Los Alamos Conference on Aerial Phenomena, 1949

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Conference on AERIAL PBENOMENA
Page 20
Dr. La.Po.z: It should be possible ..... The cO?tVentiona.l meteor cannot be
:photogr :phed. e.t t.he pre~ent time. The so-called met.eorecbmitts that Harvard
College .ts nou having produced at verJ great expense, they expect to go down
to the 4th and poaeib~ fa.inter. l1ith one of those, a bright green :fii-eball
might be photographed, but they are not o.vaile.ble•.••..
Ml!. Devburger: Does a.nybody knov if ·chere were any experiments ce.rried out
in Europe, prior to th',! w.r when our la.st beat information CGme tram over
there, al.pug this line?
Dr. La.Paz: Not tom::, knovledge. I raised that question with Dr. Kapl.e.n and
he gave me 8Qme? :rather arurprising information.
DJ:. Kaplan had atteDded. the
IAU meetings in Syria ? and the Russians had a large repres tation there.
Sm:"ficiently large, as a matter ot :te.ct, to beat dam the proposal that the
IAU appoint an international camnittee to investigate the so...called ••.••
meteorite crater procluced in the fall ot 1947, 1"ebrua.ry 12.
On the contrary,
at ·the Oswsl.d, I think it w.o, conference ot the International Geophysical
Union, none of the Russian geoph;teie1sts vere present. Kaplan'a interpreta­
tion was that they feel ao far ahead ot us that they d1cm•t t.bink they oould
1 am anything, and they were taking the precaution that no leak occurred.
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Mr. Nwburger: Were the GemaM ex,periment11l8 1n UN phase tbat vas poaa1bcy
cozmected with it?
Dr. LePaz: "I-ell, t'lle'.Y had the ao•ce.J..J.ed otation.e in apace ••••• might have
some attachment to it.
Comdr. Mandelkorn:
You don't he.ve any record of ~nma.nts.
Dr. LaFa.a: Bo, no Jmowl~ of exporimenta•••••• I have the belief tllat no
country in t
world has thqre b~cn meteoritics developed a~ it has in Ruoeia
in .,"eee:L"t years. Recently, -the AcRdeny of Science of' the USRR has bf:en issuing
a so-called met~ritic, an eztraQ?!'d1nery publication - very little work of the
ca.liber being ~
~ the Russians he.& been conducted in the United States.
Apparen·cly, there 1 t has big liN,P.POrt; hen, 1 t is c.n 1ndiv:td\181 matter. UntU
we had some milltcry interest in meteori~ictJ, ve vere DeVer able to :round even
an institute ill moteor1t1cs in the unite'1. States. The one 1n New Moxico is an
out51"mrth of application of meteoritics to determine, sq. ballistic eoetticients
ror shells ot unconventional.design like the p1'0Z1m1ty tuze shell w1tb the radio
1n its nose, 811d that sort ot thing.' 'l'hat 0s vb.ere wie got a s~. Apparentl.7.,
"he Ruasians got that ~ller and have f'ull..fledged st&~ eupport.
Dr~ BoUO'U'&y:
Bov much interest would the mil:l.tary have if tbey found out
these 1ili,nge vere lancU.ng all over ~
country, Cerllda., Bava11., ~tc.? .....
Have you contact6d peopl.e in the East1
Dr. La.Paz: Olivia, C. C. Olivio., President of the Amerie&11 Meteor Society,
Ki~, Leone.rd, Pruitt, Xapl.an, tc.
MQet o£ them have been obsem.ns;
Kaplan, I 1.!uagi.ne, bas not, 'because h~ is JJOW preocc'1,Pied vi.th labo.ra.tory
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