossible defiance of the laws of Newtonian gravity left the Betz tribe thoroughly baffled. |
While there’s no overt connection between the cases, it’s worth noting that during the summer of 1972, a similar (though not spherical) anomalous object plagued a group of teens who repeatedly managed to capture and lose a small, self propelled, evidently intelligently guided device over a vexing 4-weeks period in the Kera area of Kōchi City, Japan. The strange device came to be known as the » Kera UFO. This object’s movements also defied logic and appeared to be motivated by self preservation “instincts.”
As if to further indicate that the sphere may have been harboring something (or possibly someone) sensitive within, it seemed to resist all attempts at being shaken by its human handlers. In the April 16, 1974, edition of Lodi, California’s News Sentinel, Gerri stated:
“If you shake the ball vigorously and then place it on the ground it feels just like a huge Mexican jumping bean, which is trying to get away from you.”
The Betz family became so concerned about the sphere’s clear ability to independently navigate its way around their home that they took to placing it in a sealed bag at night so that the object couldn’t escape. After days of watching the sphere perform these incredible feats, the Betz family decided that it was time to go to the public and try to find out just what it was that they actually had in their possession. |
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THE MEDIA FRENZY BEGINS
The first call that Gerri Betz made was to the local Jacksonville Journal. The Journal was intrigued by their story — 1976 was, after all, near the peak of the halcyon days of paranormal research — and they sent out a seasoned photographer, Lon Enger, to get the story and snap a few pictures. The skeptical Enger dutifully accepted the assignment, but secretly feared he might be stepping into a den of crackpots… he would abandon that theory soon enough.
When Enger arrived at the Betz home he was eagerly greeted by Gerri who wasted no time in presenting him with the sphere. Enger described the moment for the April 12, 1974, edition of the St. Petersburg Times: “I’m leery of this kind of thing. When I got there, Mrs. Betz said, ‘you won’t believe this if you don’t see it.’”
That was when the matriarch of the Betz clan instructed the still dubious Enger to give the ball a little shove across the floor. Here’s the event in Enger’s own words:
“She told me to put it on the floor and give it a push. It rolled a ways and stopped. So what? She said, ‘just wait a minute.’ It turned by itself and rolled to the tight about four feet. It stopped. Then it turned again and rolled to the left about eight feet, made a big arc and came back right to my feet.”
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Enger examined the steel ball intently and, like the Betz family before him, could find no seams and no indication of a manufacturer on the surface; save for the inscrutable triangular symbol stamped on its side. As soon as the now converted photographer relayed his fantastic story to his editor, the paper wasted no time in publishing his account and within days a worldwide media firestorm was ignited.
Reporters from such prestigious publications as the New York Times, the London Daily and dozens of other papers from as far away as Japan called or traveled down to St. George Island to see this mystery sphere with their own eyes, but it wasn’t just journalists whose curiosity was piqued by this strange case. The scientific and military communities were also clamoring for a good look at this unusual object.
Representatives of the both the U.S. Marine Corps and NASA contacted the Betz family, as did UFO investigators representing the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). The visitors often arrived skeptical, but almost universally left both impressed and perplexed by the sphere’s bizarre abilities.
A U.S. Marine spokesman even went so far as to admit on television that the ball had behaved strangely in his presence and conceded that he was unable to explain its origin. An official press release issued by Marines publicly stated that the ball was not the property of the United States government.
By this point Antoine had been forced to return to the sea on a freighter and Gerri and her children were swept up in a media maelstrom from which there seemed to be no reprieve.
The family, who had intentionally chosen an isolated place to live, had become overwhelmed by the press feeding frenzy and in the April 14, 1974 edition of the Palm Beach Post, Gerri was quoted as saying:
“We came to Fort George Island to get away to a serene atmosphere. Now I can’t get away from the telephone. It means nothing to people in the West that it’s midnight here. And when they quit calling those on the East wake up and start.”
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DR. HYNEK AND THE SPHERE
At the peak of this frenzy, renowned astronomer and ufologist, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, requested that the Betz family send the sphere to his office at Northwestern University in Chicago so he could personally inspect it, but Gerri refused because she was warned that the one of a kind object might be seized or misplaced.
