The local newspaper Chieftain, of Pueblo, Colorado, USA, for July 23, 1952, published on page 3, an article that told that in a Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Vail hotel in Pueblo, Colorado, in July 1952, Mr. Joseph Rohrer, president of the Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co, starled the members with his talk on flyin saucers.
Rohrer said that a three-foot tall pilot of a flying saucer from another planet had been kept alive in an incubator room in the state of California for two years, and progress was being made in efforts to communicate with him by showing him images and teaching him to read and write.
Rohrer sais the saucer pilot was rescued from a "saucer crash" in Montana, and he was the only survivor among crews of three saucers that fell in that state.
Rohrer said dissection of dead pilots from the craft disclosed that the only basic difference in anatomy is that their bone structure was heavier and their stomachs are smaller than ours.
The speaker, alleging that he has been inside one of the seven flying saucers at a California federal base in 1942, said that the mechanisms are giant flywheels covered with metal skins. He stated that the saucers are covered by electrostatic turbines and have cabins in the center. The cabins are pressurized and have an atmosphere containing 30 percent oxygen and 70 percent nitrogen.
Through use of the flywheel, a magnetic field is created which permits the saucers to travel at tremendous speeds, said Rohrer, who became interested in flying saucers as the result of a thesis he wrote on electronic tubes used to measure electronic tubes during his college training in electrical engineering.
"If a magnetic field is opened around the earth it would be possible to travel at about the speed of light," he stated. "They have never tried to fly the saucers that have been captured. They are put together in five sections and come apart easily after the center section is removed."
Rohrer the saucer he visited was 100 feet in diameter and 18 feet thick. "The sleeping quarters for crew members are tubes with caps on the ends and the cabin was pressurized and air conditioned."
The color of flying saucers changes because of the magnetic field set up by the magnetic motors, he said. Reports of a flying saucer seen successively over Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Trinidad have made it possible to estimate its speed at more than 1,000 miles per hour. Six weeks ago a space ship was traced for 600 miles as it flew across Australia and in Seattle, Wash., all electrical appliances were burned out or fuses were blown in one section of town when a flying saucer "turned on power in the vicinity of a power line," Rohrer maintained.
He added that the government says little on flying saucers because of the possible panic that might result, and because some religious leaders object to the thought of other universes, he stated. He explained that Venus, with its cloud covering, is one of the most likely planets in the solar system to support life, but that there are 22 other known solar systems which have satellites similar to the earth. He said that at the speed of light, when Venus and the earth were closest in their orbits, it would take about two years to fly to Venus and back.
The first ufological mention of the affaire appeared in Donald Kehoe's 1953 book "Flying Saucers From Outer Space". Kehoe gave the newspaper article's content.
Keyhoe thought the story was a hoax, and confronted his friend Albert Chop about it. chop was the Air Force public relations officer on the matter of flying saucers. Keyhoe wanted that the Air Force checked into Rohrer's claim - where did it take place, how did Rohrer know about it, what were the dates of the crashes and so on. Chop did not understand why the Air Force should ckeck Rohrer's claim as Keyhoe thought it was a hoax anyway, and Keyhoe did not understand why the Air Frce would not firmly tell the public that it was a hoax. Keyhoe knew about the Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer hoax propagated in 1950 by Frank Scully; which was exposed by the Air Force. Chop told him that if the Air Force told the public that Rohrer's claim was a hoax, it would only give the srory more publicity; but he agreed to ask General Samford to expose the hoax. Samford turned him down.
Keyhoe asked Chop what the Air Force would answer to the people who wrote in to ask about the claims. Chop answered that the Air force would only tell them that they haven't any knowledge of what Rohrer claims.
In his book "Flying Saucers on the Attack", in 1954, British author Harold T Wilkins mentioned several stories that reached him; which he dubbed "confirmable or otherwise." He wrote about these: "They are fairly sensational, but probably would not come within a British High Court's rules of evidence."
