B. Smith was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, graduated
from University of British Columbia in 1933 with a B.Sc.
in Electrical Engineering and went on to obtain his M.A.Sc
in 1934 at the same university. After graduation,
he became chief engineer for radio station CJOR in Vancouver.
did much to encourage improvements in the technical side
of broadcasting facilities in Canada, and took a strong
personal interest in the formation of the Canadian
Association of Broadcast Consultants, which
often advised the federal Department
of Transport (DOT)
on frequency allocation and other technical matters. He
also played an important role in liaison between that
department and the Canadian Radio
Technical Planning Board. In 1939, he joined
the federal Department of Transport.
He was engaged in engineering Canada's war-time monitoring
service and, in 1947, was in charge of establishing a
network of ionospheric measurement stations, several of
which were in isolated parts of the North.
the time of his death, he was superintendent of Radio
Regulations Engineering with the Department
of Transport [DOT],
responsible for the engineering aspects of all matters
concerning the use of radio in Canada, including equipment
standards, radio relay systems (micro-wave), broadcast
facilities and interference studies.
area of research was in radio wave propagation, a study
which eventually led him into fields such as auroras,
cosmic radiation, atmospheric radio-activity and geo-magnetism.
It was the latter of these fields which really attracted
his attention and caused him to speculate that the potential
energy of the Earth's magnetic field might be extracted
and used. He had already progressed to the stage of developing
a crude experimental model to demonstrate his theory,
and successfully tested the unit which, in his words,
"demonstrated the soundness of the basic principles
in a qualitative manner and provided useful data for the
design of a better unit."
curiosity got the better of him when he read a magazine
article on 'Flying Saucers'
in the late 1940s, and from then on, he took a great interest
in investigating flying saucers
or UFOs. In DOT,
he was engaged in research on the collapse of the Earth's
magnetic field as a source of energy. As Smith believed
that flying saucers
may be operating on magnetic principles, it seemed that
this work of DOT might
explain their operation.
believed, quote: "that we are on the track of
something which may well prove to be the introduction
to a new technology." This "is borne
out by the investigations which are being carried on at
the present time in relation to flying
investigations he was referring to were those being carried
out by the US Government at that time. In late 1950, Smith
had attended a North American Radio Broadcasting conference
in Washington, DC, and while there, made enquiries through
the Canadian Embassy staff who were able to inform him
the matter of UFOs was
the most highly classified subject in the US, rating higher
than the H-bomb
their modus operandi is
unknown, but concentrated effort is being made by a small
group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush, (Of 'MJ-12' fame)
the entire matter is considered
by US authorities to be of tremendous significance.
felt the preliminary result of his work in geo-magnetism
correlated with the available data on reported UFO behavior,
and that they were fairly close to some of the answers.
The Defence Research Board
liaison officer at the Canadian Embassy in Washington
evidently agreed with Smith for he was extremely anxious
for him to get in touch with Dr.
Omond Solandt, Chairman of the Defence
Research Board upon Smith's return to Ottawa,
to discuss with him future investigations along the line
of geo-magnetism energy release.
upon his return to Canada, Smith met with Solandt on November
20, and obtained his support. Solandt agreed that work
on geo-magnetic energy should proceed as rapidly as possible
and offered DRB's
co-operation in providing laboratory facilities, acquisition
of equipment, and specialized personnel.
November 21, he outlined his proposal in writing to the
Controller of Telecommunications, indicating Defence
Research Board's support and requesting that
a project be set up and carried out on a part-time basis
"until such time as sufficient results would warrant
more definitive action."
proposal outlined seven avenues of investigation, all
dealing with geo-magnetic research, none dealing with
UFO investigation. He proposed the work be classified
since he felt that the lesser known and little explored
aspects of magnetism might hold the key to a new and significant
technology, and its impact on our civilization would have
to be assess if his suspicions proved correct. Commander
C.P. Edwards, then Deputy Minister of Transport for Air
Services gave the project his blessing, requesting that
he be kept posted from time to time.
is curious that the avenues of investigation Smith proposed
made no reference to UFOs. Could it have been that Smith
willfully omitted such reference in order to ensure a
greater probability that the project would be approved?
