The Philidelphia Experiment
Project Rainbow and the USS Eldridge

In July 1943, the destroyer U.S.S. Eldridge pulled into the Delaware Bay area for a United States Naval experiment that involved the task of making the ship invisible. The project's official name is Project Rainbow, but was nicknamed and more commonly known as the Philadelphia Experiment.

Much has been written and speculated about the legendary experiment into invisibilty, but sorting fact from fiction is a near impossible task, especially with the recent influx of misinformation and deliberate disinformation that has been spread by those connected to the U.S. Intelligence community and professional skeptics.

There is much controversy over what exactly happened, but one thing is for sure. For some reason, soon after the test was completed, a massive blanket of secrecy and denial was placed over what happened in Delaware Bay. It is thought that a huge scientific breakthrough was made, and the ship was accurately transported over space and time, disappearing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and reappearing in Norfolk, Virginia. Whatever did happen is still not known, but different theories are discussed below:

The "Official" Navy Record

The Navy admits that the U.S.S. Eldridge took part in an experiment that involved wrapping wire around the hull of the destroyer in an attempt to cancel out the magnetic fields of the metal on the ship. This is known as degaussing. This would render the ship "invisible" to underwater magnetic mines that rely on proximity sensors to trigger the detonation. These sensors operate by detecting magnetic fields around ships. Without the magnetic field, the ship would be able to pass through regions mined with these sensors, invisible to enemy mines, but not to radar or vision.

The Navy's report is very plausible, and doesn't mention any exotic results or circumstances. But could this just be a believable account to drop the interest by the general public, leaving only the true minority of investigators in doubt?

Physical Invisibility

Some scientists have developed the theory that the Navy was working on a way to make the ship invisible to vision. However, it didn't involve warping space time or any complex task of a similar nature. This theory suggests that the Eldridge was equipped with high frequency generators that would heat up the surrounding air to cause a mirage, making the vessel invisible.

This phenomenon is naturally occurring, and there have been cases where entire islands have disappeared from view in the right weather conditions. The high frequency generator would heat up the surrounding air and the water (creating a green-colored fog that was said to have engulfed the ship), causing a mirage to form, concealing the ship from view.

The generator would also account for the sickness (physical and mental) of the crew after the experiment. A high freqency generator can cause serious harm to a person's wellbeing, especially at close range. This is more plausible than the degaussing theory, and would also explain the crew's sick condition as a result of the test.

The main problem with these theories though, is that it doesn't explain how the U.S.S. Eldridge was seen in Norfolk, Virginia by the civilian crew of the SS Andrew Furuseth, when the ship disappeared from view in Philadelphia in a space of only about fifteen minutes. There are also details such as crewmen being fused to the hull of the ship and some not even reappearing.

Transported Across Space and Time?

The most interesting theory about the Philadelphia Experiment is that the destroyer did in fact disappear and was teleported across space and time. Supposedly, there was a great number of ingenious scientists (including Tesla and Einstein) that were taking part in the experiment. However, Nikola Tesla was supposed to dead at the time of the Naval experiment.

The theory is that light has to be bent around the ship to make it invisible. To accomplish this, the Navy wrapped the ship's circumference in wire and passed a measured current through it. This caused a huge oscillating magnet to form a magnetic field around the ship, not only bending the light, but space and time as well. The physics of the experiment are reminiscent of Einstein's Unified Field Theory that once you bend light, you are also unwittingly bending space and time as well.

The first time this experiment was undertaken, the ship didn't completely disappear, and an imprint of the hull could be seen sitting in the water. The second time, the ship totally disappeared in a green fog and was sighted in Norfolk, Virginia.

A haunting fact is that when the ship reappeared, the crew were all in a state of disorientation. Some were mentally ill, while other crewmen didn't even return. There were also crewmen that returned embedded in the hull. Later accounts arose about the crewmen, including a former crew member who was involved in a bar fight, and all the participants froze in time, as reported by a local newspaper! There were also accounts of people who were on the ship, spontaneously combusting.

The Mystery Remains

It is still not known what happened that day in 1943, mainly due to the lack of witnesses coming forth who served aboard the Eldridge. There is also no documentation available to the public which details Project Rainbow. It may have simply been a degaussing experiment. But how did the destroyer appear seconds later in Virginia? Its possible the answer will never be known, but the mystery may be solved when scientists rediscover what happened in Delaware Bay.

One of the several phases of the Philadelphia Experiment. At 0900 hours, on July 22nd, 1943, so the story goes, the power to the generators was turned on, and the massive electromagnetic fields started to build up. A greenish fog was seen to slowly envelop the ship, concealing it from view.

Then the fog itself is said to have disappeared, taking the Eldridge with it, leaving only undisturbed water where the ship had been anchored only moments before. The elite officers of the Navy and scientists involved gazed in awe at their greatest achievement: the ship and crew were not only radar invisible but invisible to the eye as well!

Everything worked as planned, and about fifteen minutes later they ordered the men to shut down the generators. The greenish fog slowly reappeared, and the Eldridge began to dematerialize as the fog subsided, but it was evident to all that something had gone wrong. When boarded by personnel from shore, the crew above deck were found to be disoriented and nauseous. The Navy removed the crew, and shortly after obtained another.

In the end, the Navy decided that they only wanted radar invisibility, and the equipment was altered. On the 28th of October in 1943, at 17:15, the final test on the Eldridge was performed. The electromagnetic field generators were turned on again, and the Eldridge became near-invisible; only a faint outline of the hull remained visible in the water. Everything was fine for the first few seconds, and then, in a blinding blue flash, the ship completely vanished. Within seconds it reappeared miles away, in Norfolk, Virginia, and was seen for several minutes.

