Philadelphia Experiment

Philadelphia Experiment

If it happened, the Philadelphia Experiment would stand upwards for the greatest authorities cover-up of World War II, amongst scientific importance rivaling that of the Manhattan Project but surrounded past times fifty-fifty greater secrecy.

Had the storey appeared during the war, it powerfulness stimulate got seemed likewise fantastic to believe. But a decade later, the hydrogen bomb was a reality, UFOs had acquire a staple of U.S. pop culture, as well as people were to a greater extent than willing than always to convey the fantastic.

Beginning inward belatedly 1955, a drifter named Carl Allen (alias Carlos Allende) wrote iii letters to astronomer Morris Jessup, whose mass The Case for the UFO had of late been published. In these letters, Allen claimed that during World War II he was a merchant seaman on the USS Andrew Furuseth as well as an eyewitness to U.S. Navy invisibility experiments involving a destroyer escort, the USS Eldridge.


According to Allen, Albert Einstein’s unified champaign theory was tested on the Eldridge inward Oct 1943, causing the ship to vanish from its berth at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, look briefly hundreds of miles away inward Norfolk, Virginia, as well as so reappear inward Philadelphia.

Caught inward a high-energy strength field, the ship’s crew was said past times Allen to stimulate got suffered a multifariousness of sick effects, amongst unopen to burned, others driven insane, as well as a issue who disappeared forever. Jessup later on learned that inward 1955, a curiously annotated re-create of his mass had been sent anonymously to the navy’s Office of Naval Research.

Although the annotations were written every bit if past times iii nonhuman entities, Jessup suspected that they were the function of Allen. After Jessup died (an apparent suicide) inward 1959, other writers on UFOs began to contain references to the Philadelphia Experiment into their books, as well as its notoriety grew over time.

William Moore as well as Charles Berlitz took Allen’s storey seriously after establishing that he had been a seaman on the Andrew Furuseth inward 1943 as well as 1944. Despite the fact that they could non locate logs for either ship, they deduced that the Andrew Furuseth as well as the Eldridge could stimulate got been inward the same vicinity inward August 1943 as well as that the Eldridge powerfulness stimulate got been involved inward magnetic invisibility query that was carried out during the state of war to brand warships less vulnerable to enemy mines.

One of their sources, given the pseudonym “Dr. Rinehart,” claimed to stimulate got been 1 of the scientists who conducted the query inward its before stages, as well as they also found that Albert Einstein was working every bit a navy scientific consultant inward 1943.

As farther corroboration, Moore as well as Berlitz cited the experiences of 2 airmen who claimed to stimulate got been told close the experiment past times an unidentified survivor of the episode during a demand chances come across inward 1970, as well as the storey of a UFO witness who said he was told past times U.S. as well as Canadian officials inward 1975 that both governments had known close the existence of aliens since a 1943 navy invisibility experiment. In the end, however, Moore as well as Berlitz confessed their inability to render proof without access to hugger-mugger authorities files.

The Problem of Fact Versus Fiction

H5N1 pop film, The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), added the chemical cistron of fourth dimension go to the master copy story, amongst 2 sailors from the Eldridge beingness transported across forty-one years to the Nevada site of a orbit hugger-mugger missile-defense project.

Although the chemical cistron of fourth dimension go was fictional, it was non long afterwards that an private came frontwards claiming to live an Eldridge crewman amongst a newly restored retention of fourth dimension go fifty-fifty to a greater extent than elaborate than that shown inward the film.

The storey of the Philadelphia Experiment grew over the years to include alien contact, hear control, as well as mysticism, as well as a serial of books (beginning amongst Nichols as well as Moon inward 1992) linked the master copy experiment to covert authorities query allegedly conducted at an abandoned air strength base of operations inward Montauk, New York.

This forging of links is reminiscent of the “mystery merging” that UFO researcher Jacques Vallée imputed to UFO query inward 1991, inward which mysteries are linked together as well as therefore made to a greater extent than compelling despite their actual lack of connection.

Moore as well as Berlitz identified iii possible explanations for Allen’s storey of the Philadelphia Experiment: a fraud, a truthful occupation organization human relationship of a existent event, or an exaggerated as well as distorted occupation organization human relationship of a existent event.

The occupation amongst the final 2 alternatives is that no independent testify has surfaced to exhibit that whatsoever radar or magnetic invisibility experiment was performed on the Eldridge during the war, or fifty-fifty that the ship was always inward Philadelphia.

Sources whose testimony allegedly corroborate Allen’s storey stimulate got almost invariably been anonymous or unidentified, or hidden behind a pseudonym every bit inward the illustration of “Dr. Rinehart.” Allen reportedly confessed that his storey was a hoax, but later on repudiated the confession. In 1967 as well as 1968, he wrote to Jacques Vallée, whose mass Anatomy of a Phenomenon had simply appeared inward paperback.

Along amongst an offering to sell certainly documents, Allen repeated his tale of the Philadelphia Experiment as well as added a novel storey of a ship that survived the explosion of a UFO inward 1947, leading Vallée to conclude that he was dealing amongst a con man. H5N1 few years later, Allen is reported to stimulate got written to his parents as well as boasted of having written the annotations to Jessup’s book.

Considering the lack of corroborative evidence, as well as the dubious nature of the testify inward favor of it, the Philadelphia Experiment appears to deserve the handling given it inward a navy shape letter, which states that the Office of Naval Research never conducted invisibility experiments nor would they live possible exterior the realm of scientific discipline fiction.