Editing Philadelphia Experiment (section)

== Origins of the story ==

The story of a "Philadelphia Experiment" originated in late 1955 when Carl M. Allen sent an anonymous package marked "Happy Easter" containing a copy of [[Morris K. Jessup]]'s book ''The Case for the UFO: Unidentified Flying Objects'' to the U.S. [[Office of Naval Research]]. The book was filled with handwritten notes in its margins, written with three different shades of blue ink, appearing to detail a debate among three individuals, only one of whom is given a name: "Jemi". They commented on Jessup's ideas about the propulsion for [[flying saucers]], discussed [[extraterrestrial intelligence|alien races]], and expressed concern that Jessup was too close to discovering their technology.<ref name="Jessup 2003">{{cite book |title=The Case for the UFO: Unidentified Flying Objects |version=Varo Edition |author-last=Jessup |author-first=Morris K. |author-link=Morris K. Jessup |date=2003 |orig-date=1955 |location=Castelnau-Barbarens, France |publisher=Quantum Future Group  |url=https://archive.org/details/THECASEFORTHEUFOVaroEditionM.K.Jessup/ |access-date=2021-07-18 |via=The [[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>{{rp|27–29, 35, 65, 80, 102, 115, 163–165}}

The commenters referred to each other as "[[Gypsies]]", and discussed 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 elements of Jessup's [[wikt:assumption#Noun|assumptions]] in the book. There were oblique references to the Philadelphia Experiment (one commenter reassures his fellow annotators who have highlighted a certain theory which Jessup advanced).<ref name="Adams 1987">{{cite web |url=https://www.straightdope.com/21341696/did-the-u-s-navy-teleport-ships-in-the-philadelphia-experiment |title=Did the U.S. Navy teleport ships in the Philadelphia Experiment? |last=Adams |first=Cecil |author-link=Cecil Adams |website=[[The Straight Dope]] |date=1987-10-23 |access-date=2021-07-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111210101/https://www.straightdope.com/21341696/did-the-u-s-navy-teleport-ships-in-the-philadelphia-experiment |archive-date=2020-11-11}}</ref><ref name="Moseley">{{cite book |author1-last=Moseley |author1-first=James W. |author2-last=Pflock |author2-first=Karl T. |date=2002 |title=Shockingly Close to the Truth!: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist. |location=Amherst, NY |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |isbn=1573929913}}</ref>

Shortly thereafter, in January 1956, Allen began sending a series of letters to Jessup, using his given name as well as "Carlos Miguel Allende".<ref name="NHHC 1996"/><ref name="Allen 1956">{{cite web |author-last=Allen |author-first=Carl M. |date=1956 |title=The Carl Allen Letters |website=The Philadelphia Experiment From A–Z |url=https://www.de173.com/carl-allen/ |access-date=2021-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808142934/http://www.de173.com/carl-allen/ |archive-date=2016-08-08 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hochheimer">{{cite web |author-last=Hochheimer |author-first=Andrew H. |title=Carlos Miguel Allende or Carl Meredith Allen or... |website=The Philadelphia Experiment From A–Z |url=https://www.de173.com/carlos-miguel-allende-carl-allen/ |access-date=2021-07-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200520103422/https://www.de173.com/carlos-miguel-allende-carl-allen/ |archive-date=2020-05-20}}</ref> The first known letter warned Jessup not to investigate the levitation of [[unidentified flying object]]s. Allen put forward a story of dangerous science based on alleged unpublished theories by [[Albert Einstein]]. He further claimed a scientist named Franklin Reno put these theories into practice  at the [[Philadelphia Naval Shipyard]] in October 1943.<ref name="Allen 1956"/>