One of the stories came from one Mr. Joe Rohrer, of the Pikes Peak Radio Company, who told it at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, in Pueblo, Colorado, on July 22, 1952, who told:
"A Californian air pilot told me that, in 1942, he had been right inside a giant saucer, and seen giant by-wheels sheathed in metal skins, and found that the motive-force came from electrostatic turbines, whose fly-wheels create an electro-magnetic field of force, creating tremendous speeds. The little saucer men have a smaller bony structure than Earth-men, but the bones are proportionally heavier, and their stomachs smaller."
In 2000, ufologist Kenny Young - who obviously had not read neither Keyhoe nor Wilkins - stumbled on the Pres article of 1952 about this affair, and asked who could check about Rohrer's bio.
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[Ref. pc1:] "THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN" NEWSPAPER:
Flying Saucer Talk Startles Chamber Membership Meeting PuebloA three-foot tall pilot of a flying saucer from another planet has been kept alive in an incubator room in the state of California for two years, and progress is being made in efforts to communicate with him, startled Chamber of Commerce members were advised here Tuesday. Information on the still mysterious individual who reportedly was rescued from a "saucer crash" in Montana was divulged at the Vail hotel luncheon by Joseph Rohrer, president of the Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co. The reputed lone survivor among crews of three saucers that have fallen in that state "has been shown pictures and has shown great interest in them and primary steps used in teaching a child to read and write are being employed," the speaker stated. In his revealing talk Rohrer said dissection of dead pilots from the craft disclose that the only basic difference in anatomy is that their bone structure is heavier and their stomachs are smaller. The speaker, alleging that he was inside one of the seven flying saucers at a California federal base in 1942, said that the mechanisms are giant flywheels covered with metal skins. He stated that the saucers are covered by electrostatic turbines and have cabins in the center. The cabins are pressurized and have an atmosphere containing 30 percent oxygen and 70 percent nitrogen. Thru use of the flywheel, a magnetic field is created which permits the saucers to travel at tremendous speeds, said Rohrer, who became interested in flying saucers as the result of a thesis he wrote on electronic tubes used to measure electronic tubes during his college training in electrical engineering. "If a magnetic field is opened around the earth it would be possible to travel at about the speed of light," he stated. "They have never tried to fly the saucers that have been captured. They are put together in five sections and come apart easily after the center section is removed. "I have been in one which is 100 feet in diameter and 18 feet thick," Rohrer stated. "The sleeping quarters for crew members are tubes with caps on the ends and the cabin was pressurized and air conditioned." The color of flying saucers changes because of the magnetic field set up by the magnetic motors, he said. Reports of a flying saucer seen successively over Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Trinidad have made it possible to estimate its speed at more than 1,000 miles per hour. Six weeks ago a space ship was traced for 600 miles as it flew across Australia and in Seattle, Wash., all electrical appliances were burned out or fuses were blown in one section of town when a flying saucer "turned on power in the vicinity of a power line," Rohrer maintained. Little information has been released by the government on flying saucers because of the possible panic that might result and because some religious leaders object to the thought of other universes, he stated. Venus, with its cloud covering, is one of the most likely planets in the solar system to support life, but there are 22 other known solar systems which have satellites similar to the earth's. By traveling at the speed of light and waiting until Venus and the earth were closest in their orbits around the sun, it would take about two years to fly to Venus and return, he pointed out. Flying saucers first became evident when radar was being developed in 1942 and "unknown" objects appeared on radar screens. The air force set up a commission to study saucer reports in 1947 and discovered that 20 per cent of the reports could not be explained satisfactorily. The air defense command at Colorado Springs has a unit designed to study the saucers and a pin- marked map showing saucer reports indicate they are seen frequently around military installations and atomic research centers, he added. |
[Ref. hh1:] "HUTCHINSON NEWS HERALD" NEWSPAPER:
