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Philadelphia Experiment

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For other uses, see Philadelphia Experiment (disambiguation).
USS Eldridge (DE-173) ca. 1944

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

The story is widely regarded as a hoax.[1][2][3] The U.S. Navy maintains that no such experiment occurred, and details of the story contradict well-established facts about the Eldridge.[4] It has nonetheless caused ripples in conspiracy theory circles, and elements of the Philadelphia Experiment are featured in other government conspiracy theories. Several different and sometimes contradictory versions of the purported experiment have circulated over the years. The following synopsis serves to illustrate key story points common to most accounts of the purported experiment.[2]

The experiment was conducted by Dr. Franklin Reno (or Franklin Rinehart) as a military application of a Unified Field Theory, a term coined by Einstein. The Unified Field Theory aims to describe the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity; although to date no single theory has emerged with a viable mathematical expression.

According to the accounts it was thought possible to use some version of this theory to bend light around an object so that it became essentially invisible. This required specialized equipment and sufficient energy. The Navy regarded this of obvious military value and sponsored the experiment.

Another version of this story however says that those researchers were preparing magnetic and gravitational measurements of the seafloor to detect anomalies. For decades Einstein was determined to solve the riddle of gravity. There were also secret experiments in Nazi Germany to find antigravity loopholes/people at that time, allegedly lead by SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Hans Kammler, and repeated recently by NASA specialists.

Origins of the story

Morris Jessup and Carlos Miguel Allende

In 1955, Morris K. Jessup, an amateur astronomer and former graduate-level researcher, published The Case for the UFO, a book about unidentified flying objects which contained some theorizing about the means of propulsion that flying-saucer-style UFOs might use. Jessup speculated that anti-gravity and/or manipulation of electromagnetism may have been responsible for the observed flight behavior of UFOs. He lamented, both in the book and the publicity tour which followed, that space flight research was concentrated in the area of rocketry, and that little attention was paid to these other theoretical means of flight, which he felt would ultimately be more fruitful.

On January 13, 1955, Jessup received a letter from a man who identified himself as Carlos Allende. In the letter, Allende informed Jessup of the Philadelphia Experiment, alluding to two poorly sourced contemporary newspaper articles as proof. Allende also said that he had witnessed the Eldridge disappear and reappear while serving aboard the SS Andrew Furuseth, a nearby merchant ship. Allende further named other crew members with whom he served aboard the Andrew Furuseth, and claimed to know of the fate of some of the crew members of the Eldridge after the experiment, including one whom he witnessed disappear during a chaotic fight in a bar. Jessup replied to Allende by postcard, asking for further evidence and corroboration for the story.

The reply came months later; however, this time the correspondent identified himself as Carl M. Allen. Allen said that he could not provide the details for which Jessup was asking, but implied that he might be able to recall by means of hypnosis. Suspecting that Allende/Allen was a fraud, Jessup decided to discontinue the correspondence.

The Office of Naval Research and the Varo annotation

In the early 1957, Jessup was contacted by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Washington, D.C. and asked to study the contents of a parcel that they had received.[5] Upon arrival, a curious Jessup was astonished to find that a paperback copy of his UFO book had been mailed to ONR in a manila envelope marked "Happy Easter." Further, the book had been extensively annotated by hand in its margins, and an ONR officer asked Jessup if he had any idea as to who had done so.

The lengthy annotations were written in three different colors of ink, and appeared to detail a correspondence among three individuals, only one of which is given a name: "Jemi." The ONR labeled the other two "Mr A" and "Mr B." The annotators refer to each other as "Gypsies," and discuss two different types of "people" living in outer space. Their text contained nonstandard use of capitalization and punctuation, and detailed a lengthy discussion of the merits of various suppositions that Jessup makes throughout his book, with oblique references to the Philadelphia Experiment, in a way that suggested prior or superior knowledge (for example, “Mr B” reassures his fellow annotators, who have highlighted a certain theory of Jessup’s).

Based on the handwriting style and subject matter, Jessup identified "Mr A" as Allende/Allen. Others have suggested that the three annotations are actually from the same person, using three pens.[citation needed]

The annotated book sparked such interest that the ONR funded a small printing of the volume by the Texas-based Varo Manufacturing Company.[6] A 2003 transcription of the annotated "Varo edition" is available online, complete with three-color notes.[7]

Later, the ONR contacted Jessup, claiming that the return address on Allende’s letter to Jessup was an abandoned farmhouse. They also informed Jessup that the Varo Corporation, a research firm, was preparing a print copy of the annotated version of The Case for the UFO, complete with both letters he had received. About a hundred copies of the Varo Edition were printed and distributed within the Navy. Jessup was also sent three for his own use.

