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This Is the Truth Behind WWII’s Creepy Philadelphia Experiment

As military urban legends go, the Philadelphia Experiment is one of the creepiest and most grotesque ever. It alleges that there was a secret U.S. Navy experiment on the USS Eldridge during World War II and claims the ship was made invisible or "cloaked" to radar and even teleported or time-traveled.

Originating from claims by Carl M. Allen and Morris K. Jessup in the 1950s, proposed explanations include mistaken identity, misinterpretation of real experiments, and fabrication for entertainment.

It has endured as an infamous WWII conspiracy theory. But is there any truth to it? Let's take a look.

According to legend, on Oct. 28, 1943, the USS Eldridge, a Cannon-class destroyer escort, was conducting top-secret experiments designed to win command of the oceans against the Axis powers. The rumor was that the government was creating technology that would render naval ships invisible to enemy radar, and there in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, it was time to test it out.

Witnesses claim an eerie green-blue glow surrounded the hull of the ship as her generators spun up and then, suddenly, the Eldridge disappeared. The ship was then seen in Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia before disappearing again and reappearing back in Philadelphia.

The legend states that classified military documents reported that the Eldridge crew were affected by the events in disturbing ways . Some went insane. Others developed mysterious illness. But others still were said to have been fused together with the ship; still alive, but with limbs sealed to the metal.

That'll give you nightmares. That's some “Event Horizon” sh*t right there.

Which is actually a convincing reason why the Eldridge's story gained so much momentum.

In a 1994 article for the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Jacques F. Vallee theorized that deep-seated imagery is key to planting a hoax into the minds of the masses and of the educated public .

But before we break down what really happened that day, let's talk about the man behind the myth: Carl M. Allen, who went by the pseudonym Carlos Miguel Allende. In 1956, Allende sent a series of letters to Morris K. Jessup, author of the book “The Case for the UFO,” in which he argued that unidentified flying objects merit further study.

Jessup apparently included text about unified field theory because this is what Allende latched onto for his correspondences. In the 1950s, unified field theory, which has never been proven, attempted to merge Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity with electromagnetism. In fact, Allende claimed to have been taught by Einstein himself and could prove the unified field theory based on events he witnessed on Oct. 28, 1943.

Allende claimed that he saw the Eldridge disappear from the Philadelphia Naval Yard, and he further insisted that the United States military had conducted what he called the Philadelphia Experiment — and was trying to cover it up.

Jessup was then contacted by the Navy's Office of Naval Research , which had received a package containing Jessup's book with annotations claiming that extraterrestrial technology allowed the U.S. government to make breakthroughs in unified field theory.

This is one of the weirdest details. The annotations were designed to look like they were written by three different authors -- one maybe extraterrestrial? According to Vallee's article for the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Jessup became obsessed with Allende's revelations, and the disturbed researcher took his own life in 1959. It wasn't until 1980 that proof of Allende's forgery was made available.

Inexplicably, two ONR officers had 127 copies of the annotated text printed and privately distributed by the military contractor Varo Manufacturing, giving wings to Allende's story long after Jessup's death.

So what really happened aboard the USS Eldridge that day?

According to Edward Dudgeon, who served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Engstrom, which was dry-docked in the Philadelphia Naval Yard while the Eldridge was, both ships did have classified devices on board. They were neither invisibility cloaks nor teleportation drives designed by aliens, but instead, they scrambled the magnetic signatures of ships using the degaussing technique, which provided protection from magnetic torpedoes aboard U-boats.

How Stuff Works suggested that the "green glow" reported by witnesses that day could be explained by an electric storm or St. Elmo's Fire, which, in addition to being an American coming-of-age film starring the Brat Pack, is a weather phenomenon in which plasma is created in a strong electric field, giving off a bright glow, almost like fire.

Finally, inland canals connected Norfolk to Philadelphia, allowing a ship to travel between the two in a few hours.

The USS Eldridge was transferred to Greece in 1951 and sold for scrap during the 1990s, but Allende's hoax would live on in our effing nightmares forever.

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How the Philadelphia Experiment Worked

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It was the summer of 1943, two years into the United States' involvement in World War II, and a bloody sea battle was raging between American destroyers and the famed U-boat submarines of the Nazis. In the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, a newly commissioned destroyer called the USS Eldridge was being equipped with several large generators as part of a top-secret mission to win the Battle of the Atlantic once and for all.