The Eldridge then disappeared from Norfolk as mysteriously as it had arrived, and reappeared back in Philadelphia Naval Yard. This time most of the sailors were violently sick. Some of the crew were simply 'missing' never to return. Some went crazy, but, strangest of all, five men were fused to the metal in the ship's structure. The men that survived were never the same again. Those that lived were discharged as 'mentally unfit' for duty, regardless of their true condition. So, what had begun as an experiment in electronic camouflage, ended up as an accidental teleportation of an entire ship and crew, to a distant location and back again, all in a matter of minutes!

Although the above may seem fantastic, one must remember, that in the 1940’s the atomic bomb was also being invented

This conspiracy theory creeps me out the most...

Apparently the show 'Event Horizon' somehow got its idea from here...

*shudders*

I think i read somewhere abt that before...
the version i read was abit far-fetched though... coz it claimed that some of the crew came back with the body parts in wrong places... -_-"


Any more stories?

Sounds like the Chronosphere from Red Alert became reality? I'm waiting the the Iron Curtain Project.

Originally posted by ditzy:

Sounds like the Chronosphere from Red Alert became reality? I'm waiting the the Iron Curtain Project.

Whoa, fellow C & C fan?
Me too, playing Generals now, no money to buy Zero Hour

i read somewhere that everyone who was "teleported" eventually committed suicide..

this is one of the creepiest things i have ever read...

Originally posted by ditzy:

Sounds like the Chronosphere from Red Alert became reality? I'm waiting the the Iron Curtain Project.

wonder if theres ion cannon

Originally posted by BrUtUs:

wonder if theres ion cannon

Have lah. Not time to show it off yet.

Originally posted by laurence82:

Whoa, fellow C & C fan?
Me too, playing Generals now, no money to buy Zero Hour

I played every game in the RA series, expansions, you name it. Generals kinda sucky. I play China so i can hear them go 'Nationalism will bring us victory!'. Its a laugh.

Remember one video clip in Red Alert that shows a battlecruiser being zapped by Chronosphere. I think its also called the Philidelphia Exp, and copy the one of the same name.

But, it wouldnt be surprising if US has already done all these experiments.....

Originally posted by laurence82:

Remember one video clip in Red Alert that shows a battlecruiser being zapped by Chronosphere. I think its also called the Philidelphia Exp, and copy the one of the same name.

But, it wouldnt be surprising if US has already done all these experiments.....

Yeah, spooky...

So did Einstein really shake hands with Hitler?

Originally posted by laurence82:

Remember one video clip in Red Alert that shows a battlecruiser being zapped by Chronosphere. I think its also called the Philidelphia Exp, and copy the one of the same name.

But, it wouldnt be surprising if US has already done all these experiments.....

yup, its oso called the philly exp...
hate the chronosphere, everytime must defend it...

...

that's crap. it's fiction thought up by westwood studios to spice up the Red Alert story and support the chronosphere and tesla coil technologies. i dont find it in any literature outside the RA storyline, and it sounds too fantastic to be true... so i never believed it.

to accept the story just about means u accept that there really is a chronosphere and tank-killing tesla coils in real life. nice, but sadly fictional.

Originally posted by wd1:

that's crap. it's fiction thought up by westwood studios to spice up the Red Alert story and support the chronosphere and tesla coil technologies. i dont find it in any literature outside the RA storyline, and it sounds too fantastic to be true... so i never believed it.

to accept the story just about means u accept that there really is a chronosphere and tank-killing tesla coils in real life. nice, but sadly fictional.

Of course we know its crap, but it will not be surprising if it does happen. Sciences, in fact, the human minds work in such a way it can do amaze us sometimes.

Originally posted by wd1:

that's crap. it's fiction thought up by westwood studios to spice up the Red Alert story and support the chronosphere and tesla coil technologies. i dont find it in any literature outside the RA storyline, and it sounds too fantastic to be true... so i never believed it.

to accept the story just about means u accept that there really is a chronosphere and tank-killing tesla coils in real life. nice, but sadly fictional.

Talking about the Tesla Coils, you just reminded me of my fave Obelisk of Light.

Originally posted by ditzy:

Talking about the Tesla Coils, you just reminded me of my fave Obelisk of Light.

Whoa, my fave now is .....Aurora Bomber mauahhaha

Originally posted by laurence82:

Whoa, my fave now is .....Aurora Bomber mauahhaha

Geez, those things fly slower when they're not loaded. Huh?

creepy!!!

Originally posted by wd1:

that's crap. it's fiction thought up by westwood studios to spice up the Red Alert story and support the chronosphere and tesla coil technologies. i dont find it in any literature outside the RA storyline, and it sounds too fantastic to be true... so i never believed it.

to accept the story just about means u accept that there really is a chronosphere and tank-killing tesla coils in real life. nice, but sadly fictional.

i think its a bit too much for a story by a game company.

and there is outside literature on the philidelphia project.

Originally posted by the Bear:

i read somewhere that everyone who was "teleported" eventually committed suicide..

this is one of the creepiest things i have ever read...

commited suicide, yeah, but embedded into the ship's hull?!?!?!?

it is said tt einstein was involved in the experiment…

i remember reading about this b4 the original C&C was ever launched. and i believe this is real. its damn spooky. esp wad happened to e crew... *shiver*

wonder if e crew are still alive today and can be contacted?

Didn’t they make a movie about it back in the 70’s or 80’s?