The Betz Mystery Sphere of 1974 Revisited

I have been reading lately about the mysterious sphere that was found in 1974 by people investigating a brush fire on Fort George Island, east of present day Jacksonville Florida. This metallic spherical object was recovered by the Betz family during their investigation of the brush fire. It weighs about 22 lbs. and is silver in color. On the surface is the stamp of a triangle and there are no other markings or weld seams that would indicate it as a man made artificial object. Numerous strange things were noticed about the sphere, such as it's ability to stop on it's own after being rolled and changing directions, returning to the person that rolled it. According to the Betz family, it even seemed to react to atmospheric conditions, reacting differently to a bright sunny day as compared to an overcast rainy day. This sphere was tested by The U.S. department of the Navy, finding that the mystery sphere was made of stainless steel with nickel as a component. They discovered by x-ray analysis that the sphere contained two round objects within, with a "halo" material made of a strange density. It had four different magnetic poles, 2 positive and 2 negative, which were not concentric. They noticed that it was extremely magnetic, but showed no evidence of any form of radiation. On April 13, 1974, Dr. Carl Willson of the Omega Minus One institute out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana studied the sphere, realizing that radio waves were also emanating from the object, as well as the sphere having it's own magnetic field.

Many theories arose about the mysterious object, ranging from it being a Navy underwater submarine marker, a doomsday device,a downed satellite, an alien atomic bomb and an object possibly related to the Foo Fighter sightings of World War II. No certifiable explanation was given for the object and is still a mystery. The where-a-bouts of the mystery sphere is questionable to this day. When I read this story, the date came to mind. 1974. My mind is great with dates. Another mystery object was spotted (or re-spotted) that year, the Black Knight satellite. Much speculation over the years about the satellites origin have been evaluated by scientists and our own ATS members. I am on the fence with the subject of it, believing it could be of earth or alien origin. It's kind of interesting to think that possibly the Black Knight satellite and the mystery sphere could somehow be linked.
There is no real way to know, and it's an interesting thing to hypothesize over. There were older posts about this subject on ATS, but the poster was finding it hard to find relative pieces of information. The link to this information is here:

mysteriousuniverse.org...

I personally think this story is fascinating. What do all of you on ATS think?

It was interesting enough for me to S&F it.

Thanks for the post, i'm always into weird stuff like that.

i dont know if this has been answered elsewhere, but the Black Knight satellite, did it just disappear?

Here's a newspaper article from around the time on the 'sphere.'

news.google.com...,4157030

Interesting thread OP. you've been coming up with some good stuff lately. I haven't been able to find much on the web these days. So thank you for keeping it interesting for me and submitting some good stories.

This thing is interesting. It doesn't seem dangerous. It emits no radiation. has weird magnetic poles. And when rolled like a boomerang it comes back to the person who rolled it. For some reason I keep getting the mental image that this is some alien child's version of a toy or something. Maybe a companion probe that would hover around keeping the kid entertained and when it broke the vacationing aliens just left it behind. EIther that or some florida panthers ate the alien family and the poor orb couldn't do anything to help. eventually ran out of power and was found where it pooped out.

Very interesting read. Never have heard this story before but completely caught my attention and has me doing some research on it now. Will be keeping up with this thread.

reply to post by BASSPLYR

Thank you. I appreciated it. And I like the last part of the paragraph you stated. The panther thing is an awesome theory.

I must say, I like your posts thus far Rubicant. Some of it may be old hat to older members (don't be fooled by my profile date) but it keeps the braincage rattling...hoaxes, legends, myths and mysteries are are always interesting to me in one way or another. I have never heard of this one, whatever it may be?
Thanks Buddy

Link to an older thread about the same here....

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Vasa Croe


I found that thread earlier. It's an interesting article. I like to try to link mysterious things like this to other phenomena. Sometimes, just maybe if you look hard enough, you find parallels.

Great post, OP. I had never heard of this before and found it to be VERY interesting.

Anyone know what page the article is on the link provided to the newspaper from 1974?

reply to post by Rubicant13

I finally found a second source for some of the information in the OP's Mysterious Universe website link.
SKYLOOK - The UFO Monthly - MUFON UFO Network - May, 1974

This gives enough information to make some double-check calculations. Using the data confirmed by this source and the OP's link, the sphere shell is 7.96 inches (202.2 mm) in diameter, made of magnetic ASTM alloy 431 stainless steel, approximately 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) think, and weighted 21.34 pounds (9.68 kg). Using the known density of stainless steel alloy 431 (7700 kg/m3), a 202.2 mm external diameter sphere with a 180.33 mm internal diameter (10.93 mm or 0.430 inch wall thickness) would exactly weigh 9.68 kg. Considering these stories were filtered through "Main Stream Media" (MSM), I can see where a thickness of 0.43 inches would be reported as about 1/2 inch.

I also investigated the x-ray source voltage needed to expose objects internal to a 11 mm thick stainless steel sphere and found that at least a 300 kV x-ray would be required consistent with the original story. See more information here:
Industrial X-Ray

At this point in my analysis what concerns me is that just the sphere shell equals the reported weight leaving no room for the masses of internal components. Lacking more scientific data my calculations suggest something could be wrong with this story but do not prove anything.