Or was he only interested in UFOs because they seemed
to be demonstrating that some of his concepts were apparently
being applied, whereas his main interest was indeed in
the new technology which he felt he was on the verge of
curiosity was responsible for Project
Magnet's initiation in November 1950, and
for its relatively secret progress for a few years at
least. It is significant, though, that the official 'Magnet'
report, when eventually released many years later, dealt
only with UFO sighting analysis, and made no mention of
Smith's geo-magnetics research.
the Canadian government in all its wisdom, saw the need
for still another project to analyze UFO reports, less
classified than Project
Magnet, but still confidential. During
the early months of 1952, there was a noticeable increase
in the number of UFO incidents covered by the Canadian
Press. Several of these involved reports of disc-shaped
craft over Royal Canadian Air Force bases, many reported
by service personnel themselves.
Research Board (DRB)
noted this increase, and DRB
chairman Solandt asked staff member Harold Oatway to get
a committee together "to see if we can make anything
out of these flying saucer reports."
Solandt forgotten about Smith and Magnet?
was a friend of Smith and knew of his involvement. As
we shall see Smith had not been forgotten, but the reason
for setting up a further project remains unclear, unless,
of course, Smith was too busy with his research. Why they
didn't merely enlarge Magnet
remains a mystery.
April 22, 1952, the committee gathered by Oatway held
its first meeting, with Peter
head of the Dominion Observatory, as its chairman.
Smith, Edwards and Solandt were also among those present.
was agreed that there was a need to formally investigate
UFOs, and that a committee should be formed to lead this
activity and to standardize procedures, etc. From the
minutes of this meeting we read, "This committee
was to prepare a brief of instructions for observers;
examine interrogation ; and to establish a standard method
of recording and indexing for subsequent analysis."
(And if I may be permitted, I would like to note that
thirty years later, we are still doing the same thing!)
It was also decided that "the function of DRB
should be mainly advisory as the collection of reports
could best be done by field organizations."
days later, the newly formed committee assembled, classifying
its work as 'confidential', and identifying themselves
as 'Project Theta'.
May 19, 1952, they met for a second time and among other
things, re-named themselves Project
Second Storey since 'Theta'
was apparently not on the list of valid names for projects
of this type.
June 25, 1952, Smith submitted an interim report on Project
Magnet in which he stated that it appeared
evident that flying saucers
are emissaries from other civilizations and actually operate
on magnetic principles, magnetic principles which we have
failed to grasp due to our not paying enough attention
to the structure of fields in our study of physics.
July 31, Project
Second Storey held their third meeting
where, among other items of business, a letter containing
several of Smiths motions, presumably based on his progress
in Magnet, was tabled
and discussed. Also, the final form of the Project
Second Storey Sighting Report was approved,
and distribution of same was determined.
was no mention in the minutes of any reference to Smiths
decisive statement in his interim 'Magnet'
fourth meeting of Second Storey
was not held until November 17, followed by the fifth
on March 9, 1953. Smith had been working on some 'weighting
factors' to be applied to witness testimony to help arrive
at some measure of report significance. At the fifth meeting
his system was adopted temporarily without alterations.
