The
Philadelphia Experiment was an alleged naval military experiment at the
Philadelphia Naval ShipyardThe Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on 30 September 1995...
in
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...
, sometime around October 28, 1943, in which the U.S. Navy
destroyer escortA Destroyer Escort is the classification for a small, slow warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II...
USS EldridgeUSS Eldridge , a , was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for John Eldridge, Jr., a hero of the invasion of the Solomon Islands. Its keel was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newark, New Jersey. Eldridge was launched on 25 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs...
was to be rendered
invisibleInvisibility is the state of an object which cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be Invisible . The term is usually used as a fantasy/science fiction term, where objects are literally made unseeable by magical or technological means; however, its effects can also be seen in the real...
(i.e.
cloakedA cloaking device is an advanced stealth technology that causes an object, such as a spaceship or individual, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
) to human observers for a brief period of time. That is also referred to sometimes as "
Project RainbowProject Rainbow was the name given by the CIA to a research project aimed at reducing the radar cross section of the Lockheed U-2 to reduce the chance that it would be detected and tracked by Soviet radars during its overflights of the USSR.-Early Flights:...
".
The story is widely regarded as a hoax, while the U.S. Navy maintains that no such experiment occurred, and details of the story contradict well-established facts about the
Eldridge. It has nonetheless caused ripples in
conspiracy theoryConspiracy theory is a term that originally was a neutral descriptor for any conspiracy claim. However, it has come almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful Machiavellian conspirators.Conspiracy...
circles, and elements of the Philadelphia Experiment are featured in other government conspiracy theories.
Synopsis
Several different and sometimes contradictory versions of the so-called "experiment" have circulated over the years. The following synopsis illustrates key story points common to most accounts.
The experiment was allegedly based on an aspect of the
unified field theoryIn physics, a unified field theory is a type of field theory that allows all of the fundamental forces between elementary particles to be written in terms of a single field. There is no accepted unified field theory yet, and this remains an open line of research. The term was coined by Albert...
, a term coined by
EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
. The Unified Field Theory aims to mathematically and physically describe the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise
electromagnetic radiationElectromagnetic radiation is a ubiquitous phenomenon that takes the form of self-propagating waves in a vacuum or in matter. It consists of electric and magnetic field components which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to the direction of energy propagation...
and
gravityGravitation is a natural phenomenon by which objects with mass attract one another. In everyday life, gravitation is most commonly thought of as the agency which lends weight to objects with mass. Gravitation causes dispersed matter to coalesce, thus accounting for the existence of the Earth, the...
, although to date, no single theory has successfully expressed these relationships in viable mathematical or physical terms.
According to the accounts, it was believed that some version of this Unified Field Theory would enable the Navy to use large electrical generators to bend light around an object so that it became essentially invisible. The Navy would have regarded this as being of obvious military value, and according to the accounts, subsequently it sponsored the experiment.
Another version of the story proposes that researchers were preparing magnetic and gravitational measurements of the seafloor to detect anomalies, supposedly based on Einstein's attempts to understand gravity. In this version there were also related secret experiments in Nazi Germany to find antigravity, allegedly led by
SSThe , abbreviated SS- or - was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to a powerful force that served as the Führer's "Praetorian Guard," the Nazi Party's "Shield Squadron" and a force that, fielding almost a million men ,...
-
ObergruppenführerObergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA and until 1942 it was the highest SS rank inferior only to Reichsführer-SS...
Hans KammlerGeneral Dr Ing. Hans Friedrich Karl Franz Kammler was a civil engineer and high-ranking officer of the SS...
.
In most accounts of the experiment, the destroyer escort
USS Eldridge, was fitted with the required equipment at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. Testing began in the summer of 1943, and it was supposedly successful to a limited degree. One test, on July 22, 1943, resulted in the
Eldridge being rendered almost completely invisible, with some witnesses reporting a "greenish fog" appearing in its place. However, crew members supposedly complained of severe nausea afterwards. Also, it is said that when the ship reappeared, some sailors were embedded in the metal structures of the ship, including one sailor who ended up on a deck level below that where he began, and had his hand embedded in the steel hull of the ship. At that point, it is said that the experiment was altered at the request of the Navy, with the new objective being solely to render the
Eldridge invisible to radar. None of these allegations have been independently substantiated to any satisfactory degree.
