Otis T. Carr (December 7, 1904 – September 20, 1982) first emerged into the 1950s
flying saucer
A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...
scene in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, in 1955 when he founded OTC Enterprises, a company that was supposed to advance and apply technology originally suggested by
George Van Tassel
George Washington Van Tassel (March 12, 1910 – February 9, 1978) was an American contactee, ufologist and author.
Early life
Van Tassel was born in Jefferson, Ohio in 1910, and grew up in a fairly prosperous middle-class family. He finished h ...
's
Integratron
The Integratron is a tall cupola structure with a diameter of designed by ufologist and contactee George Van Tassel. Van Tassel claimed the Integratron was capable of rejuvenation, anti-gravity and time travel. He built the structure in Lan ...
was supposedly based partially on (unspecified) lore from Tesla, partially on lore from friendly Space Brothers from Venus.
Carr patented a flying saucer, and asserted he was working on a full-size version that could fly to the Moon and return in less than a day, using two counter-rotating metal plates, spinning electromagnets and large capacitors, which when spinning charged and powered by a battery, which became "activated by the energy of space." He named this device the Ezechiel Wheel. Carr's scheme resembles slightly earlier proposals by John R. R. Searl and
Thomas Townsend Brown
Thomas Townsend Brown (March 18, 1905 – October 27, 1985) was an American inventor whose research into odd electrical effects led him to believe he had discovered a connection between strong electric fields and gravity, a type of antigravity ...
. Carr also claimed to have invented "The Gravity Electric Generator", "The Utron Electric battery", "The Carrotto Gravity Motor", and "The Photon Gun".
Ray Palmer Ray Palmer may refer to:
* Raymond A. Palmer, science-fiction writer and editor
* Raymond F. Palmer, medical professor
* Ray Palmer (pastor), American pastor and author of hymns
* Ray Palmer (Arrowverse), a TV show character based on his comic boo ...
's ''Fate Magazine'' gave Carr a great deal of free publicity, not all of it complimentary, throughout the 1950s. Carr and his promoter, Norman Evans Colton, also frequently appeared during the same period on
Long John Nebel
Long John Nebel (born John Zimmerman; June 11, 1911 – April 10, 1978) was an influential New York City talk radio show host.
From the mid-1950s until his death in 1978, Nebel was a hugely popular all-night radio host, with millions of regular ...
's pioneering radio and television talk show, and during each appearance, Nebel usually managed to prompt Carr into his usual state of near incoherence; for example, "Can you describe what you're holding in your hand?" "This is a dimensional object. It was designed with the dimensions of space itself. We say it is truly the geometric form of space, because it is completely round and completely square." (Carr was referring to his "Utron Coil", which was round when viewed from above and square when viewed from the side.) The ship was to be powered by Carr also said his great secret could be best expressed mathematically as "minus zero", or "zero X". Colton and Carr did manage to sell quite a bit of stock in their enterprise. Carr also teamed up with obscure
contactee
Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with extraterrestrials. Some claimed ongoing encounters, while others claimed to have had as few as a single encounter. Evidence is anecdotal in all cases.
As a cultural phenomenon, c ...
Wayne Sulo Aho
Wayne Sulo Aho (24 August 1916 – 16 January 2006) was an American contactee who claimed contact with extraterrestrial beings. He was one of the more obscure members of the 1950s wave of contactees who followed George Adamski.
Early life
Born i ...
, and he and Aho toured the various "flying saucer clubs" that then existed in nearly every major city in the United States, touting the wonders of Carr's spacecraft propulsion system.
Although Carr's business affairs were generally considered to be fraudulent, he was granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for an "Amusement Device", , filed January 22, 1959. In 1958 Carr struck a deal with the owner of an amusement park,
Frontier City
Frontier City is a western-themed amusement park in Oklahoma City. It is owned by EPR and operated by Six Flags. The park originally opened in 1958. Frontier City is the third-oldest Six Flags park behind Six Flags New England and Six Flags Grea ...
, in
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
,
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
. Apparently, the terms of the deal were that Carr would construct a full-scale, 45-foot (14 m) mockup of his saucer, OTC X-1, to be converted into a ride for the park. Carr relocated to Oklahoma City, provided the park with a dummy OTC X-1, and claimed to be readying a 6-foot (1.8 m) "prototype" of his saucer for a demonstration flight at the fairground. Carr said his demonstration model would rise to about 500 feet. He also said he would follow that triumph on December 7, 1959 by launching a working 45-foot saucer, matching the amusement park mockup, and, with
Wayne Sulo Aho
Wayne Sulo Aho (24 August 1916 – 16 January 2006) was an American contactee who claimed contact with extraterrestrial beings. He was one of the more obscure members of the 1950s wave of contactees who followed George Adamski.
Early life
Born i ...
and himself as pilots, would fly from the fairground site to the Moon and return in a few hours. The 6-foot saucer demonstration was supposed to have been launched on April 19, 1959, but it never even made it to the fairground, and neither did Carr, who claimed to be feeling "unwell" on the day of his demonstration. Visitors to Carr's factory site during the period did not see any actual working models, or otherwise, of either the 6-foot or 45-foot saucers. Instead, they were shown a small and motionless "three dimensional illustration of Carr's ideas" made mainly of wood. Carr had already dropped from sight before the launch date for the 6-foot model, and was not seen for quite some time thereafter.
In January 1961, Carr was convicted of "the crime of selling securities without registering the same" in Oklahoma, and fined $5,000, far less than the sums he had obtained from investors in the area. He was denied an appeal on March 1, 1961. Carr could not pay the fine, and served part of a 14-year jail term. Carr fled the state and soon resurfaced elsewhere, still selling non-working "free energy" technology. Aho was found to be an innocent dupe. After his sentence ended, Carr lived in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. In 1966 he claimed that the reason his earlier demonstrations failed was simply that he had not had enough time to finish the device. He died in 1982.
References
* Curran, Douglas: ''In Advance of the Landing,'' NY, NY: Abbeville Press, 1985. .
* Lewis, James R., editor, ''UFOs and Popular Culture'', Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2000. .
* Social Security Death Index lists him as born December 7, 1904 and day of death in September 1982, with his last residence at 15221 Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. His Social Security number was issued in Ohio.