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According to 1980’s, extraterrestrial omnibus, “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” by Ronald D. Story:
“After notices appeared in the press Dr. J. Allen Hynek, of Northwestern University, requested that the ball be sent to him for examination. Subsequent callers, however, suggested to Mrs. Betz that trusting it to a public carrier would break the continuity and allow for interception, substitution, or ‘loss.’”
Evidently this was an assessment that Dr, Hynek — who notably served as a consultant for, and had a cameo in, Steven Spielberg’s influential “Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind” — agreed with. According to a report published in the April 16, 1974, edition of News Sentinel:
“She [Gerri Betz] said that experts she has talked to at Northwestern University decides it would be ‘too much risk’ to fly the sphere to Chicago for examination.”
To the chagrin of scores of scientists and military officers the sphere remained firmly entrenched in the Betz’ home, and that is where the unusual object remained until a bizarre series of unexplainable events forced the family to wonder whether or not this outwardly innocuous orb was capable of channeling — and perhaps unleashing — supernatural forces. |
Following the wave of newspaper reports, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a UFOlogist and astronomer at Northwestern University in Chicago, contacted the Betz family and asked to examine the ball. However since he was all the way up in Chicago, and they were all the way down in Florida, nobody wanted to take the risk of shipping it. But as luck would have it, Dr. Hynek was in New Orleans, LA the following week for a meeting with the National Enquirer tabloid, which was establishing a $50,000 prize for definitive proof of aliens. Since Hynek and several other scientists on the Enquirer's panel were all there, Terry Betz and his sister drove out from Florida to show them the ball in person.
Hynek's 1972 book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry had made him perhaps the most popularly known UFOlogist of the day. But on the Betz sphere, his verdict was a disappointing one. According to a report in the St. Petersburg Independent:
Hynek says none of the five scientists now think the ball is anything but manmade. "None will go so far as to say it's extra-terrestrial," he said in an interview yesterday. "They would be putting their scientific reputations on the line."
THE HAUNTED SPHERE
ust when the almost unbearably hectic scene that surrounded the Betz house started to become almost routine for the harried family, things suddenly took a decided turn for the weird… or weirder, as the case may be.
Gerri Betz reported that she and her family began to hear strange organ-like music wafting through their cavernous abode in the dead of night, even though there was no such instrument in their home. As if that weren’t creepy enough, doors began slamming, seemingly of their own volition, at all hours of the day and night.
While the Betz family claimed that they weren’t afraid of the poltergeist-like forces that seemed to have invaded their home, this new development did cause concern for Antoine and Gerri who decided that it was high time they got to the bottom of this mystery. To help them achieve that goal they contacted… |
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THE UNITED STATES NAVY
Mrs. Betz then called the US Navy base directly across the water from the island and asked if they could examine it; perhaps it was theirs. They did so, but returned it to the Betzes once they verified that it was not Navy property. They X-rayed it and did a metallurgical test and found it to be high grade yet common stainless steel; hollow with a shell approximately 1/2 inch thick (about 13 mm); measured 7.96 inches in diameter (202.2 mm); and weighed 21.34 pounds (9.68 kg). The numbers added up, it was the right weight for that much stainless steel. Its surface was scuffed but seamless, with only one identifying mark: a tiny triangle about 3mm long.
Following a series of frightening nighttime disturbances, the Betz family finally relinquished the sphere to the scientists posted at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The initial efforts of the Navy metallurgists were met with dead ends as their X-ray machines were not strong enough to penetrate the orb. According to Navy spokesperson, CPO Chris Berninger:
“Our first X-ray attempts got us nowhere. We’re going to use a more powerful machine on it and also run spectograph tests to determine what metal it’s made of… There’s certainly something odd about it.”
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Eventually the scientists at the station were able to determine that the exact size of the sphere was 7.96 inches in diameter and that it weighed precisely 21.34 pounds.
They also concluded that the shell of the orb was approximately one half inch thick — which, according to the report, could withstand a pressure of 120,000 pounds per square inch — and made of stainless steel, specifically magnetic ferrous alloy #431. This alloy is a magnetic, Nickel bearing stainless steel designed for heat treatment to the highest mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.
