from Billy Rachels
IRAAP Investigator
Director, UFO Bureau
Ball from Space
Terry Betz was a twenty-one year old pre-med student. He and his father, Antoine, were inspecting 88 acres of newly acquired timberland located on Fort George Island just east of Jacksonville, Florida, when they came across a highly polished, round, metal ball, approximately the size of a bowling ball. The date was May 27, 1974.
Terry decided to take the ball back home. Later on he gave it a closer examination and found it to be a perfect sphere, slightly smaller than a regular size bowling ball. Its weight was 25 pounds. Terry soon also discovered that the ball seemed to move with a mind of its own. When he rolled it, it always rolled away from him as any ball would do, eventually stopping. However, once it paused, it would roll back to him! Sometimes it would veer off to the side, stop, then vibrate for a short time, but always returned to the person who rolled it.
Lou Egner, a reporter and photographer for a Jacksonville newspaper, was sent to do a story on the unusual sphere. Being very skeptical of the unknown ball, the reporter gave it a roll. He later said that the ball stopped, made a turn rolling four more feet, then stopped again. It then rolled another eight feet, made a big arc, then rolled right back toward him, stopping at his feet.
The reporter took the time to examine the ball closely, he later wrote in his story, and found that it was made of some sort of metal, very similar in appearance to stainless steel. The ball had no seams on it, and only a small triangular mark on its surface. One spot on its surface attracted metal as would a magnet.
The family continued to play with the ball for several weeks and found many more amazing things it was able it was able to do. For example, when Terry struck the ball with a metal object (like a metal tool) it produced a ringing sound, and strumming his guitar near it caused the ball to emit a sound as if responding to the guitar. They also found the ball was sensitive to weather conditions: sunny days produced more activity than cloudy days. Direct heat or infrared seemed to have no effect on it.
Yet, the most amazing feature of the ball was how it performed when placed on a flat surface above ground level. When placed on a piece of glass above the ground, it would roll to the edge, but not fall off... it would go right up to the edge, stop, reverse direction and stop at the other edge. It seemed as if the sphere had some sort of built-in sensing or guidance system. It the case of the piece of glass, it would eventually roll along the edge of the glass as if trying to find a way to get off.
At this point, the Betz family began to consider the possibility that they might be in possession of some type of alien space probe, so they decided to have scientific test done on the object. The “ball from space” was examined by Dr Carl Williston of Omega Minus One, an institution located in the state of Louisiana at the time. In his six hours of testing, Dr Williston found that the sphere contained three magnetic poles and a possible fourth. He stated that the aspect of the magnetic field was a mind bender, the flux density of the field appeared to vary in strength based on an unknown pattern. Simply stated, the power of the magnetic portion varied up and down. Back in 1974, this phenomenon was not part of our known physics. The same applied to the multiple poles.
An x-ray was taken of the object which revealed 3 similar spheroid shapes within the ball. Curiously, these 3 shapes had a“halo” surrounding them, as though they were surrounded by a material with a different density. The metal was similar to stainless steel, but had some unknown content making it slightly different.
Conclusions:
This unusual ball was a magnetic sphere sensitive to magnetic fields, numerous sound emissions, and mechanical stimulation. It was both passive and active. If it was an extraterrestrial probe, it might possibly be in a damaged state.
Where is the Betz ball today? There is no certainty as to its present location. At one point though, the mysterious sphere had created enough excitement that both Dr J Allen Hyneck and Dr James A. Harder (former APRO Director of Research) wanted to perform their own testing; however, I am not sure if the tests were ever carried out. Unfortunately, both men are now deceased.
If someone made the metal sphere, they apparently went through a lot of trouble (and money) to create it as well as they did. It makes no sense that they did not bother to try and retrieve it. Perhaps, the“ball from space” might, indeed, be just that... something from beyond our Earth.
(Billy Rachels can be contacted at 516
Colton Ave, Thomasville, GA 31792)
