Extract from Some Things Strange & Sinister
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Material referred to as “Angel Hair” in UFO literature is usually described as “fibreous”, or even as “filament-like” resembling strands of spiders webs. The material is alleged to have been seen issuing from UFOs and floating down to Earth: sometimes huge amounts are seen to issue “from exhaust systems”.
Very little of this material has ever been saved as there are claims that it disappears upon touch, or vanishes into nothing while witnesses watch. There have been some reports that the material is highly combustable –when ignited.
The Colorado [Condon] Study referred to the material briefly [1]. The AOP Bureau did receive or collect material from areas after UFO sightings. Historical cases do exist but these are uncheckable. There are, however, two incidents in which Angel Hair was preserved and in modern times.
During October, 1953, over Victoria, Australia, Angel Hair was seen to fall and a sample preserved and handed to author Andrew Tomas, former editor of the Australian Flying Saucer Review. Tomas kept the minute fragment in an air-tight jar, it having shrunk to approx. 1.25 cms. Analysis has shown that it contained traces of Calcium, Magnesiun, Boron and Silicon “in a nylon-like compound”[2].
Gene Duplantier, veteran Canadian Ufologist and editor of Saucers, Space And Science, reported on one incident that seemed to hold a great deal of promise and as any such case in the UK had proven to be a hoax or misidentification, we decided to look into it. According to Duplantier, the farmer, Marius Magnan, was the only witness to the event. CAPRO Bulletin reports:
“A farmer was inspecting buildings on his farm in
Ste. Anne,Manitoba,at about 4 p.m. on 18 September
1968,when he looked up and saw an oval object
moving at an angle of 45 degrees to the horizon. The
strange disc seemed to be about five miles away,at
an altitude of 2,500 feet. Seen for about ten seconds,
it moved north-west to south-east. The farmer
was unable to estimate the object’s speed. As it
moved from left to right,however,the man observed
a second object moving in an identical path directly
behind the first disc. And as these two moved
away to the right,a third became visible. All three
were placed an equal distance apart and were
travelling in the same direction with the same
velocity and attitude.
“The formation of three UFOs could have been
covered by a grapefruit held at arm’s length. There
was no sound and the objects did not reflect light,nor
were they self-illuminating. Their colour was a dull
“ metallic grey. But most interesting of all the details,
the objects appeared to expel a white ‘fuzzy’ substance
from the top.
“The farmer told CAPRO’s representative,Mr Roger
Letourneau,that this substance rose above the first two
objects,forming an arc between them. And despite their
speed,wind resistance did not seem to affect the shape
of the arc,which remained stable. Some of the material
appeared to be floating down to the ground.
“The third disc was meanwhile also giving off the same
substance but,according to the farmer,this was cascading
down the sides of the UFO. The material was emitted ‘just
like popcorn,popping from a corn popper’. Although shaken
by the experience,the farmer managed to shout out to his
wife nearby,but by the time she arrived outside,the objects
themselves had disappeared although a large cloud of the
white substance could be seen floating down from the sky.”
This cloud of material settled on power lines and buildings on the farmer’s property and surrounding crops. The Canadian Aerial Phenomena Research Organization representative arrived the next day. Despite earlier rain, samples of the material were collected and were sent to James and Coral Lorenzens’ APRO as well as well as to Dr J. Allen Hynek. CAPRO decided to have its sample analyzed at the University of Manitoba.
I never received a reply from the Lorenzens, though their UK representative, Gary Green, did contact them and the response was that they could not recall the affair off-hand. When I met Dr Hynek in London, in the 1980s, I asked about the case but his response was similar –I’d presume the samples sent to him would have gone through the USAF at that time.
Examination by infra-red spectroscope at the University of Manitoba showed the substance to be celluse in nature:all fibres were of a uniform 1/200th millimetre diameter. The material was rayon fibre coated with gummy substance and checks to see if it was a crop-protection material drew negative. The University specialists, no one was named in any of the accounts, felt that this was where the answer lay.
In 1980 I checked with the University to see whether there were any records of the tests available. No one recalled the incident nor could they find anyone who remembered the case.