Our TownHair-RaisingIf you believe everything you read in the papers, you may be interested in a report Mrs. Herman Bachman, 205 West 10th, found in a Pueblo newspaper last week. Quoting Joseph Rohrer, head of the Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co., the article says he was inside one of seven flying saucers in California in 1942. They are, he adds, giant flywheels covered with metal skins, powered by electrostatic turbines with cabins in the center. Through use of the flywheel, a magnetic field is created which whizzes the saucers through the air at more than 1,000 mph. One occupant has been found alive in a saucer, Rohrer reports, but it isn't known whence he came. The others, who were killed when the saucers crashed, were between 30 and 40 inches tall. Which is positively the last flying saucer story this column will report until we see one. |
[Ref. dk1:] DONALD KEYHOE:
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Strange as it was, the Air Force rebuttal of the inversion theory was not the only enigma I'd found. In the past two months there had been several contradictory incidents. The first was the Air Force reaction to a new "little men" report, started by Joseph Rohrer, a Pueblo radio executive. Ordinarily the story might have been laughed off. But Rohrer was a respected citizen, president of the Pike's Peak Broadcasting Company, and he insisted he was telling the truth. His sober account, given in a chamber of commerce talk, was headlined by the Pueblo Chieftain, reprinted in other papers, and broadcast by several Western radio stations. According to Rohrer, seven flying discs had fallen into the government's hands. Three of them, he said, had been forced down in Montana. Most remarkable of all, one saucer crewman—a man about three feet tall—had survived when his disc crashed. For two years he had been kept alive in incubator-type quarters at an isolated spot in California. At first, attempts to communicate with him had failed. But gradually he had been educated by means of pictures, and linguists had now taught him to read and write English. From Rohrer's description, the saucers consisted of giant rotating discs with stationary cabins. "I have been in one saucer," he told the chamber of commerce men. "It was 100 feet in diameter and 18 feet thick. The saucer was put together in five sections, and sleeping quarters for the crew are tubes with caps on the ends." The cabins, he added, were pressured with 30 per cent oxygen and 70 per cent helium. (The oxygen-helium combination, in a different ratio, is now being considered by our own space-travel planners.) For propulsion the discs used electrostatic turbines, and the magnetic fields created by the rotating rings gave them tremendous speeds. Variations in the fields, at different speeds, explained the various color changes so frequently reported. Because of their high voltages, said Rohrer, the discs usually avoided close approaches to cities and planes. But on one occasion, in a section of Seattle, fuses were blown and electric appliances were burned out when a disc momentarily flew too low. The government, Rohrer concluded, was keeping it secret because of possible panic. When this report became public, some people tied it to the Aluminum Man story of 1950: the capped sleeping tubes sounded like the "silvery capsules" with little men, supposed to have fallen from a disc hit by antiaircraft fire. As Chop had expected, Rohrer's story brought a new crop of letters demanding the truth. He told me that ATIC knew nothing of the discs Rohrer reported. "Why doesn't the Air Force publicly deny it?" I asked him. "We'd rather not," said Chop. "Why? Colonel Watson denied the Scully story, and this man's gone a lot farther. He claims he's been inside a saucer. I don't see how you can let it stand." Chop shook his head dubiously. "It'll cause more publicity if we make a statement." "Well, then make him retract the story without mentioning the Air Force." "How?" said Chop. "We can't order Rohrer to retract it." "Have General Samford get him on the phone and throw a scare into him. Put it to him point-blank—where did he see the saucer, what date, who were the officers that showed it to him? The general could tell him he'd have to retract it or the Air Force would blast him. Even if Rohrer meant it just as a joke, a lot of people will believe it, if you let it ride." Chop rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It's an idea—about General Samford, I mean. I'll put it up to Intelligence." Next day he told me it had been turned down. "We'd have to go through channels—this way, it might offend the Area commander." "That sounds pretty flimsy to me," I said. "I don't know of any regulation that keeps the Director of Intelligence from making a phone call." "Anyway, local Intelligence men would have to check on Rohrer's story." "If you know it's bunk, why bother to check?" "That's the routine." "What about the people who wrote in? You going to tell them it was a hoax?" "No. Well just say we haven't any knowledge of what Rohrer claims." |