Jessup attempted to make a living writing on the topic, but his follow-up book did not sell well and his publisher rejected several other manuscripts. In 1958 his wife left him, and friends described him as being depressed and somewhat unstable when he travelled to New York. After returning to Florida he was involved in a serious car accident and was slow to recover, apparently increasing his despondency. Morris Jessup committed suicide in 1959. Some conspiracy theorists [weasel words] claim that he was murdered by the government because of his knowledge of the Philadelphia Experiment.

Public dissemination

Resurfacing via literature

In 1965, Vincent Gaddis published Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea, in which the story of the experiment from the Varo annotation is recounted. Later, In 1978, a novel, Thin Air by George E. Simpson and Neal R. Burger was released. This was a dramatic fictional account, clearly inspired by the foregoing works, of a conspiracy to cover up a horrific experiment gone wrong on board the Eldridge in 1943. In 1979, Charles Berlitz and co-author, William L. Moore, published The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility, the best known and most cited source of information about the experiment to date.

In 2000, a novel,"The Ship Of The Damned" by James F. David was released which used The Philadelphia Experiment in his Psychological Thriller to exploit the minds of the readers.

Hollywood interpretation and the Bielek testimony

In 1984, the story was eventually adapted into a motion picture, The Philadelphia Experiment directed by Stewart Raffill. Though based only loosely on prior accounts of the experiment, it served to bring the core elements of the original story into mainstream scrutiny.

In 1990, Alfred Bielek, a self-proclaimed former crew-member of the Eldridge and alleged witness of the experiment, supported the version as it was portrayed in the movie, adding embellishments which were disseminated via the internet, eventually to surface in various mainstream outlets. In 2003, Bielek's version of his participation in the Philadelphia Experiment was debunked by a small team of investigators including American Marshall Barnes, Canadian Fred Houpt and German Gerold Schelm, and the general consensus now is that he was nowhere near the ship at the proposed time of the experiment.[8]

Discussion

Detractors, skeptics, and other researchers have noted several serious issues and problems with the story of the Philadelphia Experiment.

Evidence and research

Many observers argue it inappropriate to put much credence in an unusual story put forward by one individual, in the absence of more conclusive corroborating evidence. An article written by Robert Goerman for Fate in 1980, determined that “Carlos Allende”/“Carl Allen” was in fact Carl Meredith Allen of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, who had an established psychiatric history and may have fabricated the primary history of the experiment as a result of his illness.

Historian Mike Dash[2] notes that many of those who publicized the story after Jessup seemed to have conducted little or no research: through the late '70s, for example, Allende/Allen was often described as mysterious and difficult to locate, but after only a few telephone calls, Goerman was able to determine Allende/Allen's identity. Others speculate that much of the key literature has more emphasis on dramatic embellishment rather than pertinent research. Though Berlitz and Moore's famous account of the story (The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility) contained much supposedly factual information, such as transcripts of an interview with a scientist involved in the experiment, it has also been criticised for plagiarising key story elements from the fictitious novel Thin Air published a year earlier, which, it is argued, undermines the credibility of the text as a whole.

Scientific aspects

No fully developed Unified Field Theory currently exists. Shortly before his death in 1943, Nikola Tesla claimed to have completed a Unified Field Theory; however, it was never published.[9] Relatives of Nikola Tesla propose that much of Tesla's research papers were seized by the FBI promptly following his death, and highlight the apparent coincidence between the year of his death and the supposed date of the Philadelphia Experiment.

While very limited "invisibility cloaks" have recently been developed,[10] these are unrelated to theories linking electromagnetism with gravity.

Timeline inconsistencies

USS Eldridge was not commissioned until August 27, 1943, and remained in port in New York City until September 1943. The October experiment allegedly took place while the ship was on its first shakedown cruise in the Bahamas.

A reunion of veterans who served aboard the Eldridge told a Philadelphia newspaper in April 1999 that the ship had never made port in Philadelphia.[11] Further evidence against the Philadelphia experiment timeline comes from Eldridge’s complete World War II action report, including the remarks section of the 1943 deck log, available on microfilm.[4]

Alternative explanations

Researcher Jacques Vallee[12][13] describes a procedure on board USS Engstrom (DE-50), which was docked alongside Eldridge in 1943. The operation involved the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field on board the ship in order to degauss it, with the goal of rendering the ship undetectable — "invisible" — to magnetically-triggered torpedoes and mines. This system was invented by a Canadian, and the British used it widely during the Second World War. British ships of the era often included such systems built-in on the upper decks (the conduits are still visible on the deck of the HMS Belfast (C35) in London). Degaussing is still used today; however, it has no effect on visible light or radar. Vallee speculates that accounts of the Engstrom’s degaussing may have been garbled in subsequent retellings, and these accounts may have influenced the story of the Philadelphia Experiment.

