Adela,  Americas,  United States

The Philadelphia Experiment

12193845_176111826064241_2560095931186402859_nMost people have at least heard the name the Philadelphia Experiment but many have no idea what it’s actually pertaining too. It’s was an alleged military experiment that is said to have been carried out by the U.S. Navy at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard around October 1943. The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge (DE-173) was claimed to have been rendered invisible (or “cloaked”) to enemy devices. I will let you decide for yourself if this in fact is true or is it just an elaborate hoax.

Below are some of theories of what the experiment could have been, many contradict each other and there is no substantial proof any of this occurred.

The experiment was allegedly based on an aspect of some unified field theory, a term coined by Albert Einstein to describe a class of potential theories; such as uniting the fields of electromagnetism and gravity into a single field. According to some accounts, unspecified “researchers” thought that some version of this field would enable using large electrical generators to bend light around an object via refraction, so that the object became completely invisible. The Navy would sponsor this experiment because of its military value.

Some researchers were preparing magnetic and gravitational measurements of the seafloor to detect anomalies, supposedly based on Einstein’s attempts to understand gravity. In this version, there were also related secret experiments in Nazi Germany to find anti-gravity, allegedly led by SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Kammler.

Most accounts of the experiment, have the USS Eldridge fitted with the required equipment at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Testing allegedly began in the summer of 1943, and it was supposedly successful to a limited degree. One test allegedly resulted in the Eldridge being rendered nearly invisible, with some witnesses reporting a “greenish fog” appearing in its place. Crew members supposedly complained of severe nausea afterwards. Also, reportedly, when the ship reappeared, some sailors were embedded in the metal structures of the ship, including one sailor who ended up on a deck level below from where he began and had his hand embedded in the steel hull of the ship as well as some sailors who went “completely bananas.” Also, some sailors completely vanished without a trace. The experiment was altered at the request of the Navy, with the new objective being solely to render the USS Eldridge invisible to radar. None of these allegations have been independently substantiated. The ship’s crew may have been subjected to brainwashing (this is merely conjecture), in order to maintain the secrecy of the experiment.

The equipment was supposedly not re-calibrated, but the experiment was repeated anyway on October 28, 1943. This time, the Eldridge not only became invisible, but she physically vanished from the area in a flash of blue light and teleported to Norfolk, Virginia, over 200 miles (320 km) away. It is claimed that the USS Eldridge sat for some time in full view of men aboard the ship SS Andrew Furuseth, whereupon the USS Eldridge vanished from their sight and then reappeared in Philadelphia at the site it had originally occupied. It was also said that the warship went approximately 10 minutes back in time.

We don’t know really what went on or what they were trying to accomplish. It could have been an experiment in magnetic invisibility, radar invisibility, optical invisibility or degaussing (rendering the ship immune to magnetic mines). The tests were conducted, only to produce undesirable results. Afterwards, the project (supposedly called ‘Project Rainbow’) was canceled. To this day the U.S. Navy maintains that no such experiment was ever conducted, that the details of the story contradict well-established facts about the USS Eldridge, and that the alleged claims do not conform to known physical laws. We are left to wonder if anything happened at all or if they really achieved what many believe they did.

Adela