The Navy team’s powerful 300 KV X-ray also discovered two round objects inside the sphere surrounded by a “halo” made of a material with an unusual density. They also noted that the sphere displayed four different magnetic poles, two positive and two negative, which were not concentric. |
The Navy also concluded that while the orb was intensely magnetic, it did not show signs of radioactivity and did not appear to be an explosive. At this point the Navy scientists wanted to cut into the object to get a better look, but Gerri Betz steadfastly refused; stating to the press:
“I told them we expect a comprehensive report in two weeks, and if it can’t be identified as government property it is to be returned to us.”
The Navy made good on their promise and returned the sphere, but lingering questions remained as to the origin and identity of the odd object. At this point the Betz family began to seriously consider the possibility that they were in possession of genuine extraterrestrial technology or an “alien bugging device” as the some of their neighbors dubbed it. According to Gerri:
“If no other explanation can be found that’s as logical as any… Who could say what’s on another planet, even speculations have been proven wrong. The Navy says what it isn’t. They say it isn’t an explosive. So we still want to know what it is.”
Berninger, of course, was hesitant to even entertain the extraterrestrial origin hypothesis, stating in April 15, 1974, edition of the Palm Beach Post: “I don’t know who manufactured it, but I say it came from Earth. We do know that it’s not explosive and presents no hazard.”
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As assured as Berninger’s words seemed to be, this opinion regarding the supposed safety as well as the terrestrial origin of the sphere would not be shared by other scientists who tested the anomalous steel ball. The first of these men of science would represent the frankly insidious sounding…
OMEGA MINUS ONE INSTITUTE
On April 13, 1974, Dr. Carl Willson — representing a Louisiana research firm known as the Omega Minus One Institute in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — showed up on the scene. Dr. Willson examined the sphere for over 6-hours and discovered what Ottawa’s, The Citizen newspaper described as: “Radio waves coming from it and a magnetic field around it.”
Dr. Willson confirmed the Navy’s discovery of multiple poles within the sphere and claimed that this phenomenon was a “mind bender,” as the flux density of the field appeared to fluctuate in potency based on an as yet unidentified pattern. This, he claimed, defied the known laws of physics.
The good doctor evidently went on to suggest that the metal that made up the shell of the orb, while comparable to stainless steel, contained an unknown element making it slightly different from steel.
Dr. Willson also apparently witnessed the sphere’s ability to propel itself across surfaces and abruptly change directions, but “was unable to determine a pattern in the movement” or explain how that was even possible. One of the theories posited was that it might be a damaged extraterrestrial probe or perhaps even some sort of an anti-gravitational device.
In the end, the Omega Minus One Institute’s findings regarding the identity of the mystery sphere were just as inconclusive as the Navy’s, and the Betz family were no closer to the truth. It was be then that members of the APRO managed to convince the family that they might be in possession of evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence and as such were legitimately eligible to win the National Enquirer’s then $50,000 reward for…
PROOF POSITIVE OF UFOS
In the early 1970s, the editorial staff of the National Enquirer — and most other popular publications, for that matter — took a serious interest (at least in terms of profit margins) in subjects like cryptozoology, ufology and the supernatural.
On March 12, 1972, the publication offered an award of $10,000 for the “best scientific evidence of the reality of UFOs” and $50,000 to: “the first person who can prove that an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) came from outer space and is not a natural phenomenon.” This already bountiful sum was raised to $1,000,000 by 1976.
While the Enquirer was considered by most to be little more than a supermarket tabloid, the publication took great pains to assemble what they referred to as a “Blue Ribbon Panel,” which consisted of noted scientists including » Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dr. James Albert Harder, Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle — who in 1974, was involved in the investigation of the infamous » Carl Higdon abduction case — biologist Frank B. Salisbury and State University of New York professor of philosophy, Dr Robert F Creegan.
Besides the Ph.D holders, the panel was rounded out by such esteemed members as a former Supreme Court Justice, a former Attorney General of the United States and a former New York Court of Appeals Judge. The heads of the APRO, MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) and NICAP (National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena) were also on hand to form a sort of “mini panel,” that was in charge of deciding which cases would go before the primary panel.