A veteran who served on board the Engstrom noted that the Eldridge could indeed have traveled from Philadelphia to Norfolk and back again in a single day at a time when merchant ships could not have — by use of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which at the time was open only to naval vessels.[citation needed] Use of this channel was kept quiet: German submarines had recently been ravaging East Coast shipping during Operation Drumbeat, and thus military ships unable to protect themselves were secretly moved via canals to avoid this threat.[citation needed] It should be noted that this same veteran claims to be the man whom Allende witnessed “disappear” at a bar. He claims that when the fight broke out, friendly barmaids whisked him out the back door of the bar before the police arrived, because he was under age. They then covered for him by claiming that he disappeared.[citation needed]

In a more speculative and strongly paranormal vein, Al Bielek and Duncan Cameron both claim to have leapt from the deck of the Eldridge while it was in “hyperspace” between Philadelphia and Norfolk, and ended up, after a period of severe disorientation, at the Air Force station Montauk Point, Long Island in 1983, having experienced not only teleportation but time travel. They claim John von Neumann met them there (although officially he died in 1957).[citation needed] This story is part of a continuum involving another alleged secret US Government experiment into the paranormal known as the Montauk Project.

Cultural references

The Philadelphia Experiment, its results, and the potential of the technology involved have been the subject of many books, films, soundtracks, and video games.

Audio/visual media

In the film Orka (2007) a German equivalent of Einstein's research related to the Philadelphia Experiment is sought out and uncovered.

An early film to dramatize the experiment is The Bermuda Triangle (1979). One portion of the film shows a Navy ship rigged with power cables to create the disappearing field. The ship is made to appear to vanish into the sea, and the sailors experience the effects attributed to the experiment, i.e., vomiting, and disappearing and reappearing.

Two full-length films have been released on the subject: The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) and Philadelphia Experiment II (1993).

The experiment has been the subject of several television shows dealing with the paranormal and conspiracy theories, including The Unexplained, a series produced by Bill Kurtis on the Arts and Entertainment Network (A&E). One episode of The History Channel's History's Mysteries discusses the theory. A similar story also ran on the show Unsolved Mysteries which originally aired on NBC and is now occasionally seen on Lifetime Network. It is also a frequent topic on the late night radio show Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell and George Noory.

In the “Død Kalm” (2X19) episode of The X-Files, Mulder and Scully are tipped off to a U.S. Navy ship that had caused its crew to rapidly age; Mulder at first believed the aging had to do with the failed Philadelphia Experiment.

The hip-hop sci-fi EP "Projecto: 2501" by Tajai and SupremeEx ends with a lengthy audio clip of a journalist speaking about the Philadelphia Experiment.

The videogame Assassin's Creed mentions the Philadelphia Experiment, saying in an in-game e-mail that the experiment was a success and that the modern templars initiated it. However it adds the fact that the ship not only teleport, but time traveled as well.

Literature

In "Green Fire" (1998), a collaborative novella by Eileen Gunn, Michael Swanwick, Pat Murphy, and Andy Duncan, the science fiction masters Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and L. Sprague De Camp, besides Grace Hopper, take part in the Philadelphia Experiment, with the assistance of Nicola Tesla and the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Carroll, Robert Todd (2007-12-03). "Philadelphia experiment". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2008-02-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c Dash, Mike (2000) [1997]. Borderlands. Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press. ISBN 9780879517243. OCLC 41932447.
  3. ^ Adams, Cecil (1987-10-23). "Did the U.S. Navy teleport ships in the Philadelphia Experiment?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 2007-02-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b "The "Philadelphia Experiment"". Naval Historical Center of the United States Navy. 2000-11-28. Retrieved 2007-02-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Moseley, James W. & Karl T. Pflock (2002), Shockingly Close to the Truth!: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1-57392-991-3
  6. ^ Introduction to the Varo edition of M. K. Jessup's Case for the UFO
  7. ^ Jessup, M. K. (2003) [1973]. "Varo Edition" THE CASE FOR THE UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT (pdf). The Cassiopaean Experiment. {{cite book}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ "Al Bielek Debunked". 2008-01-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Prepared Statement by Nikola Tesla" (.doc file). Pepe's Tesla Pages. 1889. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ See, for example here and here.
  11. ^ Lewis, Frank (August 19–26, 1999). "The Where Ship? Project: Though long dismissed by the Navy, the legend of The Philadelphia Experiment shows no signs of disappearing". Philadelphia City Paper. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
  12. ^ abstract of "Anatomy of a Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later" by Jacques F. Vallee, URL accessed February 21, 2007
  13. ^ excerpts of "Anatomy Of A Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment 50 Years Later" URL accessed February 21, 2007
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