At this point, though, it was probably felt irrelevant
since Chairman Millman noted "that evidence to
date (and note that this was not Second
Storey's evidence to which he was referring,
since they had so far only managed to standardize their
procedures) did not seem to warrant an all out investigation
by the Canadian Services but it might be well to continue
to collect at some central location all forms which may
be submitted to the Services." Millman reached
this conclusion following discussions with the chairman
of DRB on the future
activities of the committee. They seemed to be again ignoring
Smith's statement in his preliminary report on Magnet;
or were they trying to play it down?
as it turned out, Millman's conclusion was based on activities
in the U.S. in the wake of the Robertson
Panel, which is now know to have been a
CIA whitewash. So
here is further evidence of top level U.S. Canadian inter-relationship
in the UFO field, and if we assume this inter-relationship
continued after the Robertson Panel, it is safe to assume
that investigation of UFOs in Canada was placed under
the control of some branch of Canadian Intelligence. We
can only guess that Smith's interim 'Magnet'
report probably played a significant part in this assumed
concluding the fifth meeting of Second
Storey, it was agreed that a further meeting
would take place after the Department of Transport had
completed its analysis. That is, after the Magnet
Report was finished. This was accomplished on August 10,
1953, but there are no minutes available of any further
Second Storey meetings,
although there is evidence that further meetings did take
place. One wonders why the minutes were not made public.
Recent correspondence between Canadian ufologist Arthur
Bray and Dr. Allen McNamara (without even
having been asked the question) that the
Magnet report was submitted to Second
Storey in 1953. (This from a letter dated July
25, 1979.) So it was 26 years before any indication of
further Second Storey
the summer of 1953, Wilbert Smith obtained approval from
of Transport (DOT)
to set up some UFO detection equipment at Shirley's Bay,
near Ottawa, and by the end of October the installation
was complete. The instruments included a gamma-ray counter,
a magnetometer, a radio receiver (to detect the presence
of radio noise, and a recording gravimeter.
of Magnet finally
leaked to the media presumably because of the conspicuous
nature of the Shirley's Bay installation. As expected,
denials were attempted; on the very day the station went
into operation, Dr. Solandt was quoted as saying reports
of the station's establishment were completely untrue.
However, he was forced to back down on this, and later
claimed he actually had only said that such a station
was not being operated by his department, and that he
personally had no knowledge of its existence. Even this
was difficult to accept since the installation was located
next to DOT's Ionosphere
Station on Defence
Research Board (DRB)
property, and in fact, the building was loaned to Smith
awareness of this project was to be a source of frustration,
annoyance and embarrassment to DRB
and DOT, and it put
Smith in an awkward position since he was still officially
a member of the Second Storey
Committee. This was probably a contributing factor to
the contents of Millman's November 21st summary report
Second Storey. He announced that Project
Second Storey's forms and instructions for filing of sighting
information were available for any government department
seriously interested in pursuing the matter further, but
the committee felt that, owing to the impossibility of
checking independently the details of the majority of
sightings , most of the material did not lend itself to
a scientific method of investigation.
it be that they were not aware of the scientific study
being conducted in the U.S. at that time by the Air Force
on UFO reports collect from June 1, 1947 to December 31,
1952? The study was initiated in 1952 and continued through
1954, and proved beyond a doubt the existence of an unidentified
phenomenon, even though the conclusions were worded in
such a way as to divert attention from the evidence. The
study to which I am referring was known as 'Project
Blue Book Special Report #14' which is
probably the most constantly referred to in the literature
Friedman, and more recently was the subject
of a paper by Bruce
Maccabee in the Journal
of UFO Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, entitled the
'Scientific Investigation of
Unidentified Flying Objects'.
is difficult to believe Millman's statement, and perhaps
his remarks were designed to appease 'somebody' in the
event Smith's association with Second
Storey eventually became public knowledge,
and also to save face in view of the Adamski & contactee
activity now the public eye.
