Uncommon Science

The Mystery of the Philadelphia Experiment

Published by
Anna LeMind, B.A.

Philadelphia Experiment was a supposed military experiment that is believed to have taken place during the Second World War. The ‘guinea pig’ of the experiment is said to be the USS Eldridge, a fully manned and equipped destroyer escort of the U.S. Navy, which was claimed to be rendered invisible to enemy weapons.

There are many theories that attempt to explain what exactly happened and whether the Philadelphia Experiment really took place. Let’s examine both perspectives.

Three arguments of people who believe that the Philadelphia Experiment was real:

  • First of all, the experiment was believed to be aimed at discovering new technologies that could bring the end of the war.
  • Secondly, the ionized gas hides from radar any object inside it.
  • Thirdly, it is known that electrostatic fields or strong magnetic fields can hardly deflect a beam of light from its course.

The American Navy admits that the USS Eldridge took part in an experiment that included wrapping the frame of the ship with wire in an attempt to disable the magnetic field caused by the metal.

Something like that would render the ship invisible to magnetic underwater mines, based on proximity sensors. In fact, this misunderstanding of the documented experiments is what paved the way for the Philadelphia experiment conspiracy.

However, let’s take a look at the claims of people who believe the experiment was real.

Claims regarding the Philadelphia experiment:

It is believed that there were two phases of the experiment. The first was supposed to take place on July 23, 1943, and the second and most important one – on August 12, 1943. During the first phase, the ship did not completely disappear, but the footprint of the frame remained visible in the water, according to this theory.

The second time the ship is believed to have disappeared completely and have reappeared 15 minutes later in Virginia. When the ship returned, crew members were said to have integrated with the hull of the ship, others were missing and others had lost their minds, the theory states.

When the ship was sold to the Greek Navy, the nominal capacity had increased by 300 tons, which means that equipment had been removed from the inside.

In the mid-80s, there appeared a witness who caused a lot of fuss with his statement “I was there and saw it with my own eyes.”

Al Bielek claimed that he was one of two Navy sailors who worked in the control room at the USS Eldridge and that the crew traveled 40 years in the future and found the underground facilities of the “Montauk” on Long Island!

Finally, people who believe that the Philadelphia Experiment indeed took place also use Albert Einstein’s theories to back their claims. Einstein’s general theory of relativity argued that gravity was not a force but a classic distortion of spacetime.

John Archibald Wheeler, attempting to make a summary of this theory, states that “space acts on matter, and tells it how to move. The matter reacts back on space and tells it how to curve.”

Thus, people who assume that the Philadelphia Experiment really took place rely on this theory and all the above arguments.

Arguments against the Philadelphia Experiment

However, as we said above, the most probable explanation is the misunderstanding of the documented experiments with making the USS Eldridge invisible to magnetic underwater mines, not literally invisible!

Moreover, most scientists agree that the claims of the people who believe in the reality of this experiment contradict the laws of physics. So more likely than not, it never happened.

Despite this, some people still believe that the Philadelphia experiment took place and wonder what happened to the ship and its crew. It remains one of the most popular mysteries.

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org
Published by
Anna LeMind, B.A.