Next I compared the details reported by MUFON in May 1974 and the OP's Mysterious Universe (MU) story and found several discrepancies. The MUFON story reports the sphere being found on April 6, 1974 but the MU story reports it being found on May 26, 1974 then contradicts this date by reporting on a St. Petersburg Times story run on April 12, 1974, and contradicts this date again by reporting 1976 as the year for paranormal research. The MUFON story reports that the Navy examined the sphere a few days after April 6, 1974 but the MU story reports the Navy contacted the Betz family and the first MSM story did not run until April 12, 1974. And the inconsistencies continue, the MUFON story reports Mrs. Betz told MUFON Director Walt Andrus the sphere has 3 or 4 smaller spheres inside with its north and south magnetic poles separated by 150 degrees while the MU story reports the Navy x-ray images showed 2 round objects inside and that it had 4 magnetic poles, 2 positive and 2 negative (+ & - v.s. N & S ??). I will stop my discrepancy analysis here because it proves nothing except stories rewritten many times over 35 years can always be expected to contain some factual errors.

The MUFON story reports the sphere being found on April 6, 1974, exactly 2 weeks before the National Enquirer's "UFO Blue Ribbon Panel" of experts, that included Dr. J. Allen Hynek, convened in New Orleans on April 20 & 21, 1974 to determine if anyone deserved to win the $50,000 USD prize for verified UFO evidence. The MUFON story also reports that Dr. J. Allen Hynek decided the sphere is of man-made origin, but still mysterious. Dr. J. Allen Hynek's hands-on examination of the sphere is specifically excluded from the MU story. This major omitted fact plus my earlier object mass uncertainty, and the Betz family driven publicity just before the prize panel met in New Orleans, leave many credibility questions in my mind.

In summary, I do not believe enough evidence survives today to conclusively determine if the Betz Mystery Sphere was a hoax designed to capture the National Enquirer's $50,000 UFO evidence reward or something more significant. Nevertheless, I think I showed that enough discrepancies exist in most incarnations of the Betz sphere story that we should not blindly accept the spectacular claims now associated with the Betz Mystery Sphere.

Best regards,
Z

reply to post by DrZrD


I noticed the date discrepancy as well. They may have meant March, but instead of said May by accident. Could have been a typo. the site below lists it as March 27th 1974.

ufostudy.wordpress.com...

Dr. Hynek's examination of the sphere was excluded. The reason I believe it was is because he himself never examined it. The link that you provided states that he met with the blue ribbon panel in New Orleans. Nowhere does it state that he examined it. All other information was related by Chief Petty Officer Chris Berninger of the Navy, and all other information was provided by Mrs. Betz to Walt Andrus Of MUFON in a telephone interview.

reply to post by Rubicant13

You may very well be correct that Dr. Hynek never directly examined the Betz sphere but I did find these web pages,
Dr. Hynek and the National Enquirer (1974)
NICAP, APRO & The National Enquirer
that corroborates Dr. Hynek's involvement with the National Enquirer beginning in February 1974, 2 months before the Betz sphere is found. At the very least this was a focus project for him at the time.

As I said in my earlier post, nothing demonstrates the Betz Sphere was a hoax but at least circumstantial evidence suggests we should view present day claims with some skepticism. To be honest, if as many reporters directly witnessed the spheres strange behavior as is claimed, then at least part of the story must be true.

Best regards,
Z

for phantomjack and others the pic and article is on page 13, pic upper left, article on the right.... I never heard of this story before...it is interseting for sure...was it a hoax...if not, what happened to it over the years?

Great story. I enjoyed the post as well as all the constructive remarks after. For once a post that doesnt have someone being really negative.

Thanks for posting this, I have never heard of it before but it sounds very interesting. From what i gathered from your link, after it was tested and such it sort of dissapeared? I'm thinking maybe the government is in possesion of it, my conspiracy side coming out

quick question, not trying to divert this thread from the Sphere but i did a quick search about that Black Knight satellite. From what i gathered it was a satellite of unknown origin that was near earth and then sort of vanished? I'm gunna dig a little deeper and try to find more information on that, sounds interesting.

reply to post by Rubicant13


After reading the article @ Mysterious Universe I wonder where the sphere is today? After reading the descriptions in the article; it seemed that the sphere had characteristics similar to a gyrosphere. Who's gyrosphere?

I love reading stuff like this as others have said and this is a tidbit that has so far eluded me all these years.Don't know what to think about it but I think it's a shame that it's so hard to find more info on this object.
One thing about it's description got my attention--the fact that when you rolled it,it would go so far and then return.One of my favorite toys as a child (I'm 47) was a ball that did such and I don't remember how or what the mechanism was,just know that it fascinated me and this just called that to mind.S+F

I have never heard of the mystery sphere before something new to me..And your right this story is fascinating I'm going to have to research into this sphere its a true fascinating mystery..Thanks for posting this ..peace,sugarcookie1 S&F