Project Rainbow/Philadelphia Project - What really happened? (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Noel]

A coworker told me about this experiment that had to do with wrapping a ship with wire to create a mirage, or appear invisible. He'd seen something about it on the History or Discovery Channel. So I've been looking up info about it and it is quite a remarkable story. The USS Eldridge supposedly vanished and reappeared many miles away in a 15 minute window. Then when it did reappear, the crew of the ship was disoriented and some were even embedded in the hull. Crazy!

Check this out!

So is this story just a story? Or did it in fact happen.

Any speculations?

 

[ThomasC]

We may never know the truth, but there's always room for speculation :

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm

http://www.unexplained.info/director...ia_experiment/

http://www.navalships.org/eldridge.html

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

So is this story just a story? Or did it in fact happen.

It is a big steaming pile of you-know-what. The closet this thing has to an anchor in reality is that they used to run cables over ships hulls in order to degauss them and make them less vulnerable to magnetic mines. There are no invisible ships and never have been. Even the multi-billion dollar aircraft stealth programs never tried to make planes undetectable in the visible light spectrum. Apply a little common sense when evaluating such claims. The chance of anybody even attempting this, much less pulling it off, especially in the 1940s, is pretty much nil.

This story has been thorough debunked more times than I can count - including on programs on either the Discovery or the History Channels. (Which nevertheless continue to air irresponsible "documentaries" the endorse every crackpot idea from the Philadelphia Experiment, to Bigfoot to the "Bermuda Triangle")

The sole original source for the Philadelphia Experiment story was a guy who claimed to be from South America and said he was witnessed the experiment as a member of the merchant marine aboard a support vessel. In fact the man was American by birth (his name was Carl Allen, not Carlos Allende, as he claimed), and he had a long history of mental illness.

The story was popularized in a book co-authored by Charles Berlitz, a bottom-feeding ex-journalist who also kicked off the phony Bermuda Triangle craze, which should be clue enough as to how accurate the Philadelphia "experiment" story is.

BTW, different versions of the story give different starting and ending points for the ship's "journey", either don't name the ship or name different ships, and none of the named ships - based on Naval records and the recollection of surviving, verified, crewmen were in the places they are supposed to have been when the 'experiment' is supposed to have happened.

Here's a link you might find interesting.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Danny Tse]

Go catch the film "The Philadephia Experiment" on DVD.

 

[Max Leung]

For a moment I thought this was referring to DLP projectors.

Jeff, if you want to know more about the Philadelphia experiment/project, I suggest you pick up a copy of Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World". That'll tell you everything you need to know!

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

I know this is 99% false, can never be 100%, but I thought it was pretty interesting, even if false. I like these types of things. They really get the brain going.

Didn't even know there was a movie about this either.

And Max, thanks for the book suggestion. I'm always looking for something to read.

 

[Don Black]

Maybe in the 1940s, but scientists are certainly tackling this problem right now using projectors and cameras to make objects appear invisble. I think there was an article on /. last year with pictures.