The Philadelphia Experiment is a supposed secret experiment conducted by the U.S. Navy at the Philadelphia Naval Yards at Philadelphia, on or before October 28, 1943, which went horribly awry. The experiment was allegedly conducted by one Dr. Franklin Reno as a military application of Albert Einstein's unified field theory, or generalized theory of gravitation. The theory, postulates the interrelatedness of the forces which comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity. Through a special application of the theory, it was thought to be possible, with specialized equipment and enough energy, to bend light around an object, rendering it essentially invisible. The Navy considered this application to be of obvious value in wartime and approved and sponsored the experiment. A Navy destroyer, the USS Eldridge, was fitted with the required generator equipment at the Naval Yards in Philadelphia. Testing began in the summer of 1943, and was initially successful to a limited degree. One test, on July 22, 1943, resulted in the Eldridge being rendered almost completely invisible, with some eyewitnesses reporting a greenish fog. However, crew members complained of serious nausea afterwards. At that point, the experiment was altered by the request of the Navy, with the new goal being invisibility to radar only. Equipment was recalibrated, and the experiment was performed again on October 28. This time, the Eldridge not only actually became almost entirely invisible to the naked eye, but actually vanished from the area entirely in a flash of blue light.
Concurrent with this phenomenon, the U.S. Naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, just over 600 km away, reported sighting the Eldridge offshore for several minutes, at the end of which time the Eldridge vanished again and reappeared in Philadelphia, at the site it had originally occupied - an accidental case of supposed teleportation. The physiological effects on the crew were profound. Almost all of the crew were violently ill. Some suffered from mental illness because of the experience, behavior conforming to schizophrenia is described in some accounts. Still other members were missing, supposedly vanished and allegedly, five of the crew were actually fused to the metal bulkhead or deck of the ship. Horrified, Navy officials immediately cancelled the experiment. All of the surviving crew involved were discharged; in some cases, brainwashing was used to make crew members forget about the details of their experience.
Concurrent with this phenomenon, the U.S. Naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, just over 600 km away, reported sighting the Eldridge offshore for several minutes, at the end of which time the Eldridge vanished again and reappeared in Philadelphia, at the site it had originally occupied - an accidental case of supposed teleportation. The physiological effects on the crew were profound. Almost all of the crew were violently ill. Some suffered from mental illness because of the experience, behavior conforming to schizophrenia is described in some accounts. Still other members were missing, supposedly vanished and allegedly, five of the crew were actually fused to the metal bulkhead or deck of the ship. Horrified, Navy officials immediately cancelled the experiment. All of the surviving crew involved were discharged; in some cases, brainwashing was used to make crew members forget about the details of their experience.