The Philadelphia Experiment

[Kyrisch]

The Philadelphia Naval Yard harbors a hidden history beyond its role as a docking port for military vessels. It might just have been the site of one of the strangest scientific experiments of all time.

 

The infamous Philadelphia Experiment defied the laws of physics as we understand them and, according to some, cost several servicemen their lives...

 

Those who believe it tell the story this way: in 1943, the Germans had the advantage on the high seas. Their fleets of U-boats wreaked havoc upon Allied military and merchant vessels in the Atlantic. The United States decided to pull out all the stops with a device that could electronically cloak vessels from being picked up on radar. In Philadlephia a small destroyer known as the U.S.S. Elridge would test this theory.

 

In June the Elridge was fitted with tons of strange equipment. Generators and coils were mounted throughout the ship in order to produce encompassing electromagnetic fields. When the devices ran in unison, this setup would theoretically bend the light and sound waves around the ship, making is virtually invisible. At nine a.m. on July 22, 1943, this theory was tested for the first time. When the generators turned on, a green fog surrounded the ship. In a blink of the eye the fog and the ship itself entirely vanished! Fifteen minutes later the generators were turned off and the Elridge reappeared. The crew was in a state of shock and violently ill.

 

They reran the test in late October. This time, when the generators were turned on, the ship disappeared again but left a clear impression upon the water. There was a blinding flash of light; then even that disappeared. Meanwhile, miles down the coast, in Norfolk, Virginia, witnesses saw the ship materialize off their shore. For several minutes the U.S.S. Elridge, moments ago docked in Philadelphie, sailed the Virginia coastline. Just as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished and was seen once again in Philadelphia.

 

When the ship was boarded, the entire crew was ill. Some of the crew had disappeared, and five were fused into the walls of the ship. Some had been emotionally and mentally stripped to the point of insanity.

 

No one knows how the physical teleportation of the U.S.S. Elridge could have happened. The government quickly covered up the results of the experiment, although over the years many witnessed have verified the strange tale as authenticated fact. Some say that the Philadelphia Experiment is nothing more than a sci-fi fantasy. Others swear that it is terrifyingly true.

 

I have been fascinated with this particular tale for years. Sounds like some funky quantum mechanics to me. What are your thoughts on this?

 

*Text taken from Weird U.S. by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman.

[bascule]

The Navy has this to say:

 

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm

 

The crew had this to say:

 

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm

 

Whatever the roots of the story might have been (Allende, deguassing or corona discharges) one thing is certain: No experiment was done in 1943 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard involving the USS Eldridge.

 

During that period she never stopped in Philadelphia. A fact attested to by the ship's crew. In March of 1999 fifteen members of the crew of the USS Eldridge held a reunion in Atlantic City. They were a bit bewildered about why of all the ships in the U.S. Navy the Eldridge was chosen for this rumor. Some were getting tired of being asked about it. All denied anything like what was in the Allende story or the Moore/Berlitz book ever actually happened. Quipped former crew member Ed Tempary as he gave his comrades a smile, "The only part of the book I think is true is the part about the crew being a little crazy."

[ed84c]

Those 2 links are the same :S

[Royston]

Those 2 links are the same :S

 

I guess the crew are in the navy

[ElijahJones]

It could be a cover. The crew may have been replaced by alien doubles! No but if you were to try to place a metal battleship in the middle of a very strong time dependent field you are just asking for trouble. And I am not sure of the physics behind that, how does an EM field effect sonar or radar blips? I don't think the Germans had radar, the British developed it in 1944 if I am correct. It would be great if it were that simple to start teleporting things I doubt it though. And I am an EM fanatic, in fact I have quite an interst in ion propulsion within the earths atmosphere and using EM fields is one way to get alot of ions.

[PhDP]

Shouldn't that be in "Pseudoscience and Metaphysics" ?

[bascule]

Shouldn't that be in "Pseudoscience and Metaphysics" ?

 

I guess that's the closest forum to "Science Fiction"

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I don't think the Germans had radar, the British developed it in 1944 if I am correct.

a) The Brits had it in 1940 for the Battle of Britain.

b) The Germans had it too, but not as much or as sophisticated.

[dumbass]

If the ship bent light and sound waves away then how would one see the ship(light needs to reflect off the ship right)?

this can explain the second test, where they saw an imprint of the ship in the water.

As to the teleporting no clue, i guess it's all hocus pocus anyway.and how would you bend light and sound waves?

[GeminiinimeG]

can an electromagnetic field make photons change direction? If that can happen perhaps this is posible. You do know Einsteing came up with all his theories around those times so perhaps other scientists had advanced theories too

 

This seems like its fake though... A green fog? Electromagnetic field would not look like some kind of fog so this is clearly science fiction.

