The Philadelphia Experiment

[Psi Baba]

Did anyone happen to catch the documentary on this topic the other night? It was either on Discovery Times or The Science Channel. At first it seemed to be supporting the myth, but it turned out that that was just background information, and the program progressed into a thorough and systematic debunking. Very well done. It turns out the whole thing was made up by one man named Carl Meredith Allen (aka Carlos Miguel Allende), a rather unstable character who would buy books on weird topics, write his own, even weirder, ideas in the margins, and mail them to people. It is believed that the whole invisibility thing was a misunderstanding of the degaussing technique used on ships to make them undetectable to sea mines with magnetic sensors. Crew members often referred to this as making the ship "invisible." Of course they meant magnetically invisible. One interesting testimony was that of a former crew member who was on board the U.S.S. Eldridge every time it sailed, and said it was never even in Philadelphia.

 

[desertheathen]

When I was in 7th grade our science teacher showed us the 1984 movie and told us it was a true story. He was a new teacher and only lasted one year. He was also into Tesla and claimed that Tesla had invented broadcast power and a device that could have split the earth in half. We bought this junk, and some of my friends and I would spend time after class talking over all these "cool" things. Fortunatly, I don't think the guy is teaching anymore, last I heard he was working at a mine.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Klue me in, doodz: What was the Philadelphia Experiment?

~~ Paul

 

[Nigel]

Klue me in, doodz: What was the Philadelphia Experiment?

~~ Paul

(Someone correct me if I have a few details wrong, but the gist of the myth is)
In 1943, the US Navy experimented with making a ship literally invisible and transporting it from Philadelphia to Newport News (or Norfolk?). They were successful, but terrible things happened to the crew 20 or so years later - not just Viet Nam type flashbacks, but where they'd literally disappear out their beds and reappear elsewhere. Some supposedly reappeared inside walls, even. Several were driven mad by the experience. Of course, the gov't hushed it up and denied it ever happened.

The real story, as has been said, was making the ship (relatively) stealthy.

Not only was it made into a movie, but I first read about it in a fictionalilzed book called "Thin Air" (though I forgot who wrote it or when it was published - I do remember 2 authors though).

Nigel

 

[Hexxenhammer]

Klue me in, doodz: What was the Philadelphia Experiment?

~~ Paul

A top secret WWII experiment to make our ships invisible. The test caused the ship to disappear and teleport to another harbor, where people saw materialize, then disappear again. Sailors were found phased halfway through walls, the deck, and all dead. Very cool sci-fi story, not very plausible otherwise.

 

[desertheathen]

I forgot to mention another claim this teacher made. The town I grew up in, Tonopah, NV is near the test sight where the government blew up nukes, tested new planes, ect.. Well, this teacher claimed that the test sight had a similar experiment. He claimed that a nearby town went back in time to the forties and the ship appered where the town was. Then they went back to their own times and locations. And to think this guy DARED give me a C in science.

 

[abramis]

last I heard he was working at a mine.

...Bad joke ahead;

Does he by any chance work at a magnetic mine?

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

Wasn't that used as the template for an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation? The Federation was working on a new kind of cloaking device that failed catastrophically on its first real test, causing the ship it was mounted in to rematerialize in the middle of an asteroid.

 

[Virgil]

WOS,


yes, I recall that ep.


Virgil

 

[IllegalArgument]

I remember the TNG ep too. The ship could cloak and phase, which was a treaty violation with the Romulian(sic). Hence, providing the conflict in the ep.

 

[LTC8K6]

http://www.bielek-debunked.com/index2.html

 

[Psi Baba]

http://www.bielek-debunked.com/index2.html

Interesting. Thanks. I think there was some mention of Bielek in the documentary. I can't remember the name of the writer (who was interviewed extensively throughout the program) who ended up ferreting out Carl Allen.

Originally posted by LTC8K6
Well, this teacher claimed that the test sight had a similar experiment. He claimed that a nearby town went back in time to the forties and the ship appered where the town was. Then they went back to their own times and locations.

Wasn't that just one of the things that happened in the movie?

 

[Hagrok]

Wasn't that just one of the things that happened in the movie?

Well, there was another movie about a modern day aircraft carrier that somehow went back in time to the 40's. As I recall they tried to stop the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, but were transported Back to the Future before they were able to.

--Dan

 

[Nigel]

Well, there was another movie about a modern day aircraft carrier that somehow went back in time to the 40's. As I recall they tried to stop the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, but were transported Back to the Future before they were able to.

--Dan

"The Final Countdown".

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0080736/

Starred Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen.

Nigel

 

[Checkmite]

The Philadelphia Experiment was the creation of one "Carlos Allende", who claimed to have been witness to it. Check out the Navy's fact sheet about it here.

I sometimes find it difficult to believe that the crew of this passing civilian cargo vessel was allowed to witness the "teleportation", and yet only one person - the "informant", Carlos Allende, remembered anything about it.

However, Hex is mistaken in the slight detail that the "stuck" crew was dead; some crew - even stuck ones - were alleged to be alive. Several living crew were alleged to have "disappeared" in front of a lot of people in a bar, and many other survivors went insane. Of course none of this happened, so the details may be unimportant.

 

[Bearguin]

The movie was kind of cool. I'd watch it again. The second movie was totally different and I did not like it as much. The TNG episode was kinda neat although they really should have gone into the implacations of Riker hiding the truth for so long.

Be nice if more of these crap theories got turned into entertaining movies (or was that what X-Files was about???)

 

[Sindai]

I remember the TNG ep too. The ship could cloak and phase, which was a treaty violation with the Romulian(sic). Hence, providing the conflict in the ep.

The funny part was when some crew members accidentally got permanently "phase cloaked," supposedly making them totally undetectable. They couldn't be seen, heard...or even touched. Yes, they could walk through people and walls!

They could also still breath, and somehow could go through walls...but could still stand on the ship's floor as if it were solid.

 

[Bearguin]

Different episode I think. You are talking about the one where Jordi and Ro (sp??) were phase shifted due to some Romulan experiment gone wrong. They were talking about an episode where an Admiral takes the Enterprise into an asteroid belt to find a Federation ship that Riker had served on while it was doing experiments with cloaking and phase shifting.

Easy to see where the confusion comes from.

 

[Hand Bent Spoon]

For some reason, I always confuse The Philadelphia Experiment with the Manhattan Project.

 

[RamblingOnwards]

They could also still breath, and somehow could go through walls...but could still stand on the ship's floor as if it were solid.

I always love that one. I think it was an Angel episode where some dude became increasingly incorporeal, and to their credit, eventually fell through the floor - every floor until he reached the basement, because, you know, the underlying rock is just so much *denser* than the floor.