The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: Mid-Oct-54-Savennes.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The newspaper L'Auvergnat de Paris, of Paris, reported in the Savennes section on page 8 for October 23, 1954, that a case of "windshield cancer" had occurred to the Benesy couple, il Les Sagnettes: a glass cup which was on the sideboard suddenly burst in pieces.
Pioneer ufologist Jimmy Guieu quickly explained that such "phenomena" were due to extraterrestrial acitivities...
[Ref. lap1:] NEWSPAPER "L'AUVERGNAT DE PARIS":
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[Section of Savennes:]
- A case of windshield cancer occurred to the Benesy couple, of les Sagnettes. A glass bowl on the sideboard suddenly burst in pieces.
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The windshields "explosions" in 1954, called "window cancer" or "parebrisite" in French, has become an often cited example of "collective illusion" or "mass hysteria". Sociologists and psychologists refer to these incidents in France and in the United States to ensure that "crowds" can easily fall into unfounded collective myths.
And of course, some "skeptical" ufologists explain that the "window cancer" that preceded the wave of "flying saucers" of 1954 proves that the saucers too were only illusions.
None put forward the following point: "collective hysteria" here would in any case concern only the interpretation of the facts, not the facts themselves. And the interpretations were not really "hysterical", they were attempts at rationalization quite understandable and sensible in the context of the time.
All sorts of explanations were advanced at the time for the "window cancer", such as an effect of atomic experiments, Martian activity, or "vandals". In the United States, the police found that the epidemic affected mainly old cars, and it was thought that the windows would explode as a result of their wear.
In the windshield explosions reported in France in 1954, I find "constants": the mention of a light or a flash, blue when the color is mentioned, the lack of sense of the explanations by vandals, Martians, atomic tests, the insistence of the witness(es) that no pebble struck the windshield, the hearing of an explosion sound, the opacity of the window after the explosion.
Some of these characteristics have really no strangeness: an explosion noise is perfectly normal when a windshield breaks. The window becomes opaque because the anti-burst protection layer produced this. The lack of notice of a shock by a pebble or something else can also be explained: the windshield may have been hit and weakened by a hit long before, and then explodes only later when nothing hits it.
I have less ideas about the flash or the light. Is it an illusion caused by the sudden opacity of the glass?
Jimmy Guieu linked this mystery to the extraterrestrials, but few ufologists followed him on this path. The Press did it sometimes, but without claiming this "explanation" was serious.
As for this case, there is no definite strangeness, and to claim it has something to do with extraterrestrials would be wishful thinking.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Savennes, Puy-de-Dôme, Benesy, les Sagnettes, bowl, explosion, windshield cancer
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 14, 2020 | First published. |
