The Philadelphia Experiment

[Greg C.]

Here's a fascinating story if there ever was one.

The Philadelphia Experiment was an alleged naval military experiment at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sometime around the date of October 28, 1943, in which the U.S. destroyer escort USS Eldridge was to be rendered invisible to human observers for a brief period of time. It is also referred to as Project Rainbow.

The story is widely regarded as a hoax. The U.S. Navy has stated that the experiment never occurred, and furthermore, details of the story contradict stated facts about the Eldridge. It has nonetheless caused a significant ripple effect in many conspiracy theory circles, and elements of the Philadelphia Experiment are featured in many other government conspiracy theories.

Many people were said to have died during this and the survivors were put into mental hospitals because of severe side effects. It is said when the ship re-appeared, some men's arms, legs, head, and other body parts were actually melted into the steel after it materialized. There is a famous book out about this that became a bestseller back in the 70's. Truly is an amazing story.

[neferetus]

There's a 1984 Sci-Fi film called THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT that I rather enjoyed at the time. It concerns two survivors of the experiment being transported through time to 1984. The film follows them as they try to unravel the secret behind the tragedy.


According to the film, one of the down sides of the Navy's trying to make a ship invisible seemed to be that the ship and it's crew had their molecues broken down in order to deem them invisible. When the ship became visible again however, some of the sailors ended up being partially absorbed into the deck and walls. You see sailors coming out of the deck waist high and others with just arms coming out of walls. A big coverup soon follows.

There's also a sequel, called PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT II, which I have never seen.

I am not aware if there has been any serious attempt to address the historical side of the story, whether on feature film, or in documentary.

[Bromhead24]

That was the beginning of the Star Trak "Beaming" protocol...


I saw the film also...

[Greg C.]

I just added it to my netflix list although it doesnt look too good.

[neferetus]

The following is from the ExoScience website.

According to researchers the “Philadelphia Experiment” is also referred to as “Project Rainbow” or “Project Invisibility”. It is unclear if the Navy’s original idea was to achieve invisibility to enemy radar or to achieve a more profound “optical invisibility”. The simple concept of the project is to create an incredible intense magnetic field around a ship, which would cause refraction of light and radar waves around the ship. Thus creating something similar to a mirage created by heated air over a road on a summer day. But according to the legend and Carlos M. Allende, the ship actually disappeared physically for a time, then returned. “They wanted to ‘cloak’ the ship from view but they got de-materialization and teleportation instead…”

Most investigators, including Carlos M. Allende and Dr. Morris K. Jessup, claim that the experiment was an investigation into Albert Einstein’s “Unified Field Theory for Gravitation and Electricity”. Einstein published his Unified Field Theory around 1925-27 in Germany in a Prussian scientific journal, but it was later withdrawn as incomplete. Yet according to Allende, in his letters, Lord Bertrand Russell considered Einstein’s Unified Field Theory complete but felt that “man is not ready for it …”. Simply put, the Unified Field Theory is a mathematical explanation using a set of equations to describe the relationship between three basic universal forces: electromagnetic, gravitational and nuclear. Einstein suggested that there might be a “fourth” universal force, which could be perpendicularly related to gravity, in the same way that electricity is related to magnetism. Interestingly in 1974 two elementary particles, known as J or psi, were discovered in New York and California. According to Einstein this weak fourth force could be either inter-dimensional or “time-related”.


In June 1943, before it was officially commissioned, the USS Eldridge, DE (Destroyer Escort)-173 was being fitted with tons of experimental electronics equipment. This included two massive generators of 74KVA each, mounted where the forward turret would have been, distributing their power through four magnetic coils mounted on deck. Three RF transmitters (2 magnetic CW each mounted on deck), three thousand ‘6L6’ power amplifier tubes (used to drive the field coils of the two generators), special synchronizing and modulation circuits, and a host of other specialized hardware were employed to generate a massive electromagnetic field which, when properly configured would be able to bend light and radio waves around the ship, thus making it invisible to enemy observers.


