Possible Methods of UFO Propulsion Examined - Part XVIII
By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising series of books:
Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet
Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus
Cosmic Ray's Excellent Venus Adventure
Lady Columba Venus Revelations
From Keller Venus Files: Information pamphlet from Greater Redondo Beach, California, Chamber of Commerce, Consolidated, 1954. Bottom photo of pamphlet caption: “The John C. Roberts Company, Inc., Experimental Power Plant, where energy is taken from the air and harnessed, then beamed through the Earth as an electro-magnetic beam, without wires or other visible type of transmitter, powering farm-tillage implements, tractors, mills, boats, etc., and the “Flying Saucers,” all operated by remote control.”
“Are You Cosmic?”
At the same time that the government and the larger aviation and electronics companies were beginning their research in the development of anti-gravity spaceships, an unparalleled interest in this subject was emerging in the civilian community. This was particularly spurred on by ufologists, entranced by the numerous reports of actual contact between extraterrestrials and human beings. In many of these close encounters, the alien visitors to Earth would share some of their knowledge about flying saucer propulsion with the contactees, who would, in turn, passed it on to the general public in books, lectures, magazine articles, as well as radio and television appearances.
An interesting article on this very theme, “Are You Cosmic?”, appeared in the Tuesday, 15 June 1954 edition of the Prescott, Arizona, Daily Courier, with no byline given. A minister and leader of a small but growing Latter-day Saints restoration sect in Redondo Beach, California, Dr. William C. Conway (1865-1969), was the featured speaker at the Hasayampa Hotel, where he addressed the Prescott Lions Club at noon on the day previous. He told the rapt audience about a little-known inventor back east, John C. Roberts of New Castle, Delaware, who had succeeded in creating “devices that harness the tremendous cosmic energy taken from the air.” Conway testified that he has personally seen such cosmic energy utilized to operate machines by remote control. In addition, he claims that it has been used to “pick up” non-broadcast conversations occurring up to thousands of miles away. “Unfortunately,” Conway asserted, “Roberts’ invention has been suppressed in its presentation to public use by vested interests.”
The minister was introduced to the Lions Club membership by Leslie Taylor, a local hard-rock miner who had known Conway for many years. Besides presiding over a growing church in Redondo Beach, Taylor introduced Conway as the executive secretary of the Greater Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, Consolidated.
Enigmatic Inventor
The reverend claims that when he first met Roberts, he could not believe that he was just one year short of his 90th birthday, for he looked to be about 50 years old. During the initial meeting, Conway jokingly asked him if he was really from Mars or Venus, as his office walls were decked out in photographs of flying saucers in close vicinity to a mothership. Of Roberts, Conway noted that the inventor gained his information to build his cosmic ray machines through an inheritance of papers and schematics. Roberts would not reveal any more about this source.
The cosmic energy employed by Roberts’ cosmic ray machines could certainly perform many other “fantastic feats.” Conway said that such cosmic rays “could be beamed through the Earth without wires and, in working with the energy, Roberts found he could defy gravity.”
Of the oft-sighted flying saucers, the pastor would not speculate on where they came from; but he did note that, “Roberts had, with his device, operated a toy saucer; and during World War II, controlled a fleet of small saucers in a mock attack on Los Angeles, thereby proving how vulnerable that city was to attack.” Conway later discovered that the photographs in Roberts’ office were taken by an amateur astronomer, George Adamski, through his telescope that he operates from a café on the slopes of Mt. Palomar in Southern California. Conway opined that, “Roberts’ experimental craft are almost certainly similar in their design to the Adamski photographs showing a supposed ‘mother’ spaceship giving birth to smaller craft.”
Conway added that for some time he was in possession of one of Roberts’ devices, which was only the size of a wristwatch. Nevertheless, it proved to him the soundness of Roberts’ work. This was the same mechanism that he previously referred to, the one that could pick up on conversations taking place thousands of miles away. The reverend stated that back at Redondo Beach, through the use of this wristwatch-appearing device, conversations between President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, being initiated in Washington, D.C., were actually recorded by him on tape.