There were problems in the account and report details. Described as “discs” and “ovals” in the same breath, the objects were visible for “about ten seconds” at 25,000 feet [750m] and 5 miles [8 kms] away. However, Magnan could see the substance “cascading down the sides” of one object. That is incredible eye-sight! And what of the rain –surely that would have contaminated specimens taken?
It may just be that this is a genuine incident [as will be shown elsewhere,material coming from objects sighted over the years is known] and that a substance did fall. But I strongly suspect, as was indicated by the University of Manitoba tests, that what the CAPRO representative had gotten hold of was crop-protection material [3-5].
The “Roxburgh Castle Case” is one that often gets mentioned in the literature. On the 10th October, 1962, The “Roxburgh Castle” was moored at Montreal, Canada. Captain R. H. Pape was on deck when fine white filaments were noticed draped over the railings and stanchions. The First Officer was called and Pape pulled one of the strands and found it tough when stretched –but unlike spiders web it did not break. After 4-5 minutes the material vanished in Pape’s hand. “Small cocoons” of the material were seen floating down though neither man could find a source for the substance.
D. J. Clark, of the Natural History Museum, London, suggested that spiders using a method called “ballooning” might be responsible. Certainly, since no analysis was made of the substance in this event, it’s a worthwhile explanation [6].
Certainly, in 1983, I found fine, filament type material at the scene of a reported UFO sighting. The “UFO” turned out to be a regular charter flight. A building close to the towpath where the substance was found was undergoing re-roofing. As I moved through brambles toward it, a mass of “angel hair” some 60-90cms in diameter fell from a tree just ahead of me. It was spiders web. At the house I was shown the roof, open and exposed the afternoon before during a strong breeze, and the attic was thick with ‘sheets’ of grey, spider web hanging from rafter to rafter –the largest being 1.2 -2m in diameter.
I also encountered fibre-glass that had been blown from bins of a coach works and the witness thought it had comne from a “UFO” –another aircraft. Strands of cotton wool from factories escaping via airducts provided other finds.
I did come across one historical incident that was interesting and took place in the UK.
Just before dawn on the 21st September, 1741, Gilbert White went out into fields and found the grass to be thickly covered with “cobwebs”. White’s dogs had to scrape the stuff from their eyes where it was so thick. And, about 09:00 hours,a shower of cobwebs began to fall –not single, filmy threads, but flakes, some nearly an inch [2.5cms] across and 5-6 inches [12.5-15cms] long. This fall continued until “the close of the day”.
The flakes were everywhere and it is known that the shower reached as far as Bradley, Selborne and Alresford [7].
Alresford has been the scene of some crop-circles, not the hoaxed elaborate types, but areas of flattened/depressed crops.
That the 1741 was a truly extraordinary fall of spiders cobwebs is something we have to accept. There seemed no doubt in White’s account. Inclusion of a fictional ‘UFO’ sighting “at the time,” or very tenuous attempts to link UFOs-crop-circles and angel hair together using this case do not help anyone’s case.
Very significant events took place in France, during 1952,which seem to show a possible UNP connection with Angel Hair.
At around 12:50 hours, 17th October, 1952, Monsieur Yves Prigent was preparing to sit down to lunch with his wife and children. One of the Prigent children,lingering near the window, yelled out: ”Oh,papa, come look –it’s fantastic!” Wondering what was going on outside, the family moved to the window. M. Prigent’s account reads:
“In the north,a cottony cloud of strange shape was floating against
the blue sky. Above it,a long narrow cylinder,apparently inclined at
a 45 degree angle,was slowly moving in a straight line toward the
south-west. I estimated its altitude as 2 or 3 kilometres. The object
was whitish,non-luminous,and very distinctly defined. A sort of
plume of white smoke was escaping from its upper end. At some
distance in front of the cylinder,about thirty other objects were
following the same trajectory. To the naked eye,they appeared as
featureless balls resembling puffs of smoke. But with the help of opera
glasses it was possible to make out a central red sphere,surrounded
by a sort of yellowish ring inclined at an angle. The angle was such
as to conceal almost entirely the lower part of the central sphere,while
revealing its upper surface. These “saucers” moved in pairs,following
a broken path characterized in general by rapid and short zigzags. When
two saucers drew away from one another,a whitish streak,like an electric
arc,was produced between them.
