Wilbert Smith
Also known as Wilbert B. Smith · Wilbert Brockhouse Smith
Canadian Department of Transport radio engineer who wrote the 1950 Smith memo, ran Project Magnet, and later claimed telepathic contact with extraterrestrials.
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Wilbert Smith
Wilbert B. Smith was a senior radio engineer in the Broadcast and Measurements section of Canada's Department of Transport. He later became its Superintendent of Radio Regulations Engineering, in 1957 [S1]. He wrote the Smith memo of 21 November 1950, reporting what he had heard in Washington from Robert Sarbacher, and led the resulting Project Magnet [S1][S2]. He also sat on the Defence Research Board's Project Second Storey committee [S2].
After Magnet, Smith founded the Ottawa New Sciences Club. In its bulletin Topside he wrote that he was in telepathic contact with extraterrestrials, writings later collected as The Boys from Topside [S2]. He died in 1962. His papers passed to Arthur Bray [S3].
Sources
[S1] "Wilbert Brockhouse Smith" (Wikipedia) URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbert_Brockhouse_Smith Accessed: 2026-09-18 Claim: DoT posts; memo date
[S2] "Project Magnet (Canada)" (Wikipedia) URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Magnet_(Canada) Accessed: 2026-09-18 Claim: Magnet; telepathic-contact beliefs; Topside
[S3] Matthew Hayes, "Search for the Unknown" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022) URL: https://dokumen.pub/search-for-the-unknown-canadas-ufo-files-and-the-rise-of-conspiracy-theory-9780228012290.html Accessed: 2026-09-18 Claim: Bray obtained Smith's papers after his death
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