The MT Washington 1870 'Cigar' photo

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The speculation as to what the object was in the famous 'Mt Washington cigar photo' and dubbed' The oldest UFO photo ever taken' can I think be finally solved.

Thanks to some brilliant work by a man called Shar_Chi who posted his results in http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread309791/pg3#pid5165937

The uncropped stero photo he supplied gives a much better image as to what we are actuality looking at, and his comparisons with old folding rulers fits in with what appears to be 'fins'

As to what the swastika design on the main body was, this could be no more than a doodle on the ruler.

All in all his determination and analyses on the Mt Washington photo is a compelling one.

 

This is the original cropped photo that has been circulating on the Internet for years

And the 'object' looked as if it may be against a background of clouds

 

Enlargement (Thanks to Jim Morris of ufoca) shows what appears to be fins, and a swastika design on the body

 

Uncropped image showing snow mound with sky in background, and folding ruler placed as a size comparison

We can now at last see with the above stereo photo what the object is

This is what Shar_Chi said concerning measuring equipment carried on this expedition.

 

WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OBJECT?

Using a period stereoscope or magnifying glass and/or having some familiarity with the gear and/or process a scientist would use, it is perfectly clear that the object is a wooden "standard".

That's just a fancy name for a ruler, in this case, a folding ruler.

Expedition members carried them to make observations like snow depth, rime accumulation, etc.

They even complained about losing or breaking them in poor weather.

You are looking at a ruler placed on a snow-covered cairn to scale an object in featureless terrain.

Images of early folding type rulers,the ends on the wooden one would match the fins in previous photos