Introduction:
Do you know that feeling when somebody tells you a story, and it kind of makes sense, but you don't know if its true or not? At the same it time gives you an unsettling feeling, a feeling of great concern, not quite fear but… Close.
In this time of great technological advancements like Cern, Quantum entanglement, or fusion reactors, your imagination can easily take you for a ride. The line between science fiction and reality is getting smaller everyday. Advancements in robotics are hot topics these days, you talk to Siri or Google Assistant almost everyday, and the things the military does is just plain worrisome.
The story:
There are no reliable, attributable accounts, but in most stories about 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 USS Eldridge being rendered nearly invisible, with some witnesses reporting a "greenish fog" appearing in its place. Crew members complained of severe nausea afterwards. Also, reportedly, when the ship reappeared, some sailors were embedded in the metal structures of the ship. Including one sailor who ended up on a deck one level below the one where he began and had his hand embedded in the steel hull of the ship. Some other sailors just went insane. 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. None of these allegations have been independently substantiated.
The aftermath:
Some claims tell of a second experiment in August where the USS Eldridge supposedly disappeared and reappeared in Norfolk, Virginia almost 200 miles further, where the sailors of the USS Furuseth witnessed the ship appearing out of thin air and disappearing after a couple of minutes.
Then there is the tale of research still being done to this day, multiple versions tell tales of interdimensional travel, time travel, and aliens
The story became popular since the 70’s, it is a much told story in ufologist circles, newspapers, and websites. So we couldn't stay behind, could we.
Sources:
In 1955, astronomer and UFO enthusiast Morris K. Jessup, the author of the book The Case for the UFO, received two letters from a Carlos Miguel Allende who claimed to have witnessed a secret experiment. In this experiment, Allende claimed the USS Eldridge was rendered invisible and teleported to another dimension resulting in the death of several sailors, some of whom were fused with the ship's hull. Jessup didn’t believe the story.
In early 1957, Jessup was contacted by the Office of Naval Research, who had received a parcel containing a paperback copy of The Case for the UFO marked "Happy Easter." The book had been extensively annotated in its margins. Based on the handwriting style and subject matter, Jessup concluded a large part of the writing was Allende's, and that the three styles of annotations are from the same person using three pens. The ONR funded a small printing of 100 copies, which later became known as the Varo edition. Jessup tried to publish more books on the subject of UFOs, but was unsuccessful. Losing his publisher and experiencing a downturn in his personal life led him to commit suicide in Florida on April 30, 1959.
In reality:
The logs of the USS Eldridge and the crew members tell an entirely different story, like the ship was not commissioned until August 27, 1943, and it remained in port in New York City until September 1943. Proponents of course say the files are falsified. The Us army declares also it never did experiments on radar invisibility.
In conclusion
Stories of military organisations doing secret experiments have been popular in media for a very long time. The biggest problem with the story of the philadelphia experiment is that the eyewitness send the story in the utmost secrecy to one author who wrote one book that wasn’t even that successful.
Why wouldn’t he bring the story to full scale media attention unless he feared being captured by authorities and possible disappearance. Also the multiple versions make it hard to believe, it's like everybody wants to add to the story giving it its own personal twist.
For me personally the factor that debunks the story is the military. Military leaders are ego trippers per se, and don't hesitate to use their discoveries in conflict and brag about it in media. Propaganda is by far the greatest weapon the military use. And even if it wasn't a success at all in the mentioned time period the Soviet Union stole all technology possible. And there is absolutely no mention of a soviet counterpart, and we definitely know for a fact the soviets weren't scared of a little experiment.
https://aliens-and-conspiracies.com/2018/08/25/the-philadelphia-experiment/