The team came together once a year and was charged with the daunting task of designating the most legitimate cases of UFO encounters reported in the past year, as well as examining any physical evidence of said encounters.
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It would be at the panel’s discretion to decide if any of this evidence represented incontrovertible proof of alien life and thus award its presenter the prize money. Up until this point the only winner was Durel Johnson and family who were involved in the renowned Delphos, Kansas UFO encounter, resulting in an intriguing series of photos, which won them $5,000 for “scientifically valuable evidence on UFOs.”
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TERRY AND THE SPHERE HEAD OUT
In 1974 the panel convened in New Orleans and the Betz family decided to send the mystery sphere to the event. While they no doubt hoped to become the recipients of the substantial reward, the family’s primary objective was to expose the sphere to these esteemed scientists who might be able to suggest what further analysis might be performed to identify the anomalous orb.
Terry was designated as the personal courier of the object and was sent to New Orleans with the sphere in tow. Needless to say, the mystery sphere became the center of attention and between April 20 and 21, 1974, the device was subjected to yet another battery of tests.
While the panel confirmed much of what the Omega Minus One Institute and the Navy’s researchers had already revealed — including the fact that that the object acted like an audio transponder — it could not discern the origin of the orb, but, as intrigued as the panel members were by the object, the fact that it had no direct connection to any UFO sighting negated any possibility of the Betz’s winning the $50,000 reward. |
In the end, Hynek surmised that the object was likely man-made, although he conceded that he had no idea what it was or where it came from, but the orb also caught the attention of one of his Blue Ribbon Panel colleagues and this noted scientist’s investigation into the object would take a potentially terrifying turn, forcing him to ask:
IS THE SPHERE A DOOMSDAY DEVICE?
Dr. James Albert Harder — a professor emeritus of civil and hydraulic engineering at the University of California at Berkeley — became increasingly intrigued by the reports he was reading regarding the Betz sphere as was no doubt delighted by his opportunity to examine the object first hand.
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Following the National Enquirer competition, the Betz’s allowed him to examine the globe, the results of which were disconcerting to say the least. Below is an excerpt from “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” that helps to illustrate the scene:
“Dr. James A. Harder, the APRO’s consultant in civil engineering, commented that an X-ray of the sphere should result in a donut shaped presentation. However, the Navy X-ray showed two internal spheres after the 300 KV X-ray bombardment rendered the shell invisible. This indicates that the internal material is more dense than the stainless steel shell. Thus, a substantial portion of the weight in the internal material, and the shell could be much thinner than half an inch.”
If all of the above seems a little anticlimactic, then all one needs to do is read the final conclusions that Dr. Harder came to regarding the nature of the sphere and its internal contents. In an announcement made at the International UFO Congress in Chicago on June 24, 1977, Dr. Harder presented his truly astonishing, and utterly terrifying, findings regarding the Betz sphere. According to Story:
“He [Dr. Harder] asserted, based on his X-ray studies, that the two internal spheres are made of elements far heavier than anything known to science. While the heaviest element yet produced in any atomic reactor here on Earth has an atomic number of 105, and the heaviest element occurring naturally on Earth is uranium, with an atomic number of 92, Harder claims to have determined that the Betz sphere has atomic numbers higher than 140. If one were to drill into the sphere, he asserted, ‘perhaps the masses would go critical’ and explode like an atomic bomb.”
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As if this weren’t potentially dire enough, Harder went on to warn the assembled audience of scientists and UFO investigators that any attempt to discern the contents of the sphere might unintentionally set it off… or, worse yet, offend it’s ostensibly extraterrestrial creators:
“Because of this danger, and because the object is still presumably under surveillance by its supposed alien makers, Harder warned the audience against any attempt to go to Florida to investigate the Betz sphere.”
It went unreported whether or not the Betz family concurred with Dr. Harding’s potentially apocalyptic conclusions, but it is difficult to believe that they were not at least a little anxious about the potentially devastating effects tampering with their family’s favorite “toy” might cause.