The conjecture then alleges that the equipment was not properly re-calibrated, but in spite of this, the experiment was repeated on October 28, 1943. This time, the
Eldridge not only became invisible, but she physically vanished from the area in a flash of blue light and
teleportedTeleportation is supposed to be the transfer of matter from one point to another, more or less instantaneously, either by paranormal means or through technological means. Teleportation has been widely utilized in works of science fiction...
to
Norfolk, VirginiaNorfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 234,403 as of the 2000 census, it is Virginia's second-largest incorporated city behind its eastern neighbor, Virginia Beach....
, over 200 miles away. It is claimed that the
Eldridge sat for some time in full view of men aboard the ship
SS Furuseth, whereupon the
Eldridge vanished from their sight, and then reappeared in Philadelphia at the site it had originally occupied. It was also said that the warship travelled back in time for about 10 seconds.
Many versions of the tale include descriptions of serious side effects for the crew. Some crew members were said to have been physically fused to bulkheads, while others suffered from mental disorders, and still others supposedly simply vanished. It is also claimed that the ship's crew may have been subjected to brainwashing, in order to maintain the secrecy of the "Experiment"
Morris Jessup and Carlos Miguel Allende
In 1955,
Morris K. JessupMorris Ketchum Jessup , had a Master of Science Degree in astronomy and, though employed for most of his life as an automobile-parts salesman and a photographer, is probably best remembered for his pioneering ufological writings and his role in "uncovering" the so-called "Philadelphia...
, an amateur astronomer and former graduate-level researcher, published
The Case for the UFO, a book about
unidentified flying objectUnidentified flying object is the popular term for any aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified...
s that contains some theorizing about the different means of propulsion that flying-saucer-style UFOs might use. Jessup speculated that antigravity or the manipulation of electromagnetism may be responsible for the observed flight behavior of UFOs. He lamented, both in the book and during the publicity tour that followed, that
space flightSpacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. There are many different methods. Each method has drawbacks and advantages, and spacecraft propulsion is an active area of research. However, most spacecraft today are propelled by exhausting a gas from the...
research was concentrated in the area of rocketry, and that little attention had been paid to other theoretical means of flight, which he felt might ultimately be more fruitful. Jessup emphasized that a breakthrough revision of Albert Einstein's "Unified Field Theory" would be critical in powering a future generation of spacecraft.
On January 13, 1955, Jessup received a letter from a man who identified himself as one "Carlos Allende". In the letter, Allende informed Jessup of the "Philadelphia Experiment", alluding to two poorly sourced contemporary newspaper articles as proof. Allende directly responded to Jessup's call for research on the "Unified Field Theory", which he referred to as "UFT". According to Allende, Einstein had solved the theory, but had suppressed it, since mankind was not ready for it -- a confession that the scientist allegedly shared with the mathematician and philosopher
Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was an English philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. Although he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the...
. Allende also said that he had witnessed the
Eldridge disappear and reappear while serving aboard the , a nearby merchant ship. Allende further named other crew members with whom he served aboard the
Andrew Furuseth, and claimed to know the fate of some of the crew members of the
Eldridge after the experiment, including one whom he witnessed disappearing during a chaotic fight in a bar. Although Allende claimed to have observed the experiment while on the
Andrew Furuseth, he provided no substantiation of his other claims linking the experiment with the Unified Field Theory, no evidence of Einstein's alleged resolution of the theory, and no proof of Einstein's alleged private confession to Russell.
Jessup replied to Allende by a postcard, asking for further evidence and corroboration.
The reply to that came months later. However, this time the correspondent identified himself as "Carl M. Allen". Allen said that he could not provide the details for which Jessup was asking, but he implied that he might be able to recall some by means of
hypnosisHypnosis is a mental state or set of attitudes usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a series of preliminary instructions and suggestions. Hypnotic suggestions may be delivered by a hypnotist in the presence of the subject, or may be...