Rumor aboard the ship was that the generators were designed to power a new kind of magnetic field that would make the warship invisible to enemy radar . With the full crew on board, it was time to test the system. In broad daylight, and in plain sight of nearby ships, the switches were thrown on the powerful generators, which hummed into action.

What happened next would baffle scientists and fuel decades of wild speculation. Witnesses describe an eerie green-blue glow surrounding the hull of the ship. Then, instantaneously and inexplicably, the Eldridge disappeared. Not just invisible to radar, but gone — vanished into thin air!

Hours later, there were reports of the Eldridge appearing in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, before reappearing just as suddenly back in Philadelphia. According to classified military reports, members of the Eldridge crew suffered from terrible burns and disorientation. Most shockingly, a few crewmen were found partially embedded in the steel hull of the ship; still alive, but with legs or arms sealed to the deck.

So goes the story of the Philadelphia Experiment, perhaps the most famous and widely retold example of secret government experiments with teleportation and time travel. More than 70 years later, despite the absence of any physical evidence or corroborating testimony, the Philadelphia Experiment survives as "fact" in the minds of amateur paranormalists and conspiracy theorists.

To understand how the Philadelphia Experiment really worked, we must learn about the men who first brought the closely guarded secret to light, explore the suspicious government response to their revelations and get a very different version of the story from a surviving crewmember of the Eldridge.

'Call Me Carlos': A Conspiracy Is Born

The 'real' philadelphia experiment, the philadelphia experiment today.

Almost everything that we "know" about the Philadelphia Experiment and the alleged teleportation of the USS Eldridge emerged from the mind and pen of a colorful character named Carl M. Allen, better known by his pseudonym Carlos Miguel Allende.

In 1956, Allende sent the first of over 50 handwritten letters to the author and amateur astronomer Morris K. Jessup, who a year earlier had published a self-researched book called "The Case for the UFO" [source: Vallee]. In his letters, Allende criticized Jessup's naive understanding of unified field theory, which Allende claimed to have been taught by Albert Einstein himself. A unified field theory , which has never been proven (by Einstein or anyone else), attempts to merge the forces of gravity and electromagnetism into one fundamental field [source: Sutton ].

To prove that a unified field theory existed, Allende offered Jessup his eyewitness account from a nearby ship of the disappearance of the Eldridge from the Philadelphia Naval Yard in 1943. Carlos Allende's letter to Morris Jessup, which explains how the U.S. military used Einstein's revelations to teleport an entire naval destroyer and its crew, registered the first ever mention of the Philadelphia Experiment. No other witnesses from the crew of the Eldridge or nearby ships had come forward in the 13 years since the alleged event.

Jessup attempted a serious investigation of Allende's claims, but grew frustrated with the mysterious letter writer's inability to produce physical evidence. Jessup was ready to drop the investigation entirely when he was contacted by two officers from the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 1957 [source: Vallee].

According to an information sheet published by the ONR, the two officers were responding to a strange package that they received in 1956. It contained a copy of Jessup's UFO book annotated by handwritten notes claiming advanced knowledge of physics that linked extraterrestrial technology to breakthroughs in unified field theory [source: ONR ].

Although the scrawled notes were meant to look like they came from three different authors (at least one, perhaps, an alien), Jessup instantly recognized the handwritings as all belonging to Carlos Allende. For unexplained reasons, the ONR officers published 127 copies of the annotated book using a Texas military contractor named Varo Manufacturing. Transcribed copies of the so-called "Varo editions" — whether real or forged — would become prized collector's items for conspiracy theorists [source: Vallee].

Sadly, Jessup's story took a tragic turn. Injured in a car accident and split from his wife, Jessup committed suicide in 1959. Carlos Allende lived until 1994, sporadically sending letters to anyone who would listen to his fantastical tale of the Philadelphia Experiment [source: Vallee].

For decades, Carlos Allende (aka Carl Allen) was the sole "witness" of the allegedly supernatural events surrounding the 1943 Philadelphia Experiment. Carlos claimed to have been stationed on the SS Andrew Furuseth, a vessel docked in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard with a clear view of the Eldridge when it disappeared.