“All these strange objects left an abundant trail behind them,which slowly
fell to the ground as it dispersed. For several hours,clumps of it hung in
the trees,on telephone wires,and on the roofs of the houses.”
This event at Oloron-Ste.-Marie, by the Superintendent of Oloron High School and his family was unique enough, however, it was not to be the last.
At 17:00 hours, 27th October, about 200 kms from the location of the previous event, at Gaillac, some 100 witnesses described a 20 minute observation. A long, plumed cylinder inclined at an angle of 45 degrees, was seen to slowly move toward the south-east. This ‘cylinder’ was in the midst of a score of ‘saucers’ which shone in the sun and flew in a rapid zig-zag pattern. The difference in this observation was that, occasionally, pairs descended quite low to around 300-400 metres. Angel Hair was seen to fall but disappeared soon after being collected [8].
To French Ufologists such as Aime Michel,these objects were perceived as constructed craft and alien constructed craft to boot. Terms such as “disc”, ”saucer”[shaped] or even “cylindrical” are perfectly reasonable in describing shape but not when used, by inference, to refer to space craft.
1952 - 1955 seem to have been a peak period for Angel Hair.
On 16th November, 1953, a “saucer-shaped” object sped across the skies over San Fernando Valley, California. “A fluffy blanket, dead-white, almost ephemeral in its delicacy and apparently electrically charged” fell in its wake. According to Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC [Retired] and pioneer of UFO investigation, within 24 hours of the fall aviation engineers from Lockheed, North American and Douglas were on the scene having been asked by the USAF to see what they made of the material. No information can be found on analysis results –if any were made. Another fall of Angel Hair took place in the same area on 1st February, 1954, details of which I have not been able to trace.[9 & 10]
I have deliberately ignored incidents in which no object was reported, such as 15th April, 1953, Ongaonga, New Zealand; Angel Hair here covered a wide area but may have involved spiders webs/cocoons [11].
Gaillac, France, is still the best investigated and documented case –putting some US incidents to shame and I would recommend French engineer Aime Michel’s book which deals with the Gaillac and Oloron incidents [12] However, James and Coral Lorenzen did report on one very interesting incident of 1954.
At 15:15 hours, 22nd October, 1954, several youngsters at the Jerome Special School, Marysville, Ohio, observed a silvery, cigar-shaped object in the sky. The students alerted the school principal, Mr Rodney Warrick, who observed the object now motionless in the sky but then moved off “quite rapidly” on a horizontal
trajectory. Mr Warrick called out to Mrs Dittmar a teacher who was inside the school, however, by the time she had arrived outside on a fire escape the object was gone.
What was not gone, though, was the trail of whitish, web-like material created in the wake of the object. This material had fallen in strands and as balls and hung from wires, bushes and trees around the school. In appearance the substance had the look and feel of asbestos. The two teachers noted that they were both able to pull this material out into single long threads “so tough it could hardly be broken.” However, within sixty seconds of being handled this substance completely dissolved into nothing –though those who had handled the material found an unusual green tinge appear on their hands. Mrs Dittmar washed her hands with soap and this discolouration vanished immediately. Mr Warrick decided to experiment and not wash his hands, which then began to sweat: the colour vanished 30-45 minutes after he hand handled the material.
Several points to consider:
1] There was no storm,winds,etc.,so the object sighted was not a “weather phenomenon”.
2] Although tough,spiders-web material is not as tough as this material was described to be.
3] Spiders-web does not dissolve within a minute of contact with human skin.
4] Spiders-web does not give your skin a greenish tinge or make your hands sweat after contact.
The report is quite clear in that this material was being created in some way by the object sighted [13]. Investigators such as Keyhoe, the Lorenzens et al have speculated what this substance might be. Keyhoe was never afraid to voice his opinion and wrote: ”Despite the evidence there was no clear explanation. Apparently the angel’s hair was some kind of a fuel exhaust confined specifically to the cigar-shaped saucers [sic]” [14].
