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thought it was a jet-—a Roman candlelike thing.” A woman in Baltimore, Maryland, described it as “‘orange and blue and red, and it left sparks— oh, it was lovely.” A man in Asbury Park, New Jersey, called the Press office and declared, “I could see a head peering out of a porthole.” In Pikesville, Maryland, a state trooper told reporters that there had been reports of plane crashes in sixteen counties. ‘“‘In the old days,” he chuckled, ‘‘everyone would have said, ‘Oh, what a beautiful meteor,’ but now everyone is hoping that little men from Mars are landing.” On a highway near Towanda, Pennsylvania, Robert W. Martz and a friend saw the object scoot overhead. Simultaneously, their automobile engine stalled, and the headlights went out. Both men complained of feeling a wave of heat as they watched “‘a very awesome, huge flaming body which lit up a large area, visible for a few seconds. Then the second view was of a dark object. The huge flames went out like turning off an electric bulb for a few seconds. There was a dim light in four portholes, and then all darkness. It looked like it was 250 feet in front of us and 250 feet up, and it could go at terrific speed.” Something dropped out of the sky that night onto the grounds of the Salvation Army Camp near Upland, Pennsylvania. A group of boys watched a strange blue light descend into the woods, and John Wesley Bloom was the first to reach it. It smelled like burning rubber, was about two feet long, a foot high and a foot wide when they first saw it, the boys reported. Young Bloom claimed that something got into his eyes and blinded him. His friends had to help him home. His mother later told reporters that his face ‘‘was red and his eyes were swollen” and she placed cold compresses on his eyes. The next day there was a crimson blotch on his cheek. The Upland object burned itself out. The next day searchers found a small coallike lump at the spot. Dozens of other youngsters substantiated the story, according to a lengthy report published in the Delaware County Times on April 27, 1966. But Dr. I. M. Levitt, director of the Franklin Institute’s Feis Planetarium, declared, ‘‘I just don’t believe it. Meteorites do not continue to burn when they reach earth.” Dr. Thomas C. Nicholson, chairman of the Hayden Planetarium, said that the object ‘“‘was probably ten thousand times brighter than the brightest star seen at night.’’ He estimated that it must have weighed “several hundred pounds.” However, Dr. Fred L. Whipple, director of the Smithsonian Astro- physical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, disagreed with his 130 / Operation Trojan Horse