 

It is possible to create an advance camouflage(dont know if spelled right) but you really need advanced computing power =D Maybe when those quantum computers are advanced enough are comleted this will be possible

[GeminiinimeG]

If the ship bent light and sound waves away then how would one see the ship(light needs to reflect off the ship right)?

this can explain the second test' date=' where they saw an imprint of the ship in the water.

As to the teleporting no clue, i guess it's all hocus pocus anyway.and how would you bend light and sound waves?[/quote']

 

WOW? You can easyly reflect light waves... and you can also make sound waves change direction, just like i said earlier you need an advanced computer to be able to possibly nullify those waves i guess, if this was true tough i dont think the government would say it is true and how can you trust a microfilm?

[insane_alien]

electromagnetic fields cannot bend light and you don't need and advanced computer to nullify reflected waves you just need something that can transmit waves over the appropriate frequency range and a detector. the only problem is that you cannot hide this equipment.

[timo]

can an electromagnetic field make photons change direction?

No.

[GeminiinimeG]

well any ways all I know is you dont want to bend the waves... that would make it obvious your there, what you need is like I said an advanced computer to do a large ammount of calculating. this is because you can place cameras on one side and light emiiters on the other, this would make people look at one side and it seems like they are looking though the ship or what ever is being camouflaged.

 

the advanced computing power is needed because you need to know were everycamera is and what kind of light is supposed to be emmited on that side and compute angles and all kinds of neat information to make it look like your not there.

[insane_alien]

you don't need a computer. you could hardwire it to do it by itself

[GeminiinimeG]

you don't need a computer. you could hardwire it to do it by itself

Its impossbible to 'hardwire' it. you need to do many calculations because it is not an even object light has to be produced in an exact manner in order to phool you eyes. This is really advanced and you cant posibly do it with out computations...

[insane_alien]

optical fibres can do it i've seen it done it just turns it into a kind of fuzzy looking ball no computer involved

[GeminiinimeG]

optical fibres can do it i've seen it done it just turns it into a kind of fuzzy looking ball no computer involved

 

If you want it to be perfect use a computer. I speak of camuflagging some thing big and also that moves around, with fiber optics it cant be dont in such a way

[insane_alien]

it could if you used fine enough fibre optics

[dumbass]

The simplest way to avoid radar is by using reflection of EM waves....

But it depends what kind of radar you would want to avoid..... Aerial Radar is easly done.....put as many obtuse planes as you can on the ship....just like a B-2 Stealth Bomber.

To avoid radar by a submarine is a bit difficult and i can only guess you can use polarization to not allow any wave to return to sender......

[YT2095]

can an electromagnetic field make photons change direction?

 

yes and no, directly they cannot (that I`m aware of), but indirecty they most certainly can

 

in a medium such as gas or liquids photons can be made to "Bend" around a path to least resistance, like putting a pencil in a glass of water and seeing it bent, or a Mirage reflection off a hot road surface or desert that shows the sky on land

[ElijahJones]

I think the bending of light in matter is a quantum interaction between the photons and the matter itself its not a bending by the field. The only energy field I know of that can cause light to bend is gravity and that is really because it warps space (well at least as Einstien tried to speak of it, I guess qunamtum gravity would have a particl that might interact with everything I'm not even a good novice on that).

[timo]

[on the question wether an EM field can change the direction of a photon:] yes and no' date=' directly they cannot (that I`m aware of), but indirecty they most certainly can

 

in a medium such as gas or liquids photons can be made to "Bend" around a path to least resistance, like putting a pencil in a glass of water and seeing it bent, or a Mirage reflection off a hot road surface or desert that shows the sky on land [/quote']

Photons do not interact with an electromagnetic field (other photons). Photons do interact with a particle property called "electric charge". Of course, since most matter is made up on charged particles (protons and electrons) photons do interact with matter. But they don´t interact with electromagnetic fields.

[ElijahJones]

How is it that photons interact with electric charge?

[JohnB]

To avoid radar by a submarine is a bit difficult and i can only guess you can use polarization to not allow any wave to return to sender...

 

In the case of a stealth ship, I don't think there is any real difference where the radar signal is coming from, aircraft, ship or sub.

 

Exactly the same technology that is used on the F-117 can be used on ships or subs. (I wonder if it can be applied to land vehicles?) The interesting thing is that when the Skunkworks made a "stealth" sub, the US Navy wasn't interested. Apparently because it was all angles like the 117 and subs are supposed to be round. (It did cut the sonar returns by 99.9% though.)