pdf - WHALE

Finally, the oddest mention in the whole of the document's Part
II: a "leaf book" whose contents are apparently so sensitive that no
part of the presumed summary of is contents is leaked. The entire
description is blacked out. This is extremly interesting, and another
point of internal contradiction, for in the light of the description of
integrated circuitry encountered above and any culture possessing
it, digital data storage is possible. Surely an advanced
extraterrestrial culture with interplanetary travel capability would
have a more advanced technology for data storage than a book. Yet
there is no mention in the whole document of anything that
resembles digital data storage systems. There are no cassette tapes,
no compact disks, no nothing. This is not to say that ET would not
have, nor read, books. After all, we posses both technologies, and
continue to use both. But in any case, it cannot be denied: a book is
a totally terrestrial, and well-known, and old technology.
Perhaps the most interesting technical descriptions, howver, are
to be found in those portions describing the "neutronic engine."
Eleven components are described:
(1) UF6 (i..e, uranium hexafluoride) in metallic form;
(2) Hydrogen-fluoride gas;
(3) "water" and uranium tetrafluoride;
(4) powdered magnesium and potassium chlorate;
(5) a "metal similar to lead with a chocolate brown color";
(6) U 235 in metallic form;
(7) a plastic like material similar to (DuPont's) NE 102
(8) beryllium;
(9) pure aluminum;
(10) "thorium isotope material";
(11) plutonium powder.
There are a number of very odd features about this list.
First note that nine of the eleven components of the "neutronic
engine" describe wholly terrestrial - though for 1947 - still very
advanced technologies.
Second, note that the document states clearly that these
elements "were analyzed and found to exist in the small nuetronic
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