On 28th October, 1954, during daylight, thousands of people in Florence, Italy, observed an unusual phenomena. A silvery, cigar-shaped object, as well as disc-shaped objects, moved through the air and were “shedding” whispy trails like spider’s web for approximately thirty minutes.
This material fell to earth and some was preserved and eventually sent off for analysis which revealed that boron, silicon, calcium and magnesium were present. Although a mystery, we have to be careful regarding this analysis as unless gathered under modern sterile procedures there could be cross-contamination rendering the results of no real scientific value [15].
Keyhoe and others have noted that Angel Hair is only seen in conjunction with “cigar-shaped saucers” (yes, that is a nonsense but when Keyhoe referred to “saucer” he meant “craft”). Just to prove, again, that this is not the case, take the observations at Villacoublay, France, 1952 and Bouffioulx, Belgium, 1953 –full details in Michel’s classic book.
At 1930 hours, 29th August, 1953, military personnel at the meteorological station at Villacoublay may a series of observations. According to the military report:
“I. About 7.30 p.m. [universal time] Michel T--- and I
were engaged in conversation near the meteorological station
at Villacoublay and observing the appearance of the first stars in
a cloudless sky.
“Our attention was suddenly attracted by the emergence,sec-
tor east,of a bright light of a markedly blue colour. This light
was travelling on an irregular course and proceeding by jerks.
Its apparent speed did not seem very high.
“We were very puzzled and turned the station theodolite on
to it and notified the other men on duty…It was 7.50 p.m. U.T.
“the bright light was still on the move,though at an even
lower speed,apparently on a S.E.-N.W. course. In the theodo-
lite,it looked like a luminous streak (white-hot,edged with black
and accompanied by two bluish trails perpendicular to the
streak itself). These trails were perhaps due to distortion caused
by the lenses of the theodolite.
“We kept it under continuous observation and noticed that
the light maintained its S.E.-N.W. course until about 8.30 p.m.
U.T. when it halted practically overhead (dip 77,azimuth 109).
It remained there til midnight U.T. when observation was dis-
Continued.
11.0 p.m. . azimuth 92.5 . . dip 64
11.5 p.m. . “ 91.1 . . “ 62.3
11.10 p.m. . “ 91.0 . . “ 61.9
“Having reached this point the light seemed to move off at
a high altitude,its image contracting in the eye-piece of the
theodolite. On inverting the lens we got a faint picture of a
violet circle surrounded with circumference of a vivid green,
dotted with spots of a much lighter green. After 8 p.m. we
also noted the presence of a bright red spot,contrasting vividly
with the bright blue of the light.
“II. While all eyes were fixed on this light,Corporal J---,
who had just come in and so was unaware of what was happen-
ing,suddenly saw a second light,and it was falling.
“This was a bright red light,something like a landing-light.
In a moment its apparent fall was halted. In the eye-piece of the
theodolite this light appeared to be a perfect circle,whitish yel-
low in colour,and accompanied by irregular trails which seemed
to spurt out from the before-mentioned circle. Cadet D---
said that their appearance suggested the contortions of a whip-
lash.
“The object first appeared in the east and hung motionless
for a few moments before streaking away in that direction,its
light becoming dimmer and eventually no more than a diffused
halo,due,no doubt,to the presence of high cirrus which was
invisible at that hour of the night,viz. 9.45 p.m. U.T.
“Two minutes later we saw it again quite plainly (azimuth
316,dip 6) but this time its course had changed from east to
south-east. Ultimately the object appeared to come to rest against
the background of the stars, with the apparent motion of which
it seemed to conform.
“Here are some figures for the period 10 to 10.35 p.m.:
10.10 p.m. U.T. . azimuth 313.2 . . dip 9
10.13 “ “ . “ 312.6 . . “ 9.9
10.16 “ “ . “ 312.4 . . “ 10.0
10.25 “ “ . “ 310.8 . . “ 11.4
10.31 “ “ . “ 309.4 . . “ 12.8
“III. At 10.45 p.m. U.T. there appeared,sector N.E.,a red
and blue light which at first we took to be the lights of a long-
distance plane.
