Philadelphia Experiment
| Some dare call it |
| Secrets revealed! |
| The revealers |
The Philadelphia Experiment (also referred to as Project Rainbow) was an alleged naval experiment in October 1943 in which the destroyer escort USS Eldridge was briefly rendered invisible, with disastrous side effects. It is universally considered a hoax.
Contents |
[edit] Procedure
Legend has it that the experiment was based on a Unified Field Theory, which parts of it describe how light can be bent around something via electromagnetism to render it invisible. They then got a bunch of powerful magnets. When they powered up, a green fog appeared around the ship. Then things got ugly. Some of the crew were found embedded in the ship itself. Others developed mental problems, and still others simply vanished. The ship also teleported to a port over 200 miles away and back, and went back in time for about 10 seconds. So in effect, they invented a 3-in-1 megadevice: invisibility cloak, teleporter, and time machine.
[edit] Problems
Obviously none of this is true. First off, even today, we still don't have a Unified Field Theory. Second, there's no documentation of any such experiment occurring; in fact, U.S. Naval records show that the USS Eldrige wasn't even in Philadelphia at all during the month of October, being in Bermuda for the first half of the month and New York for the second half of the month, with a three day direct voyage between the two.[1] Third, the original source for this conspiracy theory traces back to a series of letters and writings by a certain Carl Allen (a.k.a. Carlos Allende), who claimed to have witnessed the disappearance of the ship while on the SS Andrew Furuseth, and no one else.
[edit] Likely beginnings
The most likely explanation for this story's origin is in the degaussing procedures used on the USS Eldridge. Degaussing would render it undetectable to certain types of torpedoes and underwater mines; however, it has no effect on visible light or radar. Likewise, accounts of this degaussing were garbled and exaggerated, and voilà, the Philadelphia Experiment was born.
[edit] Culture
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert spoofs this by producing the whole experiment verbatim complete with jumping a battleship...and then including it as an Allied superweapon in all subsequent games.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Naval History & Heritage Command, FAQ, The Philadelphia Experiment. A copy of the microfilm containing the World War II action report and war diary coverage of the USS Eldridge is available for purchase as well.
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