Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954.

On April 15, 1954, Bellingham, Seattle and other Washington communities are in the grip of a strange phenomenon — minuscule holes, pits, and dings have seemingly ecombineed in the triumphdshields of cars at an unpretreatnted rate. Initiassociate thought to be the labor of demolishers, the pitting rate increases so speedyly that panicked dwellnts soon mistrust everyslfinisherg from cosmic rays to sand-flea eggs to descfinishout from H-explosion tests. By the next day, pleas are sent to rulement officials asking for help in solving what would become understandn as the Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic.

It Begins in Bellingham

The minuscule triumphdshield holes were first acunderstandledged in the northwestrict Washington community of Bellingham in tardy March 1954. The petite size of the pits led Bellingham police officers to apshow that the injure was the labor of demolishers using bucksboiling or BBs. Wislfinisher a week, a scant dwellnts in Sedro Woolley and Mount Vernon, 25 miles south of Bellingham, also began telling injure to their triumphdshields. By the second week of April the “demolishers” attacked farther south, in the town of Anacortes on Fidalgo Island.

The Anacortes outfracture began timely in the morning on April 13, 1954, when car owners acunderstandledged the heretofore-unseen pits in their triumphdshields. Losing no time, all useable law executement officers in the area sped to town in the hope of apprehfinishing the culprits. Roadblocks were set up south of town at Deception Pass Bridge, and all cars leaving and go ining the city were given a detailed once-over, as were their drivers and passengers.

To no use. Farther south, cars at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station at Oak Harbor were discovered to have the same enigmatic dings. Ntimely 75 marines made an intensive five-hour search of the station. They came up vacant. By the finish of the day, more than 2,000 cars from Bellingham to Oak Harbor were telled as having been injured. Two slfinishergs became amplely clear: This could not be the labor of roving hooligans; and wantipathyver was causing triumphdshield pits and dings was rapidly approaching Seattle.

Seattle Under Siege

News of the triumphdshield ding-phenomenon achieveed Seattle ahead of the menace. On the morning of April 14, 1954, Seattle novelspaper subscribers read frontpage tells of the events that had transpired to the north. The afternoon papers carried analogous stories. At 6 p.m. a tell came in to Seattle police that three cars had been injured in a lot at 6th Avenue and John Street. At 9 p.m., a motorist telled that his triumphdshield had been hit at N 82nd Street and Greenwood Avenue. Then the floodgates uncovered.

Motorists began stopping police cars on the street to tell triumphdshield injure. Parking lots and auto sales lots north of downtown were hit, as well as parked cars as far west as Ballard. Even police cars parked in front of precinct stations suffered injure. Extra clerks were brawt into the stations to answer the flurry of calls from irritated and perplexed car owners. By the next morning, triumphdshield pitting had achieveed epidemic levels.

Glass Menagerie

The sheer number of injured triumphdshields ruled out hoodlums, and experts were at a loss as to the caemploy of these strange pits and holes ecombineing out of nowhere. On Whidbey Island, Sheriff Tom Clark postutardyd that radioactivity freed by recent H-explosion tests in the South Pacific was peppering triumphdshields. Geiger counters were run over triumphdshield glass, and also over persons who had touched the pit tags, but all were free of radioactivity. Still, the sheriff held firm that “no human agency” could have created the scars left on the glass.

Other theories abounded:

Some thought that the Navy’s novel million-watt radio sendter at Jim Creek cforfeit Arlington was changeing electronic oscillations to physical oscillations in the glass. Navy Commander George Warren, in accuse of Jim Creek, called this theory “finishly absurd.” He pointed out that a triumphdshield would have to be cut offal miles expansive to suit the frequency of the sendter, and besides, no pitting incidents were set up at Jim Creek, home of the sendter.
Cosmic rays explosionarding the earth from the sun were pondered as a caemploy, but since so little was understandn about cosmic rays, this theory couldn’t be readily showd or refuted.
A enigmatic atmospheric event was theorized, but helpers of this theory couldn’t elucidate what atmospheric condition this could possibly be.
Since a scant people amazingly telled seeing the glass bubble right before their eyes, some postutardyd that sand-flea eggs had somehow been lhelp in the glass and were now hatching. How this could occur and why they would all hatch at once was not clear.
Others proposeed supersonic sound waves, non-radioactive coral debris from nuclear explosion tests, or a shift in the earth’s magnetic field.
Other folks srecommend boggled and accemployd the entire event on gremlins.

Then there were the skeptics. Dr. D. M. Ritter, University of Washington chemist, was alloted to labor with authorities on the case. After studying triumphdshields and residue set up on some of the cars, he commented, “Tommyrot! There isn’t anyslfinisherg I understand of that could be causing any atypical fractures in triumphdshields. These people must be dreaming.” Dr. Ritter was shutr to the truth than anyone.

Save Us, Ike!