These heavy electronic equipment could explain a discrepancy of 660 tons between the US Naval records (1,240 tons) and the Greek records (1,900 tons) of displacement. According to experts the only way for a ship to gain 660 tons of buoyancy is for something of that weight to have been removed from the ship before it’s sale to the Greek navy.


The experiment took place at the Philadelphia Naval yards and also at sea. At 0900 hours o July 22nd, 1943 the power to the generators were turned on and the massive electromagnetic field was build up around the ship. A green fog was seen to slowly envelop the ship, concealing it from view. Then the fog it self disappeared \, taking the Eldridge w3ith it, leaving only undisturbed water where the ship had been anchored only a few minutes before. To the amazement of the elite officers of the navy, the ship and the crew were not only radar invisible but invisible to the eye as well. After fifteen minutes the generators were shutdown, the greenish fog reappeared and the Eldridge began to dematerialize.


The final test was conducted on the 28th of October 1943 at 17:15. As the electromagnetic field generators were turned on again, the Eldridge became invisible - only a faint outline of the hull remained visible in the water. Everything went as predicted for a few seconds, and then in a blinding flash the ship completely vanished. Within seconds it reappeared miles away in Norfolk, Virginia and was seen for several minutes. Then the Eldridge disappeared from Norfolk and reappeared back in Philadelphia’s naval yard. This time most of the men were violently sick, while some of them were simply “missing never to return”. But the strangest of all were five men who were fused to the metal in the ship’s structures.


The final experiment took place in full view of the merchant ship S.S. Andrew Furuseth and other observation ships. The Andrew Furuseth becomes a significant because one of its crewmen is Carlos M. Allende, a.k.a. Carl Allen. In January 13, 1955 Dr. Morris K. Jessup published “The case for the UF” through Citadel Press. This is the first truly “scientific” attempt to examine the question of UFOs and their means of propulsion. It was not too long after the appearance of the paperback edition (about mid-October 1955) that Dr. Jessup received the first of three strange letter from one Carlos Miguel Allende. It was in the second letter that Carl Allen (2nd letter was signed Carl Allen) described in details the Philadelphia Experiment the third letter was information on the Philadelphia Experiment, Einstein’s Unified Field Theory and the Navy. Although Dr. Jessup was curious to learn more, he was busy on his second book reply to the third letter. Almost certainly the matter would have been completely written off as that of a raving crackpot.


In late July or early August of 1955, the office of Naval Research, Washington 25 DC, received an envelope postmarked “Seminole, Texas 1953” and the words “happy Easter” written on it in ink. Inside the envelope is the now famous annotated copy of Morris K. Jessup’s “The case for the UFO”. At least three different colors of ink used and Navy erroneously assumed that there three different authors. But what seems even more bizarre is that the author seems to posses intimate knowledge of UFOs, their mean of propulsion, origin, background and history. For some unknown reason the book was not thrown into the trash. It eventually ended in the hands of Commander George W. Hoover, ONR’s Special Project Officers, and Captain Sidney Sherby. Both these men were deeply involved in the Navy’s Project Vanguard, the code name for the Americas’ effort to develop its first earth satellite and anti-gravity research.


This annotated book was shown to the author, Morris K. Jessup Dr. Jessup was troubled and amazed at the in depth knowledge of the annotator on subjects such as magnetic fields, gravity fields, sheets of diamond, cosmic rays, force cutters, inlay work, clear talk, teleporting, nodes, vertices, magnetic nets. As he read the annotation Jessup realized that the author of these annotations is one other than his mysterious correspondent, Carlos M. Allende. Satisfied with the conclusion, Jessup explained about the three letters and Carlos M. Allende to Commander Hoover. Commander Hoover and Captain Sherby of the ONR were so fascinated that they made an all out effort located Allende. It can be logically deduced that ONR felt that Allende had knowledge that was vital to their research.


All the information, data, facts and evidence given so far is accurate and can easily be verified by any competent researcher.

[Greg C.]

Regarding Carlos Allende, I dont think it was ever found out if he was in fact a real person or it was just an assumed name.