[Ref. hw1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:
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Other reports, confirmable or otherwise, have reached me. They are fairly sensational, but probably would not come within a British High Court's rules of evidence: "A little man from a saucer is being tenderly cared for in the incubator room at San Diego, while cadavers of two saucer pilots are being dissected by surgeons of the U.S. Army Air Force (Medical Division). A Californian air pilot told me that, in 1942, he had been right inside a giant saucer, and seen giant by-wheels sheathed in metal skins, and found that the motive-force came from electrostatic turbines, whose fly-wheels create an electro-magnetic field of force, creating tremendous speeds. The little saucer men have a smaller bony structure than Earth-men, but the bones are proportionally heavier, and their stomachs smaller." (Mr. Joe Rohrer of Pikes Peak Radio Company, at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, in Pueblo, Colorado, on July 22, 1952.) |
[Ref. lg1:] LOREN GROSS:
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The Scully story resurfaces Back at the Pentagon Donald Keyhoe was still spending a lot of time attempting to interpret Air Force reactions to the UFO mystery. In mid-August Keyhoe had a chance to explore an unusual situation when the notorious 1950 Frank Scully story surfaced again. this time being preached by a Joseph Rohrer, president of the Pike's Peak Broadcasting Company, during a talk to the local chamber of commerce. Although most of the publicity was contained to the Pike's Peak area, BLUE BOOK at Wright Field received a bundle of mail demanding that the Air Force come clean and admit that ''that one of the mysterious flying saucers had crashed and that at least one of the alien crew had survived, the creature currently being cared for at a secret location." Keyhoe, in one of his regular conversations with Al Chop, suggested that the military tell Rohrer to put up or shut up, but Chop, after hearing Keyhoe out, replied that an attack on Rohrer would only give the story more publicity than it deserved. Keyhoe countered Chop 's stand with the reasoning that if the Air Force remained mum, the public might take official silence as a sign that Rohrer was really on to something, Chop mulled over Keyhoe' s idea and he even checked with his superiors, but finally it was decided the military would simply do what it had originally planned to do, and simply deny any knowledge of such wild claims if people took the trouble to write heated letters insisting on the ''truth'' as they perceived it. Not long after this a strange UFO news story made a big splash in the press and to Keyhoe this latest sensation seemed improbable enough for the Air Force also to ignore, yet to his great surprise he learned that none other than Ruppelt himself was in a big hurry to catch a plane so he could investigate the incident personally! 199. [Refers to [dk1]] With the continued flood of UFO reports, the newspapers were eagerly scanned by an American public that wondered what dire or marvelous thing would happen next? With the CIA so concerned about the public's mental state, an event on the same day as their briefing paper's presentation seemed eerie since it certainly had the-potential to "touch off mass hysteria and panic." |
[Ref. ky1:] KENNY YOUNG:
Amazing 1952 UFO Newspaper Article - Your Help RequestedFrom Kenny Young ufo@fuse.net 4-1-00 I am hopeful that someone might be familiar with the following account from a 1952 newspaper article and could kindly resolve a few questions which arise. Would anyone know of this Joseph Rohrer, if he was who he said he was? If so...why would he be presenting this information in a meeting of this nature? Whatever came of him, or has anything been said otherwise to lend credence to the following remarks? I'll be looking forward to any insight or comments on this one... Thanks, ======================== Flying Saucer Talk Startles Chamber Membership Meeting Pueblo (Colorado) Chieftain, Page Three July 23, 1952 A three-foot tall pilot of a flying saucer from another planet has been kept alive in an incubator room in the state of California for two years, and progress is being made in efforts to communicate with him, startled Chamber of Commerce members were advised here Tuesday. Information on the still mysterious individual who reportedly was rescued from a "saucer crash" in Montana was divulged at the Vail hotel luncheon by Joseph Rohrer, president of the Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co. The reputed lone survivor among crews of three saucers that have fallen in that state "has been shown pictures and has shown great