. Suspecting that Allende / Allen was a fraud, Jessup discontinued the correspondence.
It has been claimed that Jessup's use of a postcard in responding to Allende publicized their correspondence. This possibility, some theorists consider, was plausible cause for the Government to intervene, disrupting the conversation by replacing Allende with Allen, who was possibly a CIA agent monitoring Allende's inbound mail. This theory is quite suspect for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that neither domestic intelligence nor communications monitoring within the United States are within the purview of the CIA. More importantly, Allende has been accessible to the community of "Philadelphia Experiment" researchers for years, discounting any alleged intervention by the Government.
The Office of Naval Research and the Varo annotation
In early 1957, Jessup was contacted by the
Office of Naval ResearchThe Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...
(ONR) in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, and was asked to study the contents of a parcel that it had received. Upon his arrival, Mr. Jessup was astonished to find that a paperback copy of his UFO book had been mailed to the ONR in a manila envelope marked "Happy Easter." Furthermore, the book had been extensively annotated by hand in its margins, and an ONR officer asked Jessup if he had any idea as to who had done so.
The lengthy annotations were written with three different colors of ink, and they appeared to detail a correspondence among three individuals, only one of which is given a name: "Jemi". The ONR labelled the other two "Mr A." and "Mr B." The annotators refer to each other as "Gypsies," and discuss two different types of "people" living in outer space. Their text contained non-standard use of capitalization and punctuation, and detailed a lengthy discussion of the merits of various suppositions that Jessup makes throughout his book, with oblique references to the Philadelphia Experiment, in a way that suggested prior or superior knowledge (for example, "Mr B." reassures his fellow annotators, who have highlighted a certain theory of Jessup’s).
Based on the handwriting style and subject matter, Jessup identified "Mr A." as Allende / Allen. Others have suggested that the three annotations are actually from the same person, using three pens.
The annotated book sparked such interest that the ONR funded a small printing of the volume by the Texas-based Varo Manufacturing Company. A 2003 transcription of the annotated "Varo edition" is available online, complete with three-color notes.
Later, the ONR contacted Jessup, claiming that the return address on Allende's letter to Jessup was an abandoned farmhouse. They also informed Jessup that the Varo Corporation, a research firm, was preparing a print copy of the annotated version of
The Case for the UFO, complete with both letters he had received. About a hundred copies of the Varo Edition were printed and distributed within the Navy. Jessup was also sent three for his own use.
Jessup attempted to make a living writing on the topic, but his follow-up book did not sell well, and his publisher rejected several other manuscripts. In 1958, his wife left him, and his friends described him as being depressed and somewhat unstable when he travelled to New York. After returning to Florida, he was involved in a serious car accident and was slow to recover, apparently increasing his despondency. He committed suicide in 1959.
Resurfacing via literature
In 1963,
Vincent GaddisVincent Hayes Gaddis was an American author who coined the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" in a February 1964 Argosy cover piece. He popularized many stories about anomalous phenomena in a style similar to that of Charles Fort.Gaddis was born in Ohio to Tilden H. and Alice M. Gaddis. He married...
published
Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea, in which the story of the experiment from the Varo annotation is recounted. Later, In 1978, the writers George E. Simpson and Neal R. Burger released a novel called
Thin AirThin Air is British singer-songwriter Peter Hammill's 30th solo album, released on his own Fie! Records label in June 2009. It was additionally made available as digital download through Burning Shed Records....
. While leaning heavily on known lore of the "Philadelphia Experiment",
Thin Air is simply a thriller with no pretension of telling a true story. In the tale set in the present day, a Naval Investigative Service officer investigates several threads linking wartime invisibility experiments to a conspiracy involving teleportation technology. In 1979,
Charles BerlitzCharles Frambach Berlitz was a linguist and language teacher known for his books on anomalous phenomena, as well as his language-learning courses...
and his co-author, William L. Moore, published
The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility, the best-known and most-cited source of information about the "Experiment" to date. More recently Simon R. Green included the myth in his book
The Spy Who Haunted Me. Paul Violette's book
Secrets of Anti-Gravity Propulsion recounts some mysterious involvement of the physicist
Thomas Townsend BrownThomas Townsend Brown was an American physicist.-Early and middle years:Brown was born in Zanesville, Ohio; his parents were Lewis K. and Mary Townsend Brown. In 1921, Brown discovered what was later called the Biefeld-Brown effect while experimenting with a Coolidge X-ray tube. This is a vacuum...
of the Philadelphia Navy yard.