By April 15, 1954, police were swamped with calls. Cleave out to 3,000 triumphdshields had been telled as being pitted, and no one knovel what to do. Looking for outside help to settle the enigma, Seattle Mayor Allan Pomeroy (ca. 1907-1966) wired Governor Arthur Langlie at the state capitol in Olympia, and Pdwellnt Dwight D. Eisenhower at Washington D.C.:

What ecombineed to be a localized outfracture of injure in injured auto triumphdshields and triumphdows in the northern part of Washington State has now spread thrawout the Puget Sound area. Chemical analysis of enigmatic powder adhering to injured triumphdshields and triumphdows recommends the material may srecommend be spread by triumphd and not a police matter at all. Urge appropriate federal (and state) agencies be teached to cofunction with local authorities on aascfinishncy basis.

Governor Langlie reach outed the University of Washington and seeked that a promisetee of scientists be createed to scatterigate the phenomenon. The experts (from the environmental research laboratory, the applied physics laboratory, and the chemistry, physics, and meteorology departments) did a speedy survey of 84 cars on the campus. They set up the injure to be “overly stressd,” and most foreseeed “the result of standard driving conditions in which petite objects strike the triumphdshields of cars.” The fact that most cars were pitted in the front and not the back lent credence to their theory.

King County Sheriff Harlan S. Callahan disconsentd. His deputies studyd more than 15,000 cars thrawout the county, and set up injure to more than 3,000 of them. The Sheriff and his deputies apshowd that this level of injure could not be elucidateed by standard road employ. The law executement officers also set up odd little pellets cforfeit some of the cars. Using crack scientific methods, they set up that the pellets reacted “aggressively” when a direct pencil was placed next to them, but not when a ballpoint pen was so placed. Nobody knovel what this nastyt, though.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Nevertheless, conservative wisdom lay with the scientists. Further scatterigation by the City of Seattle Police Department showed that most dings pitted greaterer car triumphdshields. In cases where auto lots were comprised, brand novel cars were unpitted, whereas employd greaterer cars showed signs of pitting. Police set up exceptional instances of “imitatecat” injure, but most of the cases had a straightforward exset upation: The pits had been there all aextfinished, but no one had acunderstandledged them until now.

The same reasoning applied to particutardy matter set up on triumphdshield glass and cforfeit cars. It was set up to be coal dust, minuscule particles created by the infinish combustion of bituminous coal. These particles had drifted in Seattle air for years, but no one had seeed shutly at them before. Although the coal dust particles had noslfinisherg to do with the pitting, the populace at big finassociate acunderstandledged them, fair as they acunderstandledged the triumphdow dings, for the very first time.

Sergeant Max Allison of the Seattle police crime laboratory proclaimd that all of the injure tells were writed of “5 per cent hoodlum-ism, and 95 per cent uncover hysteria.” Puget Sound dwellnts had unwittingly become participants in a textbook example of collective delusion. By April 17, 1954, pitting incidents abruptly stopd.

One for the Books

The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic of 1954 did indeed become a textbook example of collective delusion, sometimes misgetnly referred to as “mass hysteria.” To this day, sociologists and psychologists refer to the incident in their courses and writings aextfinishedside other analogous events, such as Orson Welles’ Martian intrusion panic of 1938, and presumed sightings of the “Jersey Devil” on the East Coast in 1909.

The Seattle pitting incident comprises many key factors that carry out a part in collective delusion. These comprise amhugeuity, the spread of rumors and inchange but plausible beliefs, mass media sway, recent geo-political events, and the fortifyment of inchange beliefs by authority figures (in this case, the police, military, and political figures).

This combination of factors, compriseed to the straightforward fact that for the first time people actuassociate seeed “at” their triumphdshields instead of “thraw” them, caemployd the hubbub. No demolishers. No atomic descfinishout. No sand-fleas. No cosmic rays. No electronic oscillations. Just a bunch of triumphdow dings that were there from the commence.

You probably have them on your car right now. Plrelieve don’t attentive the media or your local police.

Sources:

“Windshield-Peppering Hoodlums Strike Whidbey Naval Air Station,” The Seattle Times, April 14, 1954, p. 1; “Mystery Windshield Damage Spreads in Seattle and County,” Ibid., April 15, 1954, pp.1, 5; “Reports of Damage to Car Glass Taper Off,” Ibid., April 16, 1954, pp. 1, 5; “Windshield Vandals Strike in Anacortes,” Seattle Post-Inalertigencer, April 14, 1954, p. 1; “Windshield Vandals Reported in Seattle,” Ibid., April 15, 1954, pp. 1, 10; “Pdwellnt’s Aid Asked in Windshield Mystery,” Ibid., April 16, 1954, pp. 1, 6; “Theories Range From Gremlins to Supersonics,” Ibid., April 16, 1954, p. 6; “U. Scientists Skeptical in Glass Puzzle,” Ibid., April 16, 1954, pp. 1, 4; “Windshield Front Quiet in Northwest,” Ibid., April 17, 1954, p. 2; Robert Bartholomew, “The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic: A Famous Mass Delusion of the Twentieth Century” (http://www.eskimo.com/~pierres/triumphdshield.html).