THINK ABOUTIT SUMMARY:

Project Second Story: Canada’s Standardized UFO Intelligence

Project/Group Name:    Project Second Story

Mission:  To collect, catalogue, and correlate data on sightings of unidentified flying objects across Canada using a standardized methodology to minimize human error and subjectivity.

Date Started:  April 1952.   Ended:  1954.

Who or Whom Started It:  Dr. Peter Millman (Chairman).

Part of what Government Agency:  Defense Research Board (DRB) of Canada.

Location:  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Special Features/Characteristics: 

• Standardized Interrogation: Developed the first “Instructional Guide for the Interrogator” and a rigorous questionnaire to ensure all witnesses were asked the same technical questions.

• The Weighting System: Employed a mathematical weighting factor to determine the probability of a report’s truthfulness based on the observer’s credibility and the consistency of the data.

Summary/Description:  While Project Magnet (Department of Transport) looked at the physics of UFOs, Project Second Story (Defense Research Board) acted as the intelligence arm. It was a committee of scientists and military officers tasked with bringing order to the “random manner” in which sightings were reported. They famously used “Peter’s Formula” to calculate the probable error of the mean for sighting groups, allowing them to turn a series of mediocre reports into a statistically significant data point.

Related to:  Project Magnet, Wilbert B. Smith, Project Blue Book, and Project Sign.

Source:  Wilbert B. Smith’s Project Magnet Report (1950-1952); Records of the Defense Research Board of Canada.

Other Details:  The project ultimately concluded that most sightings could be explained as conventional objects, but the “weighting system” they left behind proved that a small percentage (the “Strange Objects”) could not be dismissed. This data gave Wilbert Smith the “Material Strange Objects” he needed to justify his geo-magnetic research.

“The weighting factor may be considered as the probability that the report contains the truth… it is the third approach: acceptance of the data and subsequent research.”