Project Blue Book Case File
Oak Ridge, Tenn, July 1947 - Incident Number: 234July 1947
Summary
A civilian in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, photographed what he believed to be an unidentified object in July 1947. He submitted prints and negatives to local authorities, who forwarded them to the U.S. Air Force for analysis.
Air Force technical experts examined the negatives closely and concluded the images were caused by flaws in the photographic development process, not an actual object. Specifically, they found that either a drop of warm water or developer solution had struck the film during processing and rolled across two consecutive negatives, creating the appearance of a sphere and trail. The experts noted that the "trail" in the photographs was continuous across both negatives, that portions of the trail extended beyond the normal film boundaries (indicating they were created after exposure), and that other sections of both negatives showed signs of uneven development. Because the analysis determined the photographs contained no genuine image of any unknown object, the Air Force saw no need for further investigation.
The case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 19 pages.
Reported location
Oak Ridge, Tenn, July 1947 - Incident Number: 234
Date of incident
July 1947
State / country
? / XX
Page count
19 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 1