Allen claimed to have witnessed this experiment while serving aboard the {{SS|Andrew Furuseth}}.  In Allen's account, a destroyer escort was successfully made invisible, but the ship inexplicably teleported to [[Norfolk, Virginia]], for several minutes, and then reappeared in the Philadelphia yard.  The ship's crew was supposed to have suffered various side effects, including insanity, intangibility, and being "frozen" in place.<ref name="Allen 1956"/> When Jessup wrote back requesting more information to corroborate his story, Allen said his memory would have to be recovered<ref name="Allen 1956"/>  and referred Jessup to what seems to be a non-existent Philadelphia newspaper article that Allen claimed covered the incident.<ref name="NHHC"/><ref name="Hochheimer Newspaper Article">{{cite web |author-last=Hochheimer |author-first=Andrew H. |title=The Newspaper Article Fact or Fake |url=https://www.de173.com/news-paper-article/ |website=The Philadelphia Experiment From A–Z |access-date=2021-07-18 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210718204434/https://www.de173.com/news-paper-article/ |archive-date=2021-07-18 |url-status=live |quote=To this date (Nov/2020) no one has come forward with the exact newspaper and date the article appeared in. Not even a copy of the originally mailed clipping has appeared anywhere. I have personally searched thousands of newspaper pages and have found nothing that resembles the gist of this article }}</ref>

In 1957,<ref name="Moore 1990">{{cite book |author-last=Moore |author-first=William L. |author-link=Bill Moore (ufologist) |others=in consultation with [[Charles Berlitz|Berlitz, Charles]] |title=The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility |location=New York |publisher=Fawcett Crest; Ballantine |date=1990 |isbn=978-0449214718 |orig-date=1979 |url=https://archive.org/details/philadelphiaexp000moor/ |url-access=registration |access-date=2021-07-18 }}</ref>{{rp|67}} Jessup was invited to the Office of Naval Research where he was shown the annotated copy of his book. Jessup noticed the handwriting of the annotations resembled the letters he received from Allen.<ref name="Varo 2003">{{cite book |title=The Case for the UFO: Unidentified Flying Objects |version=Varo Edition |author-last=Jessup |author-first=Morris K. |author-link=Morris K. Jessup |date=2003 |orig-date=1955 |location=Castelnau-Barbarens, France |publisher=Quantum Future Group |contribution=Introduction |pages=8–10 |contributor=Varo Manufacturing Company |url=https://archive.org/details/THECASEFORTHEUFOVaroEditionM.K.Jessup/ |access-date=2021-07-18 |via=The [[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>{{rp|9}}  (Twelve years later, Allen would say that he authored all of the annotations in order "to scare the hell out of Jessup".)<ref name="APRO 1969">{{cite periodical |magazine=The A.P.R.O. Bulletin |publisher=[[Aerial Phenomena Research Organization]] |date=July–August 1969 |location=Tucson, Arizona |title=Allende Letters a Hoax |url=https://www.de173.com/allende-letters-a-hoax/ |pages=1,3 |url-status=live |access-date=2021-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718234027/https://www.de173.com/allende-letters-a-hoax/ |archive-date=2021-07-18 |via=The Philadelphia Experiment From A–Z}}</ref>

Two officers at ONR, Captain Sidney Sherby and Commander George W. Hoover, took a personal interest in the matter.<ref name="NHHC 1996"/><ref name="Varo 2003"/>{{rp|9}}  Hoover later explained that his duties as Special Projects Officer required him to investigate many publications and that he ultimately found nothing of substance to the alleged invisibility experiment.<ref name="Kusche 1979">{{cite magazine |author-last=Kusche |author-first=Larry |title=''The Philadelphia Experiment:Project Invisibility''. By William A. Moore in consultation with Charles Berlitz. Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1979 |department=Book Reviews |magazine=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=4 |number=1 |date=Fall 1979 |pages=58–62 |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/1979/10/the-philadelphia-experiment-project-invisibility/ |access-date=2021-07-18 }}</ref>{{rp|59}} Hoover discussed the annotations with Austin N. Stanton, president of Varo Manufacturing Corporation of Garland, Texas, during meetings about Varo's contract work for ONR.<ref name="Kusche 1979"/>{{rp|59–60}}

Stanton became so interested that Varo's office began producing [[mimeograph]]ed copies of Jessup's book with the annotations and Allen's letters, first a dozen and eventually 127 copies.<ref name="Kusche 1979"/>{{rp|59–60}}<ref name="Varo 2003"/>{{rp|9}}  These copies came to be known as the "Varo edition".<ref>{{cite magazine |author-last=Steiger |author-first=Brad |title=The Mysterious Allende Letters |pages=4–9 |magazine=The Allende Letters
|url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/56302830/the-allende-letters-1968 |access-date=2021-07-18 |publisher=Universal Publishing |location=New York |date=1968}}</ref>{{rp|6}}<ref name="Moore 1990"/>{{rp|72}}  Besides noting handwriting of the individual named "Jemi" (addressed as such by the others and using blue-violet ink),  the anonymous introduction to the Varo edition concludes that there were two other individuals making annotations, "Mr. A" (identified as Allen by Jessup, in blue ink), "Mr. B" (in blue-green ink).<ref name="Varo 2003"/>{{rp|8}}

