"The disks are caused by the transmutation of atomic energy," said an
anonymous scientist, supposed to be on the staff of California Tech.
The college quickly denied it.

Dr. Vannevar Bush, world-famous scientist, and Dr. Merle Tuve,
inventor of the proximity fuse, both declared they would know of any
secret American missiles--and didn't.

At Syracuse, New York, Dr. Harry Steckel, Veterans Administration
psychiatrist, scoffed at the suggestion of mass hysteria. "Too many
sane people are seeing the things. The government is probably
conducting some revolutionary experiments."

On July 8 more disks were reported. Out at Muroc Air Force Base, where
top-secret planes and devices are tested, six fast-moving
silvery-white saucers were seen by pilots and ground officers.

That afternoon the Air Force revealed it was working on a case
involving a Navy rocket expert named C. T. Zohm. While on a secret
Navy mission to New Mexico, in connection with rocket tests, Zohm had
seen a bright silvery disk flying above the desert. He was crossing
the desert with three other scientists when he saw the strange object
flashing northward at an altitude of about ten thousand feet.

"I'm sure it was not a meteor," said Zohm. "It could have been a
guided missile, but I never heard of anything like it."

By this time, saucer reports had come in from almost forty states.
Alarm was increasing, and there were demands that radar be used to
track the disks. The Air Force replied that there was not enough radar