The Philadelphia Experiment

views updated

The Philadelphia Experiment

Title of a 1979 book by Charles Berlitz and William Moore that investigated the rumor that a top secret U.S. Navy experiment in 1943 had succeeded in rendering a destroyer, most likely the Eldridge, and its crew temporarily invisible and tele-ported it from its berth in Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia. (The name "The Philadelphia Experiment" had earlier been used by various writers to denote the classic electrical experiments of Benjamin Franklin.)

The story of the Philadelphia Experiment stems largely from Carlos Allende (born in 1925 as Carl M. Allen). He claimed to have served as a deck hand on the S.S. Andrew Furu-seth in 1943 and to have witnessed the experiment that rendered the Eldridge invisible. In 1956 he initially communicated with Morris K. Jessup (1900-1959), author of The Case for the UFO (1955), citing the Philadelphia Experiment as rationale for Jessup to stop researching unified field theory. A short time afterward, a copy of Jessup's book with numerous annotations relative to UFOs and the Philadelphia Experiment arrived in the office of Naval Research.

In 1959, Jessup committed suicide, and the issue seemed to be closed. Then in 1963, Gray Barker published a book about Jessup and his unexpected death. In 1968 Brad Steiger and Joan Whritenour wrote a second book. Allende, angry that he had received nothing as a result of either the Barker or Steiger title, allowed L. J. Lorenzen, director of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), to interview him in 1969. He stated that his annotations on Jessup's book were part of the hoax as were his letters to Jessup. Allende subsequently told William Moore that his confession was made in the expectation of financial gain from its publications. However, he later retracted that confession. Gray Barker published a facsimile edition of Jessup's book, containing the annotations, in 1973 through his Saucerian Press.

In the face of a series of inquiries concerning the Philadelphia Experiment, on July 23, 1976, the Department of the Navy, Office of Information, Washington, D.C., stated in a letter regarding the Philadelphia Experiment (reproduced in full in Berlitz & Moore's book): "ONR [Office of Naval Research] has never conducted any investigations on invisibility, either in 1943 or at any other time…. In view of present scientific knowledge, our scientists do not believe that such an experiment could be possible except in the realm of science fiction. A scientific discovery of such import, if it had in fact occurred, could hardly remain secret for such a long time."

Berlitz and Moore revealed that Albert Einstein was employed as a scientific consultant to the U.S. Navy from May 31, 1943 to June 30, 1944, and made speculations that both Einstein and philosopher Bertrand Russell might have been involved in the Philadelphia Experiment. The Philadelphia Experience has continued to be a matter of entertainment on the fringe of the UFO community.

(See also invisibility ; teleportation )