Mysterious Metal Sphere Found

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30103, 10 April 1963, Page 17

Mysterious Metal Sphere Found

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) ADELAIDE, April 9.

There was mount the origin of a mysterii sphere found on a stat Broken Hill, in New S'

The object, now in the charge of a senior Army officer, is being driven to the Weapons Research Establishment, Salisbury, consigned to the establishment’s security officer, Mr J. Maddern. The metal sphere is believed to have been examined by scientists at the Zinc Corporation at Broken Hill with the most modern type of Xray spectrograph—an instrument which determines the composition of alloys. The corporation’s manager, Mr R. Pitman-Hooper, would not comment on a report that the object contained the metals beryllium, titanium and magnesium.

“All I can say at this stage is that our scientists have had a look at the object, that any tests they may have made so far are inconclusive and that the sphere has been placed in the charge of a senior Army officer,” Mr Pit-man-Hooper said. An earlier report said metallurgists at the Zinc Cor-

:ing interest today in □us charred 121 b metal lion property north of outh Wales.

poration mine tried to cut the sphere with a file, but could make no impression. The director of the Broken Hill division of the University of New South Wales, Mr T. K. Hogan, said university scientists had made a visual inspection of the object, and what they saw “would not be inconsistent with the report that it contained the metals beryllium, titanium and magnesium.” He said that certainly the metals appeared to be “of modern origin.” They were also non-magnetic. Mr Hogan said an unusual submerged arc weld around the surface of the sphere “was a most beautifullyexecuted job. Suggestions that the ball could be some sort of a tank or cistern float just don’t stand up,” he said. The most obvious things against this suggestion were the unusual quality of the weld and the fact that the ball had the remains of two lugs still attached to it. A float would have been attached to any other mechanism at only one point. “It is, of course, impossible to say what the thing is made of without subjecting samples to conclusive tests.” he said, “but this much we can say—it is hollow and we dearly would have liked to open it up. “Its appearance is consistent with an alloy of the metals beryllium, titanium and magnesium. It is an alloy which is hard to scratch and probably has a high melting point. Its appearance suggests that it could have been covered with a heat shield, which protected it from the heat which melted the lugs,” Mr Hogan said. The ball was found by Mr J. McLure, of Boullia Station, who said no-one had been on that part of the station in 50 years.