Hollywood interpretation and the Bielek testimony
In 1984, the story was adapted into a motion picture,
The Philadelphia ExperimentThe Philadelphia Experiment is a 1984 science fiction film. It was directed by Stewart Raffill and starred Michael Paré, Bobby Di Cicco, Nancy Allen, and Eric Christmas....
, directed by
Stewart RaffillStewart Raffill is an American director and writer of many films. He has directed many cult hits and family films.Raffill's The Philadelphia Experiment, won the "Best Film" award of the 1985 Fantafestival. While You Were Waiting, won the Silver Award in the Short Dramatic category of the 2002...
. Though based only loosely on the prior accounts of the "Experiment", it served to bring the core elements of the original story into mainstream scrutiny.
In 1990, Alfred Bielek, a self-proclaimed former crew-member of the USS
Eldridge and an alleged witness of the "Experiment", supported the version as it was portrayed in the movie, adding embellishments which were disseminated via the Internet, eventually percolating into various mainstream outlets. In 2003, Bielek's version of his participation in the "Philadelphia Experiment" was debunked by a small team of investigators, including the American Marshall Barnes, the Canadian Fred Houpt, and the German Gerold Schelm. Their consensus was that Bielek was nowhere near the ship at the proposed time of the experiment.
There is also a reference to the "Philadelphia Experiment" in the horror/action movie
Outpost- Production :The film was produced by Scottish couple Arabella Croft and Kieran Parker and their production company Black Camel Pictures. They mortgaged their Glasgow home in order to raise £200,000 to finance production...
in which the Nazi Germans were supposedly conducting similar tests on soldiers.
Evidence
Research into the supposed "Experiment" has revealed many contradictions and inconsistencies. In addition, no scientific support for the described phenomena or the purported events exists.
Evidence and research
Many observers argue that it is inappropriate to grant much credence to an unusual story promoted by one individual, in the absence of more conclusive corroborating evidence. An article written by Robert Goerman for
Fate magazine in 1980, determined that "Carlos Allende" / "Carl Allen" was in fact Carl Meredith Allen of
New Kensington, PennsylvaniaNew Kensington is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania situated along the Allegheny River northeast of Pittsburgh. The population was 14,701 at the 2000 Census. The mayor of New Kensington is Frank E. Link , elected in 2001.-History:...
, who had an established history of psychiatric illness, and who may have fabricated the primary history of the experiment as a result of his mental illness. Some sources indicate that Allen was a known prankster, and that the "Philadelphia Experiment" story may have been an elaborate hoax.
The historian
Mike DashMike Dash is a Welsh writer, historian and researcher. He is best known for his books and articles looking at unusual historical events, anomalous phenomena, and strange beliefs.-Biography:...
notes that many authors who publicized the "Philadelphia Experiment" story after Jessup did seemed to have conducted little or no research of their own: through the late 1970s, for example, Allende / Allen was often described as mysterious and difficult to locate. But after only a few telephone calls, Goerman was able to determine Allende / Allen's true identity. Others speculate that much of the key literature emphasizes dramatic embellishment rather than pertinent research. Though Berlitz and Moore's famous account of the story (
The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility) contained much supposedly factual information, such as transcripts of an interview with a scientist involved in the experiment, their work has also been criticised for
plagiarisingPlagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered...
key story elements from the fictitious novel
Thin Air which was published a year earlier. It is argued that this undermines the credibility of the text as a whole.
Scientific aspects
No fully-developed Unified Field Theory currently exists or ever has existed, although it is still a subject of ongoing research. William Moore's book on the so-called "Philadelphia Experiment" claims that Albert Einstein completed, and subsequently destroyed, a theory before his death.
Also, shortly before his death in 1943,
Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th...
supposedly claimed to have completed some kind of a "Unified Field Theory". It was never published.