Much later, after the release of the 1984 film "The Philadelphia Experiment," a man named Al Bielek came forward claiming to have personally taken part in the secret experiment, which he had been brainwashed to forget. Only after seeing the movie in 1988 did his repressed memories come flooding back [source: Vallee].

Despite the insistent (and constantly evolving) claims of both men, it was the testimony of a third witness that ultimately shed some light on what may have really happened in Philadelphia during that wartime summer of 1943.

In 1994, French-born astrophysicist and ufologist Jacques F. Vallee published an article in the Journal of Scientific Exploration titled "Anatomy of a Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later." In writing a previous article about the Philadelphia Experiment, Vallee asked readers to contact him if they had further information about the alleged event. That's when Vallee received a letter from Edward Dudgeon, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945.

Dudgeon had served on the USS Engstrom, which was dry-docked in the Philadelphia Naval Yard during the summer of 1943 [source: Vallee]. Dudgeon was an electrician in the Navy and had full knowledge of the classified devices that were installed on both his ship and the Eldridge, which he said was there at the same time.

Far from being teleportation engines designed by Einstein (or aliens ), the devices enabled the ships to scramble their magnetic signature using a technique called degaussing . The ship were wrapped in large cables and zapped with high-voltage charges. A degaussed ship wouldn't be invisible to radar, but would be undetectable by the U-boats' magnetic torpedoes.

Dudgeon was familiar with the wild rumors about disappearing ships and mangled crewmen, but credited the fabrications to loose sailor talk about "invisibility" to torpedoes and the peculiarity of the degaussing process. The "green glow" was probably due to an electric storm or St. Elmo's Fire. As for the Eldridge's mysterious appearance in Norfolk and sudden return to Philadelphia, Dudgeon explained that the Navy used inland canals — off-limits to commercial vessels — to make the trip in six hours rather than two days [source: Vallee].

In another turn of events, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 1999 on a reunion of sailors who served on the USS Eldridge in Atlantic City. The sailors said the ship never docked in Philadelphia. Indeed, it was in Brooklyn on its supposed date of disappearance. The ship's log confirmed this. Further, the captain said no experiments were ever conducted on the vessel.

Despite the differing accounts, both Dudgeon and the Eldridge crew confirm that nothing otherworldly happened on the ship. Yet, people continue to believe otherwise. We'll look at some reasons why the hoax has endured for more than 70 years.

In 1951, the U.S. transferred the ship to Greece where it was renamed the HS Leon and used in joint exercises between the two countries during the Cold War. It was eventually sold for scrap in the 1990s. A very ignoble end [source: Veronese ].

Despite its near universal debunking as a hoax, the Philadelphia Experiment endures as a paranormal cultural landmark.

The 1984 movie — based loosely on Carlos Allende's original narrative — was hardly an Oscar contender, but its '80s-era special effects were good enough to plant some indelible images in the moviegoer's mind. One particularly graphic scene near the end of the film depicts a badly burned crewmember writhing on the deck of the Eldridge with half of his body swallowed up in steel.

In his article explaining the stickiness of the Philadelphia Experiment myth, Jacques F. Vallee theorizes that powerful imagery is key to the success of any long-lived hoax . Like the debunked "surgeon's photo" of the Loch Ness Monster or the doctored pictures of the Cottingley fairies, it was the clear mental images of a disappearing ship and the mangled crewmen that helped capture the public's imagination.

The plausibility of the Philadelphia Experiment story is also fortified by a general mistrust of the military and the federal government, which have admitted to carrying out unethical experiments on their own soldiers and citizens. The claims are lent further legitimacy by invoking the names of brilliant scientists like Einstein and associating the secret technology with a scientific theory that remains just out of reach.

Though the ONR said it has never conducted experiments on invisibility and that such experiments could only happen in science fiction, true believers think this is one more case of the government performing a cover-up.

Even as more evidence has emerged about the true identity of Carlos Allende — a charismatic drifter with a host of mental problems — the Philadelphia Experiment refuses to die. It has even spawned a related myth called the Montauk Project. In this version, set at an Air Force base in the 1980s, the government built on the success of the Philadelphia Experiment to "manipulate the flow of time" [source: Vallee].