This small device was also used during the course of World War II to literally “freeze” the engines of German aircraft while in flight, forcing them to plummet to the ground. And prior to that, it was effectively employed during the Ethiopian-Italian conflict in the 1930s to literally ground to a halt the mechanized forces of the Italian army. Conway did not specify whether Roberts himself or some other individuals or military power were responsible for these actions, other than it wasn’t the government of the United States.
Regarding the immense power of this device, Conway declared that, “Roberts realize the value of his discovery and the horror it could create if it fell in the wrong hands. Roberts had been stymied in his attempts to take it to the government and had been the victim of vested interests that did everything to stop him because he himself would not capitalize on his amazing discovery.”
Conway believed that Roberts had been “framed” into serving a five-year jail sentence. It was during that time of incarceration that his wife disappeared and she has never been located. Roberts’ once-huge experimental plant in Delaware was disbanded with much of his papers and work being confiscated by government agents. Soon after, Roberts took off for the Soviet Union, whence he escaped after a “brain washing” and returned to the United States, where he kept his new location a secret from everyone, including his friend the California minister.
At the Lions Club meeting, Conway claimed that Roberts’ invention could even be used to foretell the actions being planned by the enemies of the United States. He further stated that, “Those in possession of the devices had attempted to warn the United States of the Pearl Harbor attack and spy activities of the Japanese on the West Coast before the 7 December attack.”
The Chamber of Commerce representative concluded his talk by pointing out that it was his most sincere hope that Americans would wake up to what was going on, and thereby bring Roberts and his device into the service of the United States, thus securing our safety in these perilous times.
Back in California
After conducting a tour of the Western United States, Dr. William C. Conway was back at his home and local congregation in Redondo Beach, California. The Desert Journal of Joshua Tree, California, ran an article, “Dr. Conway to Reveal ‘Saucer’ Secrets at Community Club,” in its 16 September 1954 edition, announcing that he would be a speaker at the next regular, monthly meeting of the Yucca Valley Community Service Club on Tuesday, 21 September 1954, at 8 p.m.
Irene Wescott, president of the Community Service Club, said that her organization was working closely with the Greater Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, Consolidated, in conducting an educational campaign regarding the “Flying Saucers from Space” that landed at Los Alamos, New Mexico, six years ago, and the occupants of these craft. Conway said that to date, over 200 authentic photographs of the mysterious flying saucers have come to the public’s attention through magazine and newspaper articles. The doctor of divinity turned ufologist promised to answer “Why the ‘big wigs’ of Washington, D.C., are trying so desperately to suppress all knowledge of the ‘saucers.’” He promised to reveal many other astounding things at the meeting.
Wescott said that everyone was welcome. “Be early and stay late!” is what she recommended. Door prizes, consisting of recent books written by UFO experts George Adamski of Mt. Palomar and Redondo Beach resident Truman Bethurum, were distributed. Gabriel Green, a prominent ufologist from Los Angeles, California, attended the meeting, along with a packed audience. Both Bethurum and Green testified that the flying saucers that landed at Los Alamos back in 1948 were from nearby planets in our own solar system; and Conway revealed that these extraterrestrials were the ones working behind the scenes in sharing information about various cosmic ray devices with responsible parties like John C. Roberts all along.
A donation of fifty cents was collected at the door, with all of the proceeds going to the Yucca Valley Community Service Club. Dr. William C. Conway did not charge anything for his presentation.
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You can read all about the early contactees and what they learned about the mysterious flying saucers in any of Cosmic Ray’s series of Venus Rising books (Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Books, 2015-2020). Stay tuned to Part XIX of “Possible Methods of UFO Propulsion,” where the Cosmic Ray takes us back to 1948 for a ride onboard the first Earth-manufactured Venus-bound spaceship, launched from a TOP SECRET facility in the United States.
