World's oldest UFO photo may depict something else entirely

This stereoscopic image was captured c.1870 during a meteorological expedition at New Hampshire's Mount Washington. The image was long forgotten until 2002 when it showed up on eBay and ultimately sold for $385, much more than similar stereoscope images. Why? Because it's the oldest photograph of a UFO in the world. Or so people thought at the time.

UFO discussion boards blew up with speculation and theories about the cigar-shaped object. Experts analyzed the photo and determined that it hadn't been manipulated an was, in fact, from the late 19th century. That's when Ryan Mullahy, founder of the New Hampshire UFO Research website, enters the picture.

Mullahy discovered that the photo was genuine and taken by Amos Clough and Howard Kimball. Titled "Frost Architecture," it appeared in a book by the duo called Mount Washington in Winter. The book had nothing to do with UFOs though. Could the spacecraft in the photo be something else entirely? Something…. terrestrial?

From The Phoblographer:

The object in the picture was later found to be a wooden 'standard' folding ruler, which is used on the featureless, snow-covered terrain to help indicate the scale of the picture[…]

Robert Moore, a UFO expert, favored Mullahy's explanation. He agreed this could be a mundane, scientific photograph of a scale, which is now being blown up by the community. He added, "Sometimes scales were inked in by people to give an indication of size, one arctic explorer even inked in a man with a sled team for the purposes of scale!"

Or perhaps it was actually an extraterrestrial astronaut with an away team.

(via The Anomalist)

Previously:
• That strange UFO orbiting the Moon has been identified
• Poland's official mint issues UFO coin that levitates
• Pentagon finally admits it's stumped by many UFO sightings
• Canada defense department reveals details of UFO shot down by fighter jet over Lake Huron
• Stunningly dreamlike paintings of a UFO, monolith, spirit guides, and other high weirdness