For lots more information about unexplained phenomena and contagious conspiracies , check out the related HowStuffWorks articles on the next page.

Philadelphia Experiment FAQ

How many movies were made about the philadelphia experiment, did the uss eldridge really disappear, what happened to the uss eldridge, what is the montauk project, who is carl m. allen, lots more information, author's note: how the philadelphia experiment worked.

You can't keep a good hoax down. The story of the Philadelphia Experiment has all of the trademark signs of a lie: a single witness, a secret government plot, pseudoscientific revelations possibly from alien sources ... It's a wonder that this thing ever caught on, let alone endured for decades. The Internet has certainly done its job. There are dozens of dubious websites dedicated to the "hidden facts" that the "government doesn't want you to know" about the Philadelphia Experiment and the Montauk Project. Anyone who dares to debunk the hoaxers is "debunked" themselves — allegedly unmasked as a CIA stooge or a paid accomplice. I can only hope that somewhere in the bowels of cyberspace, there's a brand-new article debunking me.

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McCrary, Lacy. "Legend Says the Eldridge Briefly Vanished in 1943." Philadelphia Inquirer. March 26, 1999. (Jan. 28, 2015) http://articles.philly.com/1999-03-26/news/25511825_1_uss-eldridge-philadelphia-experiment-ship
Office of Naval Research. "Information Sheet: Philadelphia Experiment; UFO's." (Jan. 22, 2015) http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/homeland_defense/UFOs/onr_ph1.pdf
Sutton, Christine. "Unified Field Theory." Encyclopedia Britannica (Jan. 22, 2015) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614522/unified-field-theory
Vallee, Jacques F. "Anatomy of a Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later." Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 8, No. 1. 1994 (Jan. 22, 2015) http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_08_1_vallee.pdf
Veronese, Keith. "What really happened during the Philadelphia Experiment?" Sept. 21, 2012 (Jan. 22, 2015) http://io9.com/5944616/what-really-happened-during-the-philadelphia-experiment

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What is the True Story of the Philadelphia Experiment?

Invisible ships, aliens, top secret missions, a government conspiracy and Albert Einstein - the Philadelphia Experiment had it all. But was the story of the USS Eldridge a hoax or science fiction brought to life?

The Philadelphia Experiment, sometimes known as the USS Eldridge conspiracy, has all the trappings of a sci-fi blockbuster. Indeed it became the subject of one starring Michael Paré in 1984.

If it’s to be believed, this top secret test of alien invisibility technology was carried out at the height of the Second World War, under the direction of Albert Einstein himself, ending in both success and catastrophe.

If it’s deemed a hoax, it is one whose ramifications have been long-term and widespread. So which is it?

The Philadelphia Experiment

Albert Einstein image on a postage stamp (Photo: tomograf via iStock)

The Philadelphia Conspiracy was an alleged top secret government project codenamed Operation Rainbow, carried out under the auspices of Albert Einstein in accordance with his unified field theory. Its objective was to test alien invisibility technology. It was 1943, the midst of World War II and the US was seeking an advantage to help them win the Battle of the Atlantic.

And so, one day that year, often cited as 28th October 1943, the new tech was supposedly fitted onto the USS Eldridge which was docked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. It’s said that those on nearby ships witnessed the generators of the Eldridge begin to hum, a green-blue hue – some said a fog or a glow – emanated from the destroyer’s hull and, in an instant, the ship simply vanished.

It’s said the ship reappeared again just as suddenly, but only after it was spotted materialising out of thin air over 200 miles away, at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia – before then vanishing a second time.

If true, surely the Philadelphia Experiment had been a resounding success. Not only did it render an entire Cannon-class destroyer escort ship invisible, but it teleported it over 200 miles away and back again. However, there was more to the story than simply this astonishing tale.

It was said that classified military documents revealed far darker implications. When the USS Eldridge rematerialised in Philadelphia, members of its crew suffered injuries ranging from minor to catastrophic. Nausea, disorientation, insanity, third degree burns and mysterious illnesses were all cited. The most alarming effects regarded crew being found fused to parts of the ship, some of them still alive.

