Discs Aloft Are Just Jets, Mather Thinks

Reports of "flying saucers" seen so frequently over the nation's skies since first described in the state of Washington on June 25 remained confined to the House dining halls throughout yesterday as far as the University was concerned.

Most experts here maintained a skeptical attitude. Charles F. Brooks, director of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory admitted that he was "stumped" for an explanation. He did assure uneasy housewives, however, that "the phenomenon was definitely not meteorological in origin."

The Associated Press disclosed late last night that the Observatory staff was preparing to photograph any disc that happened to turn up, but that nothing had arrived as yet over the summit of Blue Hill.

Reached in his office yesterday, Dean Bender told newsmen that the could adopt no official position on the saucer mystery.

Previously Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, had declared that the discs were "assuredly man-made." From what he termed "the meagre, confused, and conflicting data at hand." Professor Mather said that the probable cause was the exhaust of jet-propelled planes.

Meteorites Ruled Out

"It all points to this new invention," Professor Mather suggested. "People have been looking at the sky for more than 3000 years, and this is the first time that saucer-like objects flying at high speed have ever been recorded."

Meteorites can be ruled out, Mather continued, because the gravitational pull of the earth fashions them into a pencil shape. Also they have an entirely different trajectory from that attributed to the discs, and once inside the atmosphere they invariably collide with the earth.

Mather joined Brooks in eliminating ice particles or the light reflections from them as the source of the plates. He noted that ice masses or cold air fronts do not travel at the 2000 miles per hour rate which many observers attribute to the discs.

Vapor Trails Compared

Highly likely, Professor Mather suggested, was the possibility that watchers on the ground would see jet plane exhausts without seeing the plane itself. He compared the discs to the vapor trails left by high altitude bombers over England and Germany during the war.

Anti-aircraft gunners could see the fluffy clouds streaming out behind the ralding aircraft even when they were too high to be visible of themselves, he recalled.

Lester Barlow of Stamford, Conn., an internationally known explosives inventor, advanced the idea yesterday that the objects were radio controlled flying missiles. Mather thought this solution doubtful.

An ordinary transport plane, Mather pointed out, was said to have kept pace with a cluster of plates for several minutes. This would have been impossible at the super velocity of a guided missile of the V-2 variety.

The alleged photograph of a single disc taken by Californian coast guardsman Frank Ryman, which would shake the jet stream hypothesis, might well turn out to be a flaw in the lens upon critical examination, Professor Mather ventured.