While very limited "invisibility cloaks" have recently been developed using
metamaterialMetamaterials are artificial materials engineered to provide properties which "may not be readily available in nature". These materials usually gain their properties from structure rather than composition, using the inclusion of small inhomogeneities to enact effective macroscopic behavior.The...
, these are unrelated to theories linking electromagnetism with gravity.
Timeline inconsistencies
The USS
Eldridge was not commissioned until August 27, 1943, and she remained in port in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
until September 1943. The October experiment allegedly took place while the ship was on her first shakedown cruise in the Bahamas, although proponents of the story claim that the ship's logs might have been falsified, or else still be classified.
The
Office of Naval ResearchThe Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...
(ONR) stated in September 1996 that "ONR has never conducted investigations on radar invisibility, either in 1943 or at any other time". Pointing out that the ONR was not established until 1946, it denounces the accounts of the Philadelphia Experiment as complete "science fiction".
A reunion of navy veterans who had served aboard the USS
Eldridge told a Philadelphia newspaper in April 1999 that their ship had never made port in Philadelphia. Further evidence discounting the Philadelphia Experiment timeline comes from the USS
Eldridge’s complete World War II action report, including the remarks section of the 1943 deck log, available on microfilm.
Alternative explanations
Researcher
Jacques ValléeJacques F. Vallée, , is a French-born venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer. He currently resides in San Francisco, California in the United States. Jacques F. Vallée, (born September 24, 1939, Pontoise, France), is a French-born venture capitalist,...
describes a procedure on board the , which was docked alongside the
Eldridge in 1943. The operation involved the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field on board the ship in order to
degaussDegaussing is the process of decreasing or eliminating an unwanted magnetic field. It is named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, an early researcher in the field of magnetism...
it, with the goal of rendering the ship undetectable or "invisible" to magnetically-fused undersea
minesA naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of or contact with an enemy ship...
and
torpedoThe modern torpedo is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target...
es. This system was invented by a Canadian, and the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
and other navies used it widely during the Second World War. British ships of the era often included such degaussing systems built into the upper decks (the conduits are still visible on the deck of the in London, for example). Degaussing is still used today. However, it has absolutely no effect on visible light or radar. Vallée speculates that accounts of the USS
Engstrom’s degaussing might have been garbled and confabulated in subsequent retellings, and that these accounts may have influenced the story of the so-called "Philadelphia Experiment".
According to Vallée, a Navy veteran who served on board the USS
Engstrom noted that the
Eldridge might indeed have travelled from Philadelphia to Norfolk and back again in a single day at a time when merchant ships could not: by use of the
Chesapeake and Delaware CanalThe Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is a 14-mile long, 450-foot wide and 40-foot deep ship canal that cuts across the states of Maryland and Delaware, in the United States. It connects the waters of the Delaware River with those of the Chesapeake Bay and the Port of Baltimore...
and the
Chesapeake BayThe Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's watershed covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia...
, which at the time was open only to naval vessels. Use of that channel was kept quiet: German submarines had ravaged shipping along the East Coast during Operation Drumbeat, and thus military ships unable to protect themselves were secretly moved via canals to avoid the threat. It should be noted that this same veteran claims to be the man that Allende witnessed “disappearing” at a bar. He claims that when the fight broke out, friendly barmaids whisked him out the back door of the bar before the police arrived, because he was under age for drinking. They then covered for him by claiming that he had disappeared.
Cultural references
The Philadelphia Experiment, its results, and the potential of the technology involved have been the subject of many books, films, soundtracks, and video games.
Television
The Philadelphia Experiment has been the subject of several television shows dealing with the paranormal and with conspiracy theories, including
The Unexplained, a series produced by
Bill KurtisBill Kurtis is a television journalist, producer, former CBS News anchor and current host of A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files...
on the
Arts and Entertainment NetworkA&E is a cable and satellite television network with headquarters in Manhattan and offices in Stamford, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. A&E stands for Arts & Entertainment, which, for many years, was in the channel's full title...
