Time traveler: The Philadelphia Experiment

This story begins when in 1955, a letter was sent to an astronomer and writer named Morris K. Jessup. Morris The letter was signed by Carlos Miguel Allende (disguised as Carl M. Allen) who claimed to have witnessed a deadly experiment during World War II in Philadelphia that ended horribly secret by the US Navy. But what experiment is that?

In the story told by Carlos, he tells that the US government began to use the theory coined by Albert Einstein to make an electric generator that can bend light so that it can be used to make objects invisible. This of course greatly benefited the US military, which was then involved in World War II against Germany and Japan. Just imagine if they had an invisible battleship so that the enemy could not anticipate their arrival, then they could win the battle easily.

That said, the technology was tested on one of their warships, USS Eldrigde, which then anchored in the city of Philadelphia. In the first trial in the middle of the summer of 1943, the experiment was said to be successful, although it smelled of some quite disturbing side effects. SS Eldrigde managed to disappear, leaving behind what witnesses described as a greenish mist. However once they returned, the crew started reporting strange things. Many of them feel the side effects of nausea. But not only that, not a few sailors on the ship claimed to have entered another dimension, met the occupants, and even went crazy because of the trauma they saw.

Despite knowing this very disturbing side effect, the US military was determined to carry out this experiment for the second time, namely October 28, 1943, of course because of the precarious situation at that time. In this second attempt, not only did SS Eldrigde's ship become invisible, but a mysterious blue flash appeared before disappearing. Even stranger, the ship suddenly appeared or was teleported to Norfolk, Virginia, which is 320 kilometers from Philadelphia, where the experiment was carried out. In fact, the crew of the SS Andrew Furuseth, who at that time was anchored in Norfolk, claimed to have witnessed the ship before it disappeared again.

SS Eldridge suddenly appeared again in Philadelphia, but herein lies the oddity. This ship appeared 10 minutes before the crew in Norfolk saw it disappear. In other words, the ship was running in time, going back 10 minutes in time.

There are many rumors about the fate of the crew's unlucky ones. Many say their bodies suddenly joined the metal hull. Many of those who disappeared and the rest who survived, ended up going crazy.

So delicious is this conspiracy theory, of course, it stole the public's attention. Many books have been published on this conspiracy theory. Even a film called The Philadelphia Experiment was released by Hollywood in 1984. Uniquely, after the appearance of the film, a man named Alfred Bielek suddenly appeared and claimed to be one of the survivors of the Philadelphia Experiment. He also claims that the film accurately depicts what happened to him and his friends aboard SS Eldridge.

Logical Explanation? Does the Philadelphia Experiment involve time travel, is there a logical explanation behind it?

But did the Philadelphia Experiment really take place or was it just a rumor? Historians, of course, completely reject the claim that the time-travel experiment in Philadelphia ever took place. Many of them claim that the fantastic story in Philadelphia was inspired by the installation of a degaussing device on a US warship docked in a city harbor. What is degaussing?

When World War II raged, Germany developed sea mine technology that exploded when it detected a magnetic field generated by Allied warships passing overhead. To outsmart the ship, the scientists invented degaussing technology, which coils an electromagnetic coil around the ship to disguise the ship's magnetic field. However, this technology, even though it makes ships untraceable by sea mines, doesn't necessarily make ships disappear, aka invisible. Even the ship can still be tracked on radar. SS Eldrigde, who is the subject of this conspiracy theory, is also noted to be equipped with this degaussing technology.

Another reason why many people doubt the veracity of the Philadelphia Experiment is that at that time, in 1943, SS Eldridge was never in town. The ship is currently docked in New York. But of course those claims are flatly rejected by conspiracy theorists, as the US government could easily falsify port records that state the ship was in New York, not in Philadelphia, at the time.

There is another logical explanation that could explain why, if indeed the Eldridge SS was involved in a secret mission, suddenly appeared from Philadelphia to Norfolk which was hundreds of kilometers away. At that time, in the middle of the war, the US military built a canal called the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal on the Chesapeake Bay that could shorten the journey from Philadelphia to Norfolk in just a day. The existence of the channel was kept secret by the US military at that time, of course with the aim of not being overheard by the enemy.

What is clear, whether this conspiracy theory is true or not, we may never be able to confirm it, both to Morris Jessup and Carlos Allende who first spread the theory. Carlos's identity has never been identified (some say he was actually a mental hospital patient) while Morris Jessup was mysteriously found to have committed suicide on April 30, 1959. Perhaps also due to depression as a result of his writing career. refused or whether someone deliberately silenced him so he wouldn't continue to divulge their secrets.