Jessup tried to publish more books on the subject of UFOs, but was unsuccessful. He lost his publisher and experienced a succession of downturns in his personal life, and died by suicide in Florida on April 30, 1959.<ref name="Donovan 2011">{{cite book |author-last=Donovan |author-first=Barna William |date=2011 |title=Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious |page=106 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0786486151}}</ref><ref name="Bainton 2013" />

The various book writers who tried to get more information from Carl Allen found his responses elusive, or couldn't find him at all. One reporter from Allen's hometown of [[New Kensington, Pennsylvania|New Kensington]], Pennsylvania, interviewed his family and was handed a pile of documents and books, all scribbled with Allen's annotations. They described Allen as a "fantastic mind", but also a drifter and a "master leg-puller".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://windmill-slayer.tripod.com/aliascarlosallende/|title=Carlos Allende and his Philadelphia Experiment|website=windmill-slayer.tripod.com}}</ref>

===Repetitions===

In 1965 [[Vincent Gaddis]] published a book of [[Charles Fort#Fortean phenomena|Forteana]], titled ''Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea.'' In it he recounted the story of the experiment from the Varo annotations.

George E. Simpson and Neal R. Burger published a 1978 novel titled ''Thin Air.'' In this book, set in the present day, a [[Naval Criminal Investigative Service|Naval Investigative Service]] officer investigates several threads linking wartime invisibility experiments to a [[List of conspiracies (political)|conspiracy]] involving [[Teleportation|matter transmission]] technology.

Large-scale popularization of the story came about in 1979 when the author [[Charles Berlitz]], who had written a best selling book on the [[Bermuda Triangle]], and his co-author, [[ufologist]] [[Bill Moore (ufologist)|William L. Moore]], published ''The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility,'' which purported to be a factual account.<ref name="Bainton 2013">{{cite book |author-last=Bainton |author-first=Roy  |date=2013 |title=The Mammoth Book of Unexplained Phenomena: From bizarre biology to inexplicable astronomy |location=London |publisher=Robinson |page=461 |isbn=978-1780337968}}</ref> The book expanded on stories of bizarre happenings, lost [[unified field theory|unified field theories]] by [[Albert Einstein]], and government [[coverup]]s, all based on the Allende/Allen letters to Jessup.<ref name="Donovan 2011" />

Moore and Berlitz devoted one of the last chapters in ''The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility'' to "The Force Fields of Townsend Brown", namely the experimenter and then-U.S. Navy technician [[Thomas Townsend Brown]]. Paul LaViolette's 2008 book ''Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion'' also recounts some mysterious involvement of Townsend Brown.

The story was adapted into a 1984 [[time travel in fiction|time travel film]] called ''[[The Philadelphia Experiment (film)|The Philadelphia Experiment]]'', directed by [[Stewart Raffill]]. Though only loosely based on the prior accounts of the "Experiment", it served to dramatize the core elements of the original story. In 1989, Alfred Bielek claimed to have been aboard USS ''Eldridge'' during the Experiment.<ref name="Hughes 2012">{{cite book |author-last=Hughes |author-first=Kara |title=Myths and Mysteries of Pennsylvania: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained |location=Guilford, Connecticut |publisher=Globe Pequot Press |date=2012 |pages=63–65 |isbn=978-0762791064 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TEmLBAAAQBAJ |access-date=2021-07-11}}</ref>  Addressing the [[Mutual UFO Network|MUFON]] Conference in 1990, Bielek asserted that Raffill's film was largely consistent with the events he claimed to have witnessed in 1943.<ref name="Bielek 1992">{{cite web
|author-last=Bielek |author-first=Alfred |title=Al Bielek's Speech at the MUFON Conference, January 13, 1990 |website=Bielek Debunked |url=http://www.bielek-debunked.com/MUFON_Int.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001192056/http://www.bielek-debunked.com/MUFON_Int.html |archive-date=2018-10-01 |access-date=2021-07-11 |others=Transcribed by Tippen, Clay; edited by Andersen, Rick |date=October 1992 |orig-date=1990-01-13}}</ref> Bielek would later add details to his claims on radio talk shows, conferences, and the Internet.<ref>Bielek interview with Art Bell, Coast to Coast AM Radio, Phoenix, AZ, 1993</ref><ref name="Barnes, Houpt, & Schelm">{{cite web |author1-last=Barnes |author1-first=Marshall |author2-last=Houpt |author2-first=Fred |author3-last=Schelm |author3-first=Gerold   |url=http://www.bielek-debunked.com |title=Al Bielek Debunked | access-date=2021-07-11 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009201438/http://www.bielek-debunked.com/ | archive-date=2018-10-09 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