interest in them and primary steps used in teaching a child to read and write are being employed," the speaker stated. In his revealing talk Rohrer said dissection of dead pilots from the craft disclose that the only basic difference in anatomy is that their bone structure is heavier and their stomachs are smaller. The speaker, alleging that he was inside one of the seven flying saucers at a California federal base in 1942, said that the mechanisms are giant flywheels covered with metal skins. He stated that the saucers are covered by electrostatic turbines and have cabins in the center. The cabins are pressurized and have an atmosphere containing 30 percent oxygen and 70 percent nitrogen. Thru use of the flywheel, a magnetic field is created which permits the saucers to travel at tremendous speeds, said Rohrer, who became interested in flying saucers as the result of a thesis he wrote on electronic tubes used to measure electronic tubes during his college training in electrical engineering. "If a magnetic field is opened around the earth it would be possible to travel at about the speed of light," he stated. "They have never tried to fly the saucers that have been captured. They are put together in five sections and come apart easily after the center section is removed. "I have been in one which is 100 feet in diameter and 18 feet thick," Rohrer stated. "The sleeping quarters for crew members are tubes with caps on the ends and the cabin was pressurized and air conditioned." The color of flying saucers changes because of the magnetic field set up by the magnetic motors, he said. Reports of a flying saucer seen successively over Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Trinidad have made it possible to estimate its speed at more than 1,000 miles per hour. Six weeks ago a space ship was traced for 600 miles as it flew across Australia and in Seattle, Wash., all electrical appliances were burned out or fuses were blown in one section of town when a flying saucer "turned on power in the vicinity of a power line," Rohrer maintained. Little information has been released by the government on flying saucers because of the possible panic that might result and because some religious leaders object to the thought of other universes, he stated. Venus, with its cloud covering, is one of the most likely planets in the solar system to support life, but there are 22 other known solar systems which have satellites similar to the earth's. By traveling at the speed of light and waiting until Venus and the earth were closest in their orbits around the sun, it would take about two years to fly to Venus and return, he pointed out. Flying saucers first became evident when radar was being developed in 1942 and "unknown" objects appeared on radar screens. The air force set up a commission to study saucer reports in 1947 and discovered that 20 per cent of the reports could not be explained satisfactorily. The air defense command at Colorado Springs has a unit designed to study the saucers and a pin- marked map showing saucer reports indicate they are seen frequently around military installations and atomic research centers, he added. End of article |
[Ref. mk:] MARTIN KOTTMEYER:
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The ‘little men’ generality would be reaffirmed in rumours throughout the Fifties. Harold T. Wilkins repeated a pair of them from 1952. Joe Roher of Pikes Peak Radio Company, talking at a Pueblo, Colorado Chamber of Commerce luncheon, alleged “A little man from a saucer is being tenderly cared for in the incubator room at San Diego, while cadavers of two saucer pilots are being dissected by surgeons of the Medical Division of the US Army Air Force…. The little saucer men have a smaller bony structure than earth men, but the bones are proportionally heavier and their stomachs smaller.” (71) On July 24, 1952, he got a letter from a fellow describing a meeting with a nice reliable fellow who has a pal in the Air Force who says the Air Force is keeping alive an alien in a pressure chamber somewhere in California. He a little fellow three feet tall who was the only survivor of a saucer forced down by radar in the Arizona desert in 1950. They are showing him pictures and teaching him to read and write. (72) (71) Harold T. Wilkins, Flying Saucers on the Attack, Ace Star, 1967/1954, p. 261. He dates it to July 22, 1952 |
[Ref. yf1:] KENNY YOUNG AND S. PATRICK FEENEY:
