Talk:Philadelphia Experiment

Rewrite Needed

This article is horribly slanted. Sure, this experiment is more than likely fiction, but Wikipedia is supposed to be neutral, even with the absurd. Someone needs to deeply clean this up. --71.189.224.108 (talk) 08:14, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

On the contrary, we do not need to pretend the absurd is reasonable. According to the policy WP:UNDUE, it is perfectly correct to present pseudoscientific nonsense without a shred of evidence as if it is pseudoscientific nonsense without a shred of evidence. Phiwum (talk) 16:15, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

i found this article to be very impartial and commend the author! 123.19.175.34 (talk) 08:54, 21 September 2010 (UTC) PFC Hahn

Origins

To imply it did or did not happen, is to validate the veracity of the claims that this page is bias. All I know, is I heard the story a long time ago as a fact. A story told by a Naval Wife and avid researcher. To attribute this topic as originating from the conspiracy theorist is to reveal your own lack of research, that you hide behind juvenile name calling.

I am a Navy brat and I grew up hearing about this incident. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.21.138.199 (talk) 23:50, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

The top secret Philadelphia Incident of the Manhattan Project as a source for the rumors

The Atomic Heritage Foundation [1] states:

The Philadelphia Incident

"On September 2, 1944, three men entered the transfer room of the liquid thermal diffusion semi-works at the Philadelphia Navy Yard to repair a clogged tube. The tube they were working on consisted of two concentric pipes with liquid uranium hexafluoride circulating in the space between them; the innermost pipe contained high-pressure steam. ... Without warning, at 1:20 PM, there was a terrific explosion. As the tube shattered, the liquid uranium hexafluoride combined with the escaping steam and showered the two engineers with hydrofluoric acid, one of the most corrosive agents known. Within minutes, both Peter Bragg and Douglas Meigs, with 3rd degree burns over their entire bodies, were dead and Arnold Kramish, also burned, was near death. Thus began one of the most extraordinary events in the history of the Manhattan Project. Due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the Manhattan Project in general and the experimental facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in particular, an immediate veil was drawn down over the incident by the highest authority available: General Leslie Groves.

"Due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the incident, even the Philadelphia coroner was not made aware of the actual causes of death. It was not until many years later that the true facts began to emerge. However, it was too late for the parents of Peter Bragg, who both died never knowing of how their son had died.

"On September 2, 1944, as the explosion ripped through the transfer room of the Naval Research Laboratory's thermal diffusion experimental pilot-plant, the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin sat berthed not more than 200 yards away. Just back from its "shakedown" cruise, the sailors on board were never made aware that they had been exposed to a cloud of uranium hexafluoride. Although not highly-radioactive, the uranium-hexafluoride is nevertheless, toxic.

""Explosion at Navy Yard," The Philadelphia Record, September 3, 1944: "9 Are Injured; Blast Heard in Wide Area" SIDE OF BUILDING RIPPED OUT; FIRE EXTINGUISHED - Two specialists were killed and nine other men injured late yesterday afternoon when an explosion, followed by fire, ripped out the side of a building at the Navy Yard. The blast, heard throughout the Navy Yard and in some sections of South Philadelphia, occurred while Navy technicians were at work. Gas was released, burning the lungs of some of the men. They were given first aid at the scene and then sent to the Naval Hospital. At least one is in "a very critical condition," the Navy announced. Two other men, Navy Yard firemen, collapsed while fighting the blaze. Their condition is not serious ..."

The cloud of green colored uranium hexafluoride vapor and the extreme secrecy involved (the whole experiment was used to produce the uranium-235 dropped in the Hiroshima bomb), corresponds to the Philadelphia experiment rumors. Some hints that nuclear power was connected would have given rise to speculations linking the experiments being carried out at the Philadelphia dockyard in WWII to Einstein's theories of relativity. 82.21.58.162 (talk) 20:41, 19 November 2010 (UTC)