It is at about this time that the stories surrounding the mystery sphere (not to mention the object itself) seemed to vanish without a trace — at least from the public eye. This is baffling considering the fact that it was at just this moment that the tale became truly fascinating, not to mention possibly dangerous. As the years have slipped into decades, two primary questions have haunted investigators. The first unanswered query is … |
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WHAT THE HELL WAS IT?
The million dollar question is, of course: “Did Terry Betz and his parents actually stumble across an alien artifact that spring day or is there a more prosaic explanation for the whole affair?”
Some of the more mundane hypotheses proposed have ranged from the sphere beings an extra large ball bearing, to a paper mill valve, to a cryogenic storage device known as a Dewer flask, to a check valve used in a phosphate-pumping line, but it seems likely that any of the number of scientists and engineers who examined the sphere were likely to have ruled out any commonplace industrial tool.
Nevertheless, there is one mechanism that numerous researchers have glommed onto as the true identity of the orb; and that is that the sphere was nothing more than a…
SEA BOTTOM MARKER:
The fact both the Marines and the Navy denied ownership of the device is noteworthy; especially in light of the fact that in the years that would follow there would be numerous investigators — including UFO author, Roland D. Story — who would suggest that the object might have been a sea bottom marker, which was used to assist missile launching submarines by giving them stable points of reference for ballistic calculations.
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According to Story: “The Navy’s failure to identify [the sphere] could be due to ‘need to know’ restrictions related to classified devices.” The inherent flaw in this theory resides In the fact that even if Berninger and his team did not have “top secret” clearance, the hoopla surrounding the discovery of this sphere, not to mention the reams of paperwork that would have been necessary to conduct these experiments with Navy personnel, would have surely set off some kind of alarm, even in clandestine circles.
The Betz family had already agreed to give up the device if it proved to be military property and it would have taken very little effort on the Navy’s — or the Marines before them, for that matter — part to keep the sphere in their possession if the technology were that sensitive, even if they wanted to keep the device’s purpose a secret. The flip side of this coin is that the Betz sphere might have been a piece of top secret (or maybe even extraterrestrial) technology and that the Navy replaced with with and exact replica, but that is pure speculation.
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One should also consider the fact that Antoine Betz was a marine engineer. While he was not likely to be an expert on military tech, it would seem improbable that he would not have at least recognized the device’s maritime origin. So, assuming that this was not a ballistic reference marker, perhaps we ought to consider the possibility that the Betz family came across a…
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STOLEN STEEL BALLS:
According to the April 23, 1974 edition of the Ocala Star-Banner, a sculptor by the name of James Durling-Jones claimed to have lost the orb when a cluster of them fell off the luggage rack of his Volkswagen bus while he was driving through the Jacksonville area near Easter of 1971 on his way home to Taos, New Mexico.
Durling-Jones asserted that he had gotten the industrial valve spheres from an anonymous friend who had procured the objects illegally. He further asserted that the rattling that the Betz’s claimed to hear within the sphere was due to the fact that the company that manufactured it had drilled holes into the object allowing metal chips to fall inside, before re-welding them shut.
This seems to fly in the face of the fact that none of the experts who examined the orb noticed any weld marks and that the X-rays seemed to reveal distinct structures within the object. His testimony is further cast into doubt due to the fact that the artist — ostensibly in an effort to protect his friend and his illicit activities — refused to name the company that manufactured his spheres, which might have put the whole business to rest once and for all.
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While it seems as if the industrial angle may rest on shaky ground, there’s the distinct possibility that the sphere was another kind of artificial object, which may have plummeted from the loftiest of heights to the Earth below in the form of a…
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DOWNED SATELLITE:
It’s difficult to claim that the Betz mystery sphere does not resemble a Sputnik style Soviet satellite with its antennas ripped off, or perhaps even a simplified version of China’s Shijian-1 experimental satellite, which was launched in 1971.
As tempting as it is to suppose that the sphere was a man-made byproduct of the space race, the fact remains that that there was absolutely no indication of a crash on the Betz property (save the brush fire) and no sign of any reentry burns on the object itself. These two facts alone would seem to entirely disqualify the notion that the mystery sphere was a terrestrially constructed, orbiting object.