The Philadelphia Conspiracy Origins

The Case for the UFO scripts (Poto: Pixsooz via iStock)

According to the story, there were many witnesses to the Philadelphia Experiment; people who saw the ship’s disappearance and reappearance. And yet, only one witness came forward, and it was not until the 1950s that details of it began to emerge. In fact, all information about the Philadelphia Conspiracy derives from a single source. That was a man by the name of Carl Meredith Allen.

In 1956, Carl Allen began writing what would be hundreds of letters to Morris K. Jessup, the author of a book called The Case for the UFO (1955). Going by the name Carlos Allende, he tried to convince Jessup to stop the research he was then conducting on Albert Einstein’s incomplete unified field theory. As part of this, he informed Jessup of the USS Eldridge conspiracy, claiming to have witnessed the test himself while working on a ship called the SS Andrew Furuseth as a deckhand. When Jessup attempted to get more information from Allen, he was unable to provide any evidence for his claims.

At around the same time, the US Office of Naval Research (the ONR) received an anonymous package labelled “Happy Easter”. Inside was a copy of Jessup’s book, heavily annotated by what appeared to be three different contributors, each in different shades of blue and referring to each other as “gypsies”. The notes within related to UFOs, purporting to have knowledge of extraterrestrial life on Earth and suggesting that Jessup’s research on unified field theory was too close to some alien technology. There were also several allusions to the Philadelphia Experiment.

In a strange twist that served only to enhance belief in the Philadelphia conspiracy, two agents at the ONR took it upon themselves to privately print many copies of the annotated book, which became known in certain circles as the Varo Version.

Investigating The Philadelphia Conspiracy

In 1957, the ONR invited Jessup to view the annotated copy of his book. He confirmed that the annotations matched the handwriting in Allen’s letters. It has since been confirmed that it was Allen who sent the package to the ONR and, in 1969, he even admitted to writing all of the annotations. His aim? To “scare the hell out of Jessup” and deter him from continuing his investigation of Unified Field Theory, which Allen viewed as dangerous. He later retracted this admission.

So, who was Carlos Allende aka Carl Allen? For a long time, that answer was as elusive as the man himself. In fact, nothing was known about him until a journalist called Robert Goerman wrote about the man in 1980. Goerman, apparently realising an old family connection with Allen, interviewed the man’s family and described him as a “a creative and imaginative loner.” According to Goerman, Allen had a history of mental illness which he speculated might have been behind any fabrications.

USS Eldridge Hoax: The Official Response

The Philadelphia Experiment captured the imagination of the ufologist community for many years. Indeed, the ONR was so overwhelmed by the constant enquiries about it that, in 1996, it released an official statement completely denying the event, stating:

“ONR has never conducted any investigations on invisibility, either in 1943 or at any other time (ONR was established in 1946.) In view of present scientific knowledge, ONR scientists do not believe that such an experiment could be possible except in the realm of science fiction.”

The same statement provided theories as to the origins of the ideas behind the USS Eldridge Conspiracy. For example, the invisibility aspect might have arisen from real research at the Philadelphia Naval Yard at the time into rendering ships undetectable to radar, known as degaussing.

There has never been any evidence provided for or corroboration of the Philadelphia Experiment. What is more, any evidence collected, such as the logs of the USS Eldridge and other involved ships, have contradicted the story. For example, on the alleged date of the experiment, 28th October 1943, the ship’s log puts it in the Bahamas on a shakedown tour.

Resurgence of the USS Eldridge 'Hoax'

Abstract Futuristic Technology Background with Clock concept and Time Machine (Photo: ChakisAtelier via iStock)

For a long time it was widely accepted that the Philadelphia Experiment was a fake, sometimes referred to as the USS Eldridge hoax. However, it was revived by the emergence of another alleged secret experiment, The Montauk Project. Instead of invisibility, this time it was time travel and, in place of Einstein, were Wilhelm Reich and Nikola Tesla. It tied in with the Philadelphia Experiment as part of a wider plan.

Some Still Believe

Hoax stamp (Photo: Christian Horz via iStock)

It is widely acknowledged that the Philadelphia Experiment was indeed a hoax, perpetrated by one man whose family described him as a “master leg-puller”, Carl Meredith Allen. And yet, despite a complete lack of proof, under the umbrella of the Montauk Project, the USS Eldridge conspiracy seems to be gaining new supporters even to this day.