In March 1974 the Betz family of Fort George Island, Florida, were checking on a brush fire that had burned across their property when they found a polished metal ball lying in the ash. It was about eight inches across, a little under 22 pounds, perfectly smooth except for a small triangle etched on one side. They took it home as a curiosity.
A few days later their son was playing guitar in the room where it sat, and the ball began to vibrate and hum. Then it began to move. The family said that if you set it on the floor it would roll away, stop, change direction, and come back, as if it were steering. It would roll uphill on a tilted table. The family dog whined and left the room when it was near. Set on a flat surface it would vibrate like something inside was running.
The Navy got it. The sphere spent time at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, where X rays showed a hollow shell of stainless steel with two round objects inside and something that looked like a denser core. The lab said it was not a bomb and not a known piece of ordnance, and gave it back. Reporters and scientists came to the house and watched it roll. Some saw it move on its own. Some saw only a ball on an uneven floor. A later theory said it was a valve ball from a paper mill. The mill could not find one missing.
The Betz family grew tired of it all and stopped talking. The sphere’s whereabouts today are not public. What do you think?
