So did we; we wrote off the incident as a hoax.  The best hoax in UFO history.

Many people have asked why we didn’t give the scoutmaster a lie detector test.  We seriously considered it and consulted some experts in this field.  They advised against it.  In some definite types of cases the lie detector will not give valid results.  This, they thought, was one of those cases.  Had we done it and had he passed on the faulty results, the publicity would have been a headache.

There is one way to explain the charred grass roots, the burned cap, and a few other aspects of the incident.  It’s pure speculation; I don’t believe that it is the answer, yet it is interesting.  Since the blades of the grass were not damaged and the ground had not been disturbed, this one way is the only way (nobody has thought of any other way) the soil could have been heated.  It could have been done by induction heating.

To quote from a section entitled “Induction Heating” from an electrical engineering textbook: 

A rod of solid metal or any electrical conductor, when subjected to an alternating magnetic field, has electromotive forces set up in it.  These electromotive forces cause what are known as “eddy currents.”  A rise in temperature results from “eddy currents.”

Induction heating is a common method of melting metals in a foundry.

Replace the “rod of solid metal” mentioned above with damp sand, an electrical conductor, and assume that a something that was generating a powerful alternating magnetic field was hovering over the ground, and you can explain how the grass roots were charred.  To get an alternating magnetic field, some type of electrical equipment was needed.  Electricity—­electrical sparks—­the holes burned in the cap “by electric sparks.”

UFO propulsion comes into the picture when one remembers Dr. Einstein’s unified field theory, concerning the relationship between electro-magnetism and gravitation.

If this alternating magnetic field can heat metal, why didn’t everything the scoutmaster had that was metal get hot enough to burn him?  He had a flashlight, machete, coins in his pocket, etc.  The answer—­he wasn’t under the UFO for more than a few seconds.  He said that when he stopped to really look at it he had backed away from under it.  He did feel some heat, possibly radiating from the ground.

To further pursue this line of speculation, the scoutmaster repeatedly mentioned the unusual odor near the UFO.  He described it as being “sharp” or “pungent.”  Ozone gas is “sharp” or “pungent.”  To quote from a chemistry book, “Ozone is prepared by passing air between two plates which are charged at a high electrical potential.”  Electrical equipment again.  Breathing too high a concentration of ozone gas will also cause you to lose consciousness.

I used to try out this induction heating theory on people to get their reaction.  I tried it out one day on a scientist from Rand.  He practically leaped at the idea.  I laughed when I explained that I thought this theory just happened to tie together the unanswered aspects of the incident in Florida and was not the answer; he was slightly perturbed.  “What do you want?” he said.  “Does a UFO have to come in and land on your desk at ATIC?”