So leaving behind both industrial and satellite theories let’s look at some less ordinary options, including the fact that the orb seemed to have an eerie resemblance to the oft report World War II aerial marauders known as… |
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FOO FIGHTERS:
Beginning in November of 1944, WWII Allied aircraft pilots began to describe frightening encounters with small, glowing, silver colored spheres in the skies over Germany and, eventually, the Pacific Theater.
These strange airborne anomalies appeared to follow the Allied planes individually and in clusters. They were able to maneuver around the planes at tremendous rates of speed and displayed astonishing dexterity.
Even stranger was the fact that these peculiar “machines” seemed to toy with the crew of these aircraft, causing a great deal of consternation among those aboard, but exhibit few (if any) overtly hostile actions.
These sightings were taken very seriously by the military brass, who assumed that these “foo fighters” were yet another new weapon conceived by Nazi scientists to turn the tide of the war, but soon it became evident that these bizarre aerial acrobats were also accosting Axis pilots. According to UFO researcher and professor of natural sciences at Western Michigan University, Michael D. Swords:
“During WWII, the foo fighter experiences of [Allied] pilots were taken very seriously. Accounts of these cases were presented to heavyweight scientists, such as David Griggs, Luis Alvarez and H.P. Robertson. The phenomenon was never explained. Most of the information about the issue has never been released by military intelligence.”
While foo fighter run-ins continued to be reported by pilots following WWII, reports had dwindled down in the latter half of the 20th Century, still it’s hard to turn a blind eye to the fact that the Betz sphere, at least on the surface, seem to be very similar to eyewitness descriptions of foo fighters. But if these round, glowing hummingbird-like objects are not to blame, then might this be some kind of… |
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ALIEN ATOMIC BOMB:
In his influential 1969, book “Chariots of the Gods?” author Erich von Däniken introduced the world at large to Robert Charroux’s theory that it might have been extraterrestrial atomic weapons that were responsible for the total destruction of the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as other ancient disasters. According to von Däniken:
“Let us imagine for a moment that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed according to plan, i.e. deliberately, by a nuclear explosion.”
Supporters of the alien atomic bomb theory maintain that in the ancient past extraterrestrials — or, possibly, a lost civilization such as Atlantis — managed to detonate nuclear weapons on Earth. The venerated Hindu epic known as the Mahabharata even describes a “single projectile charged with all the power of the universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as ten thousand suns rose in all its splendor.”
This, one must admit, sounds suspiciously like an atomic explosion and its resultant mushroom cloud. The Mahabharata also refers to great battles were fought with in the ancient past with airships and beam weapons, which resemble some modern reports of UFO technology.
Needless to say, mainstream academics dismiss this theory out of hand, but if (for the sake of argument) we entertain the notion that aliens were visiting Earth in the ancient past and occasionally waging war with our ancestors, then is it not possible that the potential doomsday device described by Dr. Harding might not be a more modern alien weapon that accidentally (or intentionally) fell into the hands of human beings? The premise is admittedly thin, but still intriguing in a science fiction sort of way.
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[ Source: Rob Morpy - The Betz Mystery Sphere: Alien Artifact or Doomsday Device? ]
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GYROSCOPE BALL
It did not defy the laws of physics.
It used them to do the unexpected.
There were two internal balls of different size and weight.
When rolling due to a push, the center of gravity was always behind the pivot.
It would stop and roll back.
When rolling to a table edge, it would back off if the forward velocity were low.
If it had been advanced tech from another world, the Navy could have legally appropriated it under the national security act.
They returned it because they found it not to be extraodinary, only interesting.
It was not a simple rolling ball.
It was three balls rolling, only two were not visible.
So what two of the balls were doing was internal thus not visible.
But, the motion became complex because it was three balls rolling.
The internal balls would not allow the center of mass to ever center over the support point.
And they were heavy enough to have a significant momentum.
Much like a gear, their motions were always the opposite of their friction surface motion.
When shook it would not rattle because the internal balls had no play to bounce in.
It would be like a gyroscope, behaving real wierd because there were two high mass gyroscopes hidden inside always modifying the action.
You would just scratch your head and say, what the fuck, how did it do that?