(A&E). One episode of
The History Channel'sHistory, formerly known as The History Channel, is an international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts programs regarding historical events and persons, as well as various metaphysical, pseudoscientific, and paranormal phenomena—-often with observations and explanations by noted...
History's MysteriesHistory's Mysteries was a U.S. documentary television series on the History Channel, hosted by Arthur Kent, and narrated by David Ackroyd.-Overview:...
discusses the theory. A similar story also ran on the show
Unsolved MysteriesUnsolved Mysteries was an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until his death in 2003, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
which originally aired on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
and is now occasionally seen on Lifetime Network. The Philadelphia Experiment was also featured in the
The X-FilesThe X-Files is an American cult science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. It first aired in September 1993 and ended in May 2002...
episode "Død Kalm" (episode 19 from season 2).
The Philadelphia Experiment may have been alluded to in an episode of
Star Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next Generation is a science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Created about 21 years after the original Star Trek, and set in the 24th century about 80 years after the orginal series, the program features a new crew and a new...
titled "
The Pegasus"The Pegasus" is the 164th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the 12th episode of the show's seventh season...
".
In 2005 director Bryan Singer (
X-Men 1 & 2,
Superman Returns) helped write and produce the television mini-series
The Triangle, in which the Philadelphia Experiment is the main cause behind the creation of the
Bermuda TriangleThe Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels are alleged to have mysteriously disappeared and cannot be explained as human error, piracy, equipment failure, or natural disasters...
.
Literature
In "Green Fire" (1998), a collaborative novella by
Eileen GunnEileen Gunn is a science fiction author and editor based in Seattle, Washington, who began publishing in 1978....
,
Michael SwanwickMichael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s.- Biography :...
, Pat Murphy, and
Andy DuncanAndy Duncan is an award-winning American science fiction and fantasy writer whose work frequently deals with Southern themes. He was born in Batesburg, South Carolina in 1964. He graduated from high school from W. W...
, the science fiction writers
Robert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's...
,
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
, and
L. Sprague De CampLyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography...
, along with
Grace HopperRear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Naval officer. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and she developed the first compiler for a computer programming language...
, take part in the Philadelphia Experiment, with the assistance of
Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th...
and the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
deityA deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
QuetzalcoatlQuetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and has the meaning of "feathered-serpent".The worship of a feathered serpent deity is first documented in Teotihuacan in the Late Preclassic through the Early Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology - "Teotihuacan...
.
The Philadelphia Experiment is prominent in the book
Sarah's Landing by Elena Dorothy Bowman.
As noted above, the 1977 novel
Thin Air by George Eaton Simpson and Neal R. Burger is based on the Philadelphia Experiment.
The
William S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life...
novel
Cities of the Red NightCities of the Red Night is a novel by William S. Burroughs. It was the first book in the final trilogy of the beat author, and was first published in 1981. This was his first full-length novel since The Wild Boys a decade earlier. It is the first in a trilogy and is followed by The Place of Dead...
treats the experiment as a backdrop for a narrative taking place in non-linear time.
The Simon R. Green novel
The Spy who Haunted Me explains the experiment as an interaction between the anti-radar technology and an ancient portal between our world and the world of the Fae. The ship entered this other world and were tortured by the elves until they managed to escape back through the doorway, appearing at the same moment they had left.
See also
- Andrew Furuseth
Andrew Furuseth of Romedal, Norway was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. Furuseth was active in the formation of two influential maritime unions: the Sailors' Union of the Pacific and the International Seamen's Union, and served as the executive of both for decades.Furuseth was...
, namesake of the S.S. Andrew Furuseth
- Morris K. Jessup
Morris Ketchum Jessup , had a Master of Science Degree in astronomy and, though employed for most of his life as an automobile-parts salesman and a photographer, is probably best remembered for his pioneering ufological writings and his role in "uncovering" the so-called "Philadelphia...
- Camp Hero
- List of conspiracy theories
- John Hutchison
John Hutchison is a Canadian inventor known for his claims of inventions and discoveries of a variety of extraordinary phenomena, which other researchers - and often Hutchison himself - have been unable to duplicate....
- Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American singer, songwriter, poet, writer and filmmaker. He was best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock music history. He was also the author of several books of poetry ...
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