3:01 in the afternoon of August 8, 1954, the instrumentation
at the Shirley's Bay installation registered an unusual
disturbance. In Smith's words, "the gravimeter
went wild", as a much greater deflection was
registered than could be explained by conventional interference
such as passing aircraft. Smith and his colleagues rushed
outside only to find a heavy overcast. Whatever was up
there was hidden in the clouds. The only evidence they
had was the deflection registered on the chart recorder
days later, the controller of Telecommunications issued
a form letter, which was also authorised as a press release,
admitting that the DOT
had been engaged in the study of UFOs for three and a
half years, that considerable data had been collected
and analysed, but it had not been possible to reach any
definite conclusion, and since new data simply confirmed
existing data, there seemed little point in carrying the
project any further on an official level. This, despite
the fact that "new data... confirmed existing
data", which is what one would expect of a positive
Magnet was to be dropped, but Smith would
continue to receive and catalogue data on an unofficial
basis. In Smith's words, Magnet
went "underground," probably joining
detection of 'whatever it was' two days before had evidently
inspired rapid action. Does it seem likely that a project,
which had finally apparently detected what it was looking
for, would be terminated? Justification for changing to
a 'Top Secret' classification perhaps... It is apparent
that pressure was applied to Smith to down-play or even
deny the Shirley's Bay incident.
Greg Kanon writes: "In an abrupt about-face, Smith
announced, before the May 17th 1955 session of the Commons'
Special Committee on Broadcasting, that no UFOs had ever
been detected at the Shirley's Bay Station. At about this
same time, Captain Edward
J. Ruppelt (who earlier served as
chief UFO investigator for the U.S. Air Force) was reportedly
told by RCAF Intelligence officers that only 'officially'
had the Shirley's Bay Station produced negative results.
These developments led some UFO researchers to conclude
that Smith had been successfully silenced by officialdom."
the case, Smith kept busy over the next few years, and
we get a glimmer of what he was up to from a presentation
he gave about five years later to the Illuminating Engineering
Society's Canadian Regional Conference during which he
know that gravity is not all Newton visualised. Far from
being a basic force in nature, it is really a derived
function, and is the consequence of a dynamic condition,
not a static one. We know what goes into its makeup; we
know its formula and we have a pretty good idea of how
to go about bringing it under control. We have conducted
experiments that show that it is possible to create artificial
gravity (not Centrifugal force) and to alter the gravitational
field of the Earth. This we have done. It is Fact. The
next step is to learn the rules and do the engineering
necessary to convert the principle into workable hardware."
That statement was made in 1959. The question is, what
has been achieved since then?
has been claimed by some that Smith turned away from orthodox
scientific work to the more metaphysical aspects of what
he termed 'the new science'. Such was not the case.
He carried on his normal scientific work and at the same
time, delved into the science of metaphysics as a possible
answer to the UFO mystery, which apparently produced some
concrete results in the laboratory. In the realm of purely
orthodox science, Smith was working on the development
of an anti-gravity device and believed himself to be on
the verge of an important breakthrough just prior to his
the area of metaphysics, Smith claimed to communicate
with 'occupants' of UFOs through a contact who provided
him with certain information. One instance pertained to
areas of reduced binding in our atmosphere. All matter
is held together by forces which are not clearly understood
and are known as 'binding forces'. Smith was informed
that there are areas of reduced binding and that many
air crashes were due to entering such regions, where the
planes literally fell apart. He was told that means of
detecting such areas were easily available to us and that
suitable instruments could be constructed. By building
a 'binding meter' according to the principles given to
him, he was able to locate regions of reduced binding.
He recommended to the government that further investigation
be conducted, but because of the unorthodox source of
his information, he was unable to obtain official recognition
of this work and his letters were added to the 'crank
last ten years of Smith's life were devoted to intensive
thought and study. He formulated several of his ideas
into a book titled The New Science.
died of cancer on December 27, 1962. The respect he commanded
was reflected in his being posthumously awarded
the Lieutenant-Colonel Keith S. Rogers Memorial Engineering
Award for dedicated service in the advancement of the
Technical Standards in Canadian Broadcasting.
This award, presented by the Canadian General Electric
Company, was well deserved. Smith was one of the foremost
thinkers of his time - a well respected ufologist - one
of the first of our breed.