===General synopsis===
:''Note: Several different, and sometimes contradictory, versions of the alleged experiment have circulated over the years. The following synopsis recounts key story points common to most accounts.<ref name="Dash 2000"/>''

The  experiment was allegedly based on an aspect of some [[unified field theory]], a term coined by [[Albert Einstein]] to describe a class of potential theories; such theories would aim to describe&nbsp;— mathematically and physically&nbsp;— the interrelated nature of the forces of [[electromagnetism]] and [[gravitation|gravity]].

According to some accounts, unspecified "researchers" thought that a theory of this type would enable using large [[electrical generators]] to [[bend light]] around an object via [[refraction]], so that the object became completely invisible. The Navy regarded this as of military value and it sponsored the experiment.

Another unattributed 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 [[anti-gravity]], allegedly led by [[Schutzstaffel|SS]]-[[Obergruppenführer]] [[Hans Kammler]].

There are no reliable or attributed accounts, but in most accounts of the supposed experiment, USS ''Eldridge'' was fitted with the required equipment at the [[Philadelphia Naval Shipyard]]. Testing began in the summer of 1943, and it was supposedly successful to a limited extent. One test resulted in ''Eldridge'' being rendered nearly invisible with some witnesses reporting a "greenish fog" appearing in its place. Crew members complained of severe [[nausea]] afterwards.<ref name="auto">{{cite episode |title=Invisibility Cloaks |date=7 July 2009 |series=That's Impossible |series-link=That's Impossible (show) |network=[[History (U.S. TV channel)|History]] |season=1 |number=1}}</ref>

Allegedly, 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 where he began and had his hand embedded in the steel hull of the ship as well as some sailors who went "completely [[wikt:bananas#Adjective|bananas]]".<ref name="auto"/> There is also a claim the experiment was altered after that point at the request of the Navy, limiting it to creating a [[stealth technology]] that would render USS ''Eldridge'' invisible to radar.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lavers |first=Chris |date=March 2008 |title=Invisibility rules the waves |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2058-7058/21/03/30 |journal=Physics World |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=21–25 |doi=10.1088/2058-7058/21/03/30 |bibcode=2008PhyW...21c..21L |issn=0953-8585|url-access=subscription }}</ref> None of these allegations have been independently substantiated.

Other versions of the story give the date of the experiment as October 28, 1943. In this version, ''Eldridge'' not only became invisible, but disappeared from the area and [[Teleportation|teleported]] to [[Norfolk, Virginia]], over {{convert|200|mi|km}} away. It is claimed that ''Eldridge'' sat for some time in view of men aboard the ship {{SS|Andrew Furuseth}}, whereupon ''Eldridge'' vanished and then reappeared in [[Philadelphia]] at the site it had originally occupied.<ref>[https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/what-is-the-true-story-of-the-philadelphia-experiment/ What is the True Story of the Philadelphia Experiment?, Discovery Networks International, 20 May 2022]</ref><ref>https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/p/philadelphia-experiment.html Philadelphia Experiment, Naval History and Heritage Command, history.navy.mil, Published: Mon Nov 20 15:21:48 EST 2017</ref>

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, some re-materialized inside out, and still others vanished. It is also claimed that the ship's crew may have been subjected to [[brainwashing]] to maintain the secrecy of the experiment.