“But this light,which was very bright,without sound or
motion,slowly began to move. Through the theodolite it looked
like a splash of bright red which changed to yellow,and then
green.
“We broke off for a moment to pick up the position of the
first light,and when we looked for it again we noticed that it
had completely disappeared.”
The report was read through, checked and signed by Cadet D--, Corporals N—and J--Lance Corporals H—and I—as well as Private D--; some six observers. The notable part of the report regarding Angel Hair is “…irregular trails which seemed to spurt out from the before-mentioned circle.” This was no naked-eye observation but observation using a theodolite by trained professional observers.
As Michel pointed out, almost every element of the “flying saucer mystery” is represented in the Villacoublay observation:the rocking motion,progression by jerks and the whirling trails [16].
At 20:15 hours, in mid-May, a large number of observers in the Bouffioulx district of Hainault, Belgium, saw a flat, circular shining object moving through the sky. Suddenly oscillating, the object then came to a halt. This gave the observers the opportunity to see its form.
Then:
“…an explosion,followed by a kind of prolonged clatter,as if
a sheet of corrugated iron was being shaken. And while the
machine still remained rigid at a marked tilt,what looked like
white threads began to float away,becoming contorted like a
whip lash and then disintegrate and fall…”
This lasted for around 12 seconds before the object made a “lightning take-off”, levelling out and was soon gone from sight. A photographer for the newspaper Le Peuple was in the Blanche Borne quarter of Bouffioulx and, while the object was stationary, took “two excellent photographs” –sadly, I have been unable to track copies of these down [17].
As Michel pointed out, the Villacoublay and Bouffioulx objects performed the same type of manoeuvre. Whereas, however, Michel and many others saw this as evidence of some type of constructed craft (a UFOB), what is actually demonstrated is a form of natural phenomena [UNP] creating a bi-product, not lasting as long as Angel Hair or reaching the ground, but showing that this phenomena can physically create the substance.
Interestingly, Keyhoe became convinced of Angel Hair existing (previously he had thought the reports dubious in the extreme) when he heard of another French case. In 1952, French air ace Pierre Closterman was flying near Marseilles when he observed an unknown object. According to Clostermann, this fast-moving object was creating “little white flakes” as it moved [18].
There are aspects here worth noting: the fact that these events were not describing alien craft but some form of natural phenomena. We have the creation of some kind of by-product and the electric style “arcing”-this all seems to be very UNP like and it is a great pity that none of the material was collected or survived long enough to be analyzed.
However in the many observations we looked into, there was absolutely no event that indicated possible constructed craft being involved –where these were described the event seems far from genuine.
We can note the colour of objects sighted and changes thereof –white, blue, red (many times) and green; the explosions, motions, creation of material and so much more that puzzled researchers over the years who tried to understand why these ‘craft’ were doing this
They are not craft.
References.
[1] Scientific Study Of Unidentified Flying Objects [Condon Report],
Bantam,NY,1969:pp.89-90
[2] Spacelink Magazine vol.6/no.2,January,1970:p.2
[3] CAPRO Bulletin November-December,1968
[4] Duplantier,Gene,Saucers,Space And Science,Canada.
[5] AOP Bureau File Ref. 0088 “Angel Hair”
[6] The Marine Observer 33:187,October,1963
[7] White,Gilbert,The Natural History of Selborne,1744
[8] Michel,Aime,The Truth Behind Flying Saucers,NY,Criterion Books,1956:
pp.145-150
[9] Keyhoe,Maj. D.E.,The Flying Saucer Conspiracy,Hutchinson,London,1957,
p.182
[10] Grant,Gordon,”Valley Mystery Craft Spins Web”,San Fernando Valley
Reporter/News[?] 17th November,1953
[11] Ibid 9:p.182
[12] Michel,Aime,The Truth About Flying Saucers,Corgi,London,1958:pp.152-58
[13] Lorenzen,Coral & James,UFOs The Whole Story,Signet,NY,1969,pp.60-61
[14] Ibid 9:p.182
[15] Ibid 13:p.61
[16] Ibid 12:pp.177-180
[17] ditto:p.180
[18] Ibid 9:p.182
