Orthon - Criticism

Criticism

The most common arguments contrary to Adamski's claims forwarded by skeptics in the 1950s is that living on the planet Venus was technologically impossible considering Earth's technological advancement (in the 1950s), owing to its environmental conditions. These conditions include an atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface which is 92 times that of Earth, clouds composed of a substance thought to be sulfuric acid, and an average surface temperature of 461.85 °C. It follows that, no human from Earth could live on the surface of the planet without a highly developed technology (such as the modern Antarctic bases, underwater submarine docks and the planned Moon bases and space stations developed by NASA in the 21st century), and as a result most considered Mr. Adamski's claims to be a technological impossibility for the 1950s. It should be noted however, that the alleged Venusian visitors stated they lived in underground cities, thus not being exposed to hostile conditions on the surface. Also, his claims inspired a British citizen who went under the name Cedric Allingham.

Adamski's 1955 book Inside The Space Ships is considered by some to be a "remake" of a science fiction book, ghost written by Lucy McGinnis, titled Pioneers of Space that Mr. Adamski strongly denies writing. His often-published photo of a flying saucer from 1952 has been identified (by the chairman of the British UFO organization in the 1970s) as the top of an Italian-made ice machine used in his café, a streetlight, and the top of a chicken brooder. The ice machine in question was made after Adamski's photos were released, thus disproving the claim. Adamski also claimed that Cecil B. de Mille's top trick photographer, Pev Marley, had examined his UFO photos and found a "spaceman" in them, and Marley himself declared that if Adamski's pictures were fakes, they were the best he had ever seen. In England 14 experts from the J. Arthur Rank company concluded that the object photographed was either real or a full-scale model. However, in his 1957 investigation into Adamski's claims, James Moseley interviewed Pev Marley, who denied that he had enlarged the photos for analysis, found a "spaceman" in them, or knew of anyone who had. Moseley also interviewed famed German rocket scientist Walther Riedel, who told him that he had analyzed Adamski's UFO photos and found them to be fakes. Riedel told Moseley that the UFO's "landing struts" were actually 100-watt General Electric light bulbs, and that he had seen the "GE" logo printed on them.

Adamski's co-author, the Irish aristocrat Desmond Leslie, created a low-budget UFO film entitled Them And The Thing at Castle Leslie in the mid-1950s in which the flying saucer was created by shining mirrors on to a Spanish Renaissance shield suspended from a fishing line. The film was rediscovered in 2010.