Wilbert B Smith - 35 rare "Topside" newsletters now online (searchable PDFs)

Wilbert B Smith is – to put it mildly - a controversial figure, discussed in dozens of UFO books. I've posted about him in the past, including in a thread I wrote about Canadian UFO documents. I'll give a brief summary of some relevant views below.

For example, Timothy Good’s book “Above Top Secret” discusses Wilbert Smith at pages 178-184, 198-200 (in Chapter 8) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Guild Publishing hardback edition and the Grafton paperback edition). That section can be found online on the Stealthskater website and states that Wilbert Smith was

senior radio engineer with the Canadian government Department of Transport at the time and a highly respected scientist who held a master's degree in electrical engineering and several patents.

Similarly, Michael Strainic wrote a biography for the NICAP web site (2002) at:
www.nicap.org...

“For the most part, however, the picture is clear: Wilbert B. Smith was a sensible and serious scientist who held an important post within his government”

A rather different impression about Wilbert Smith is given in the following comments from sceptics:

(b) A “Magonia” book review refers to Wilbert Smith as a:
pelicanist.blogspot.co.uk...

“anti gravity flying saucer propulsion theory / contactee hugging crank who led a Canadian official or semi official UFO investigation back in the early 1950s”

(b) Christopher D Allan, in a relatively detailed article on Wilbert Smith, refers to him as:
www.ufoupdateslist.com...

“an insignificant Canadian scientist of long ago”

Particularly noteworthy for their detail (with supporting references/links) and their insight, are various articles by Paul Kimball (a Canadian film-maker and ufologist) relating to Wilbert Smith, particularly Paul Kimball’s articles on Wilbert Smith’s competence and credibility:
redstarfilms.blogspot.co.uk...
redstarfilms.blogspot.co.uk...

The latter article includes details of Wilbert Smith’s claims to have spent “many hours conversing with people from elsewhere”.




The issue of Wilbert Smith’s claims to have had contact with people from elsewhere is covered in quite a few of the discussions of Wilbert Smith’s work, e.g. in this discussion by Stuart Nixon in a NICAP publication (Nixon, 1973) - which makes it all the more surprising that this issue is (deliberately?) overlooked in some of the more pro-ETH discussions of Wilbert Smith and Project Magnet:




Many other relevant videos and mp3 files can be found online.



A relatively extensive collection of audio material relating to Wilbert B Smith can be found on the “Check The Evidence” website:
www.checktheevidence.com...




Wilbert Smith wrote quite a bit about UFOs. Some of his articles appeared in the Flying Saucer Review (“FSR”) magazine – including at the following references:

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review. Volume 4, Number 3, (May-June 1958) pages 10-11

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review, Volume 4, Number 6 (November/December 1958) pages 8-11

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review, Volume 5, Number 2 (March/April 1959) pages 12-14, 31

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review, Volume 5, Number 5 (September/October 1959) pages 18-20

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review, Volume 6, Number 3

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review, Volume 7, Number 2 (March/April 1961) pages 7-8

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review, Volume 9, Number 5 (September/October 1963) pages 13-16

Smith, Wilbert – Flying Saucer Review, Volume 9, Number 6 (November/December 1963) pages 11-14



Wilbert B Smith was associated with a UFO group in Canada called the "Ottawa New Sciences Club". That group published the "Topside" newsletter.

Issues of “Topside” are pretty difficult to obtain so I was very pleased when, a few months ago, Canadian researcher Nikoloas Balaskas very kindly sent me scans of 12 issues of Topside. The AFU in Sweden has now kindly currently scanned quite a few further issues of this publication. Veteran American ufologist Barry Greenwood has helpfully scanned several issues to fill in the remaining gaps. So, issues 1 to 35 are now freely available online.

More specific credits for the various scans are given below.

The front covers of this publication expressly indicated that material can be copied provided acknowledgement is given. (The "Ottawa New Sciences Club" dissolved long ago).

With that permission in mind, the collection of issues can be downloaded with a single click during the next week from THIS TEMPORARY LINK. After the next week, or if you only want a specific issue, they can also be found longer-term on the AFU’s website at THIS LINK.



Issue 01 - 1960 March (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 02 - 1960 June (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 03 - 1960 September (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 04 - 1960 December (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 05 - 1961 March (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 06 - 1961 Summer (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 07 - 1961 Fall (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 08 - 1962 Winter (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 09 - 1962 Spring (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 10 - 1962 Summer (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 11 - 1962 Fall (SCANNED BY NIKOLAOS BALASKAS)
Issue 12 - 1963 winter and spring (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 13 - 1963 Summer and Fall (SCANNED BY BARRY GREENWOOD)
Issue 14 - 1964 September (SCANNED BY BARRY GREENWOOD)
Issue 15 - 1964 December (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 16 - 1965 Spring (SCANNED BY BARRY GREENWOOD)
Issue 17 - 1965 Summer (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 18 - 1965 Autumn (SCANNED BY BARRY GREENWOOD)
Issue 19 (SCANNED BY BARRY GREENWOOD)
Issue 20 (SCANNED BY BARRY GREENWOOD)
Issue 21-22 - 1966 Summer and Fall (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 23 - 1967 Winter (SCANNED BY BARRY GREENWOOD)
Issue 24-25 - 1967 Spring and Summer (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 26 - 1967 Autumn (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 27 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 28 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 29 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 30 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 31 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 32 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 33 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 34 (SCANNED BY AFU)
Issue 35 (SCANNED BY AFU)

Incidentally, Wilbert B Smith can be heard in recordings on several of the audio CDs collated by Wendy Connors, which were made freely available online in 2013 by Croatian researcher Giuliano Marinković with the blessing of the person to whom Wendy Connors entrusted her materials (Roderick B. Dyke, as archivist of the Archives for UFO Research, "AUFOR"). See, in particular, the following tracks on Disc 4 at the link below:

archive.org...

66: Wilbert B. Smith (Project Magnet - Canada) comments on USAF secrecy of UFOs in
1966. 00:33

84: Wilbert B. Smith relates his views on his research into flying saucers and space people on 09.06.1957. 16:15

85: Wilbert B. Smith speaks on his involvement with Project Magnet and his research into the space people. 11.11.1957. 30:00

86: Wilbert B. Smith lectures on We Are Not Alone in the universe on 02.01.1958. 13:00

87: Wilbert B. Smith lectures on the Philosophy of the Saucers, March 16, 1958. 10:15

88: Wilbert B. Smith relates his theories involving magnetism and UFOs on February 1,
1958, which he termed The New Science. 60:00

89: Wilbert B. Smith The New Science continued. 33:00


Those not familiar with Wilbert Smith may be interested with this recording made by Wilbert Smith on 11th November 1957:

Great information and well presented without any mention of politics (this is what ATS means to me)!
I was not familiar with this interesting fellow, so thanks for bringing him to my (our) attention.
Were you able to reach any conclusions from the documents and your knowledge of this individual?

a reply to: IsaacKoi

Very informative video. I have never heard of his claims. Very interested to read further of his alledged communications with the beings and on Project Magnet.

Thank you, sir for this much needed distraction from the upcoming election!

"Topside" Newsletters updated link
Courtesy of IsaacKoi.