Transformer in the Sky

What was reported

Stewart Bloch, as told to Pam Puxley, climbed Newlands Ravine above Rhodes Memorial in April or May 1969 to watch a bush fire that had started at Bakoven two days earlier and spread over Devil's Peak toward Newlands Forest and Kirstenbosch; he was a volunteer fire fighter. After five minutes on a rocky scree a rhythmic glinting drew his eye to an object near the rock face of Window Pane Gorge, revolving once every two seconds and shaped like an electrical transformer: a magnesium-coloured frame turning around a static pyrite barrel under 5 mm laminated polycarbonate, seamless, hugging the contours at constant height. As it neared he heard a rising ultrasonic whine, the air thickened, all sound vanished, his hair pressed flat, and a voice in his head warned him not to strike it. It circled, suffocated fire beneath it, then settled half a metre above ground on four blue energy points that turned vegetation red; flames never touched it. Smoke forced him to withdraw.

What Hind made of it

Accepted as it stands because Pam Puxley is reliable, but Hind is puzzled how Bloch could name 'pyrite' and '5 mm laminated polycarbonate' with such conviction; too detailed and precise to dismiss out of hand

Explanation offered
Bloch's own theory: a remote-controlled contour-hugging device repelling itself against the planet's natural radiation; no mundane explanation raised

In their words

• The shape of the object was that of a Transformer, and it was airborne, making no loud noise.

• Every time the transformer passed low over a burning area, the fire was suffocated

• it appears so detailed and precise a report, that we feel it would be wrong to dismiss it out of hand.

Cross references

• 12-18-1 prelude sighting February 1969 Constantia Nek
• Figures 7, 8, 9
• Footnote 3: Bloch's magnet-bath experiment
• COMMENT on printed page 35
• Regional Bush Fire Fighting Service

Connected

• Transformer in the Sky: prelude over Constantia NekCase fileSame witness

  Bloch's Feb 1969 distant glint (dismissed by the boys as weather gear) is printed as prelude to his Apr/May 1969 Newlands Ravine encounter; same window, two months apart, one witness.

• Hundreds report object hovering over Table Mountain (Weekend Argus)Case fileSame place

  Table Mountain massif; a 1969 close encounter in Newlands Ravine vs 1992 lights above the mountain. Nothing else in common.

• Van Hunks and the DevilStorySame place

  Bloch's bush fire had spread over Devil's Peak; Van Hunks is the Devil's Peak cloud legend. Landscape only.

• Trudie's Story: her husband's schoolboy saucer at RondeboschCase fileSame place

  Rondebosch schoolboy saucer and the Newlands Ravine encounter are 1.6 km apart below Devil's Peak; Wintle's Mowbray house (16-11-2) is 1.2 km from the school. Southern-suburbs density tracks population, not place.

• Jack van der Merwe: orange glowing object on Table MountainCase fileSame behaviour

  Voice in the head or surge of energy, both while alone and in distress on Table Mountain (lost at night; fighting a fire).

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 12 (July 1995), spread 18-20

In the archive

This case became a story on this site.

1969 · South Africa

The transformer on Newlands Ravine

A mirrored frame round a gold barrel came down Table Mountain through a bush fire, put out the flames beneath it, and a voice told a schoolboy not to hit it.

LIFTLift

Single witness

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• Van Hunks and the Devil 1909 · 2 km
• The Castle's regulars 1729 · 4 km
• The lights above Table Mountain 2015 · 5 km
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• The rider of Tokai Manor 1802 · 12 km