[Source : Alien & UFOs] |
The truth is that we may never know what the Betz mystery sphere was, but one sure fire way to try and end this enigma is to solve the second biggest mystery surrounding this device; and that is…
WHERE THE HELL IS IT?
When all the routine theories and wild speculations are put finally aside, the single biggest mystery that remains is — whatever happened to the Betz mystery sphere? In the years that have followed this strange series of events numerous other unfathomable orbs have plummeted to the Earth in such diverse places as Russia, Australia, Iraq and Alabama, but none have ever managed to capture the world’s attention quite like the Betz sphere.
Is Terry Betz, or one of his relatives, still in possession of the orb? Have its allegedly alien creators reclaimed it or has it long since been confiscated by the United States military? The latter would make sense if Dr. Harding’s warning about the object’s destructive potential proved to be true.
Sadly, following Dr. Harding’s dire forewarning in 1974, there’s been very little mention of the sphere in the media. Like many flash-in-the-pan curiosity stories, this one likely ran its course and the public’s interest was captured by some other passing fad before wrapping this puzzle up in any satisfying fashion.
Of course, there’s a chance that in the years following these bizarre events some accredited scientific institution inspected the mystery sphere and made a formal announcement regarding its origin, thus solving this enigma once and for all, but if that’s the case than there’s no public record of it anywhere that I’ve found.
In the end there’s a good chance that we will never know definitive origin of the mystery sphere, but There is the (frankly minute) chance that as you read these words, the irrefutable proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence might be sitting in a cardboard box, collecting dust someone’s dingy basement just waiting for a curious child to discover its enthralling (and potentially apocalyptic) secrets.
[ Source: Rob Morpy - The Betz Mystery Sphere: Alien Artifact or Doomsday Device? ]
CONCLUSIONS: What the heck was it?
So if the ball was manmade, what was it, and how could it exhibit such strange behavior?
When I first heard of the story, I immediately thought of the » bladder tanks used on spacecraft. These stout metal spheres contain a flexible bladder full of rocket fuel such as hydrazine, and the sphere is filled with pressurized gas to keep a constant squeeze on the bladder. When fuel is needed, a valve opens and the fuel squirts out. These tanks have a reputation for surviving when spacecraft deorbit and burn up on reentry. » One fell on Namibia in 2011, generating some headlines, and reporters noted that there have been many other such cases over the decades.
Bladder tanks are usually a little bigger and lighter than the Betz sphere, but they're in the general ballpark. However, they have obvious couplings where the fuel comes out, and the Betz sphere's only marking was much too small and completely inconsistent with a large valve coupling. It was not a bladder tank.
Some authors, also following the assumption that it fell from outer space, have suggested that it was Sputnik, or a Sputnik-like satellite. This was largely based on what Carl Willson had said, that it transmitted a radio signal. But the ball was a poor match for Sputnik. It had no antennae, seams, rivets, mechanical connections, or anything else that characterized Sputnik's globe.
More prosaic explanations have also been offered, that perhaps it was a pig used for cleaning out big pipes, or a mandrel ball used in bending conduit.
Of course, the best way to answer this question is to actually the examine the ball today, using modern techniques. Certainly it must still exist somewhere. Whatever became of the Betz sphere? Unfortunately, I couldn't find any record of the ball, or of Terry Betz himself, from recent years. But all those newspaper reports did ring bells with a few people.
The Palm Beach Post reported on April 18 that Lottie Robinson recognized the ball from the pictures, then went and got her own out of the garage where it had sat for some 15 years. Technicians from the St. Regis Company paper mill identified it as a ball valve from some large pipes used in their factory, and that had been scrapped 15 years before. Somehow that ball had found its way from a scrap dealer to Mrs. Robinson's son, and from there to her garage. It was very close, but not identical, in size and weight to the Betz sphere.
Seeing this, Robert Edwards, president of a Jacksonville, FL equipment supply company, picked up the phone. He showed a UPI reporter a brand new stainless steel ball, manufactured by Bell & Howell in Bridgeport, CT. Edwards and the reporter uncrated it, weighed and measured it, and found that it was 8 inches across and weighed just over 21 pounds...exactly the same as the Betz sphere.
