TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/092391/0923300.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.7 KB | 123 lines

                                                                                SCIENCE, Page 59

It Happens in the Best Circles


A pair of British artists claim they are the hoaxers behind those
mystifying and intriguing crop patterns

By LEON JAROFF -- Reported by Anne Constable/London


    This is without doubt the most wonderful moment of my
research," marveled retired engineer Pat Delgado last week, as
he stood in a wheat field near Sevenoaks, in the British county
of Kent. "No human could have done this."

    Delgado was gazing at a large area where the crops had
been mysteriously flattened in a remarkable pattern. A large,
nearly perfect circle of plants had been bent down in a
clockwise direction. Extending from the circle were other
shapes: antennae, a ladder-like strip and a semicircle.

    The Sevenoaks phenomenon is the latest of hundreds of
circular patterns that have appeared in the grainfields of
southern England and, in lesser numbers, in the fields of 20
other countries during the past 13 years. And it seemed perfect
fodder for Delgado, who now makes a career of investigating and
writing about the circles. He has suggested that the circular
patterns are created by a "superior intelligence" -- most likely
extraterrestrial -- and has co-authored a book called Circular
Evidence with another believer, Colin Andrews. It has sold more
than 50,000 copies.

    Delgado's exultation was soon cut short. Graham Brough, a
reporter from the London tabloid Today who had alerted Delgado
to the latest apparition, introduced him to two landscape
painters, David Chorley, 62, and Douglas Bower, 67. They had
created the Sevenoaks circle while Brough looked on. Moreover,
the duo revealed that for the past 13 years they have been
sneaking around southern England at night, fashioning as many
as 25 to 30 new circles each growing season. Their efforts
apparently inspired copycats, who in the past decade have used
a variety of techniques to shape hundreds of crop circles both
in Britain and abroad. Said Bower to Delgado: "I'm afraid we've
been having you on."

    Delgado was crestfallen. "We have all been conned," he
admitted. "If everything you say is true, I'll look the fool."
Indeed.

    The admission brought an end to one of the most popular
mysteries Britain -- and the world -- has witnessed in years.
Flying saucers, out of vogue for some time, were given new life
by the whorls. Saucer enthusiasts argued that the cropland
patterns marked the landing spots of UFOs bearing visitors from
space. Believers in the paranormal claimed the circles radiated
mysterious energy forces. The patterns spawned a kind of
intellectual cottage industry: no fewer than 35 Britons claim
to be experts on the phenomenon.

    A new scientific discipline, cereology, emerged. It is
practiced by members of the Circles Effect Research Unit, a
privately funded group headed by Wiltshire-based physicist
Terence Meaden. The group argued that a still unverified weather
phenomenon is often responsible for the weird damage. It occurs,
Meaden says, when whirling columns of air pick up electrically
charged matter, flatten the crops below and produce the bright
lights observers say they have seen above the circles.

    Not to be outdone, a team of Japanese scientists, led by
physicist Yoshi-Hiko Oh tsuki, had joined the hunt for an
explanation. Ohtsuki believes a form of ball lightning generated
by microwaves in the atmosphere flattened the crops; he created
croplike circular patterns both in the laboratory and on a
computer programmed to simulate ball lightning. Impressed by
Ohtsuki's work, the authoritative British journal Nature
published his report, leading the usually judicious Economist
to suggest that the mystery might have been solved.

    The hoaxers' technique required no meteorological effects
and only rudimentary physics. After making a scale drawing of
the intended pattern, Chorley and Bower proceeded to the
wheatfield with their equipment: a 4-ft.-long wooden plank, a
ball of string and a baseball cap with wire threaded through the
visor as a sighting device. At the center of the intended site,
Bower held one end of the string. The other end was attached to
the plank, held horizontally at knee level by Chorley as he
circled around Bower, pushing the grain gently forward. "The
heavy heads of the wheat tend to keep it down," he explained.

    Chorley and Bower say they conceived their hoax in 1978,
while sitting in a pub near Cheesefoot Head "wondering what we
could do for a bit of a laugh." Inspired by reports of
flying-saucer sightings, and recalling crop circles created with
tractors by Australian farmers several years earlier, they
decided to flatten some corn to make it appear that a UFO had
landed. To their chagrin, this and other forays during the next
three years went unnoticed. But one of their circles was spotted
in 1981, reported in the press and promptly attributed to
extraterrestrials. "We laughed so much that time," recalls
Chorley, "we had to stop the car because Doug was in stitches
so much he couldn't drive." It was only after circle enthusiasts
began seeking government funding that the two jovial con men
decided to admit to the hoax.

    Recovering from their initial shock, Delgado and other
circle specialists are hastily regrouping. "These two gents may
have hoaxed some of the circles," Delgado now says, "but the
phenomenon is still there, and we will carry on research." In
his quest, Delgado will have the moral support of untold
millions. UFOlogist Joan Creighton of Flying Saucer Review
explains why: "We all have an inner sense that there is a
mystery behind the universe. We like mysteries. It's great fun."