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Joseph Rohrer and Pike's Peak BroadcastingThe Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co. is based in Colorado Springs, and currently owns two TV stations (KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs and another in Grand Junction), along with several radio stations. To gather details of Rohrer's background and history with Pikes Peak Broadcasting (KRDO-TV), the station was contacted (719-632-1515] on April 4. Inquiries regarding Joseph Rohrer were thrown around from office Lo office, going from Human Resources to other departments. The name did not ring a bell with the employees. The Human Resources director informed that Mr. Harry Hoth owned the station since the 40s, and she had not heard of a Joseph Rohrer (but she had only been employed there for about one year). The call was transferred to Mr. Hoth's secretary, where a voice message was left on her machine. As of this date, no courtesy return call was afforded. Researcher Stu Woods assisted with this project by looking for information on Joseph Rohrer. Stu was able to determine that Rohrer was a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and graduated from The Colorado College. ln 1934, Rohrer started his career in radio with NBC in Denver, Colorado. At KOA radio, Rohrer oversaw studio engineering as an operations supervisor. In 1947, Rohrer returned to Colorado Springs to found Pikes Peak Broadcasting Company, the operator of KRDO radio station. Active in civic affairs, Rohrer was a member of the AdAmAn Club, elected to lead the Pikes Peak Hill Climb Association in 1951 and headed up cancer research fundraising in the local area. Rohrer was the president and owner of KRDO until he sold his interest in the Pikes Peak Broadcasting Company to Harry Hoth and left Colorado Springs in 1954. In the 1970's, he was the owner and operator of radio station WLCX in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. |
I had some email exchanges with ufologist Kenny Young [ky1] in 2002-2005. Unfortunately, he died in 2005, and his website is no longer online.
Through my own research in the US Press, I can confirm what was said by Stu Woods in [yf1] about Joseph Rohrer (Joseph H. Rohrer, Joseph Holden Rohrer). Here is for example a pictre on him (on the right) that appeared in The La Crosse Tribune, of La Crosse, Wisconsin, on February 13, 1975, page 1:
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Joseph H. Rohrer made a career and was a respected public figure. However, browsing hundreds of newspapers of the time with no result, I concluded that he did his saucer lecture only once!
Items I found out in the Press: Rohrer was 61 in 1971. So he was born in 1910, and aged 42 when he made his claims in 1952. In 1957 and on, he directed WLCX radion in La Crosse. In 1964, he received the President's Award for Civic Contributions. In 1966, he was a member of the La Crosse County Navy League. In 1971, he was president and manager of La Crosse radio station WLCX and elected Oktoberfestmeister for that year. In 1973, he directer La Crosse Radio inc. He died in November 1977 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He had been involved in the Boy-Scouts, Cancer Soyiety, Kiwanis, the Chamber of Commerce. He had been a railroads buff, a fireworks organizer, short wave ham radio buff.
Below: WLCX radio add in the newspaper La Crosse Tribune, April 21, 1957, page 15:
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Rohrer obviously invented his story entirely.
He betrays himself with the naive descriptions of the saucer propulsion and when, for example, he claims that the Venus - Earth and back trip takes two years at the speed of light. This is of course ridiculous, unless he was misquoted, of course. To me, Rohrer seems to be just another of the numerous imitators of the "crashed saucer" hoax Frank Scully published in 1950, that appeared everywhere in book and the Press in the US in 1950. As Wilkins said, "They are fairly sensational, but probably would not come within a British High Court's rules of evidence"...
Note that the idea that in 1952, he could claim that extrasolar planets exist is not just silly, as a number of astronomers had claimed to have found extrasolar planets. The findings of the time are now generally considered erroneous, the instruments of the time being unable to detect any extrasolar planets, unlike modern instruments. Newspapers did once in a while report this or that astronomers claim of find an extrasolar planet, Rohrer could have read such articles.
There is the interesting note on saucer color changes du to their electromagnetic propulsion. Indeed, one year later, in 1953, French Air Force Lieutenant Plantier wrote an article explaining that the change of colors of saucers are related to their acceleration and deceleration, and an effect of their electromagnetic propulsion system. But of course, Rohrer's "electronic tubes" and "flywheels" are not very informative about saucer propulsion - it just reveals again how unfounded his speech was.
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Hoax.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | August 6, 2018 | Creation, [pc1], [hh1], [dk1], [hw1], [lg1], [ky1], [mk1], [yf11]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | August 6, 2018 | First published. |