"I'm not saying that this thing didn't come from outer space because I've never seen it," said Edwards. "All I'm saying is that the physical description of it matches exactly the type of ball we have in stock."
The Navy metallurgist had identified the ball as being made of an alloy called stainless steel 431. According to the web site of a supplier of this alloy:
431 has been successfully used in a variety of aircraft and general industrial applications. These include fasteners, bolts, valve components and chemical equipment.
But how could a ball with such amazing properties — moving by itself, rolling uphill, making organ music, and transmitting radio signals — be just an ordinary piece of industrial machinery?
There are many published news reports of the incident, and from these reports, we can glean that what the Betzes reported at the time is considerably less remarkable than what is now claimed on some of the paranormal websites that promote the Betz sphere as an alien artifact. For one thing, the ball sat quietly on display inside the Betz home for nearly two weeks, and is not reported to have ever moved on its own at all, except for when someone took it down to experiment with it. Neither the US Navy nor J. Allen Hynek reported observing the ball do anything unusual whatsoever. Neither corroborated Carl Willson's assertion that it had odd magnetic properties, or that it was broadcasting a radio signal. The only thing Hynek and his fellow Enquirer panelists noted was that it rattled when shaken.
Regarding the ball's movement, the Navy's spokesman Chris Berninger concluded:
"I believe it's because of the construction of the house... It's old and has uneven stone floors. The ball is almost perfectly balanced, and it takes just a little indentation to make it move or change direction."
The Betz story even has an elegant thread that ties it full circle, which is not something we always find on Skeptoid: how the ball came to be on Ft. George Island in the first place. After the story broke, a Coca-Cola delivery man saw some similar looking spheres in a sculpture outside the hotel managed by artist James Durling-Jones in Taos, New Mexico. He called Durling-Jones' attention to the newspaper stories about the Betz sphere. Soon, reporters were calling him to ask about his 8-inch stainless steel globes. It turns out he had several sculptures that used them, including a kinetic sculpture using one as a pendulum.
He'd made a run a few years back in his Volkswagen bus, collecting scrap metal for his sculptures. A friend had supplied him with a number of balls from large industrial ball valves at his company, in two sizes: some 8-inch balls weighing about 22 pounds, and some 10-inch balls weighing about 70 pounds. Having no room left inside the VW, Durling-Jones put the balls on a luggage rack up on top. He drove through the Jacksonville area around Easter of 1971, at which time a few of the balls rolled off the luggage rack and were lost. And there it sat for three years until the Betzes happened along.
Durling-Jones even explained the rattle noted by Hynek:
"The rattle comes from trying to patch the sphere... the company drills the spheres and rewelds them before machining them again. Sometimes some of the milling or drilling chips drop inside."
Is it really so hard to believe that an entire family could misinterpret something as obvious as a ball rolling on an uneven floor? The more I research weird reports on Skeptoid, the less surprised I am with people making such flagrant misinterpretations. Keep in mind that we live in a world where people see the face of Jesus in just about every smudge; where conspiracy theories and science denial run rampant; and where most people believe in ghosts and angels. People are also fooled every day at so-called "mystery spot" attractions where balls or cars seem to roll uphill. That the sphere's rolling might have struck the family as extraordinary is not a new or unlikely circumstance.
So was the Betz sphere indisputable evidence of a UFO? We can say, conclusively, that nothing ever linked it to anything unearthly. Perhaps it was just the ball valve that it appeared to be. But if believers in the strange need to attach a mysterious origin to the Betz sphere, they're going to have to make do with the fact that it fell to earth not from an alien spacecraft, but from an idly passing Volkswagen bus...and that's almost as good.
[ Source : Skeptoid ]
OTHER SPACE BALLS
There have been three very mysterious spheres that have been recovered in the Southern United States that we are aware of. One occured in 1974 in Florida called the "Betz Sphere". One in the 1979-1982 timeframe in Alabama called "The Alabama Ball" and one in 2008 in Louisana.
The "Betz Ball" in Florida is by far the most documented.
Read more about » Space Balls
» Ufology - Space Balls
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