The Philadelphia Experiment

So I'm going to start you on one of my favourite conspiracy theories. It's an old one and quite famous, so a lot of you may have heard it before.


The Philadelphia Experiment was first introduced to me by an old flatmate who i dont talk to anymore. He was a pretty firm believer in this epic conspiracy, that said this was the same guy who wouldnt let a girl leave his room until he was given a lackluster handjob. So evidently he had far more pressing issues than believing a silly story about a boat and the concept of invisibility, or did he......


Read on:

Also known as "Project Rainbow", in 1943 the American Naval vessel, The USS Eldridge began being fitted with the required equipment at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. For what was this ship chosen? To be the first invisible warship and to my knowledge the first invisible anything. The American Navy seemed to think, that by using Einsteins "unified field theory" they could turn a big fuck-off warship invisible. While i dropped science in year 10, i could loosely make out that the theory tries to relate maths and physics to electromagnetism and gravity. If this could be achieved the navy could use generators to bend light, however i am still unsure how this would make the ship invisible. Moreover, Einsteins theory to date, has not been able to prove a relation between both the mathematical and physical.

I could make a square route pun here, but i wont.

Despite these theoretical holes, the USS Eldridge was first tested on July 22nd 1943, and what do you bloody know? It was a success!, the ship "disappeared" momentarily. It did however have just a couple of glitches....



Here is where shit really starts to get fucked. Initial witness reports stated that when the ship disappeared it was replaced by what was described as a "thick green fog". And if that doesnt get you a little uncomfortable, a large proportion of the crew complained of "crippling nausea" after the experiment. Now while both these side effects could be explained by the probable use of nuculear material (the atomic bombs that would tear Japan a newen' were merely two years away), this last report maybe a little less simple to explain.
It was alleged that some of the sailors had become embedded in the metallic structures of the ship! At the conclusion of the experiment many of the crew were left with hands, legs, skulls and entire bodies merged to the hull of the Eldridge. Needless to say supposed brainwashings occured and it was all hushed up.

Its in there somewhere.

Under the premise that the ship had not been "re-calibrated" properly, the dumbass navy made some ammendments and the ship was re-tested again, only three months later on October the 28th. This time though the USS Eldridge not only became invisible it has said to have teleported in a "flash of blue light" to the port of Norfolk, Virginia over 200 kms away!

Reports are further supported by another group of sailors aboard the merchant ship SS Furuseth, who claim to have seen the Eldridge appear alongside their boat and promptly disappear. In case that wasnt weird enough, for whatever reason (and totally un-substantiated mind you), it is "believed" the USS Eldridge also "travelled back in time" for some period..

Artists impression of a US Furuseth sailor.

The program was shut down, with the Navy cutting their losses at men with steel in their heads, others in mental asylums and some who had just vanished. While the concept remains pretty cool, the idea of having my head fused with a ships hull is not something i would consider a reasonable trade off.

If you want to read more on the origins of the theory see:

Morris Jessup

&

Carlos Miguel Allende