All Episodes
Previous Next
Plain Text
Dec. 24, 2006 - Skeptoid
10:55
Skeptoid #16: The Real Philadelphia Experiment

The US Navy did not make a warship completely disappear in 1943. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
|

Time Text
The Mysterious Philadelphia Experiment 00:02:02
The Philadelphia Experiment must rank among the greatest of all urban legends.
Allegedly, the Navy took an active duty ship and, using some high-tech equipment, was actually able to make it not only vanish, but also teleport.
Surely we all assume there is some grain of truth to this.
Today we're going to find out what the Navy actually did with the USS Eldridge in 1943.
That's up next on Skeptoid.
Hi, I'm Alex Goldman.
You may know me as the host of Reply All, but I'm done with that.
I'm doing something else now.
I've started a new podcast called Hyperfixed.
On every episode of Hyperfixed, listeners write in with their problems and I try to solve them.
Some massive and life-altering, and some so minuscule it'll boggle your mind.
No matter the problem, no matter the size, I'm here for you.
That's Hyperfixed, the new podcast from Radiotopia.
Find it wherever you listen to podcasts or at hyperfixedpod.com.
You're listening to Skeptoid.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
The Philadelphia Experiment.
Today we're going to pull a giant switch on the wall and activate powerful generators, which will create a mysterious force field around us and cause us all to disappear.
For we're going to discuss the perennially silly Philadelphia Experiment.
The story goes that in October of 1943 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, an experiment was conducted aboard a U.S. Navy Cannon-class destroyer escort called the USS Eldridge, number DE 173.
The experiment involved the creation of a force field which rendered the ship invisible both to the eye and to radar.
The experiment was witnessed by hundreds, possibly thousands, of sailors both ashore and on other ships nearby.
Unfortunately, there were severe side effects to the crew on board the ship.
Fact or Fiction 00:07:32
Some were found materialized inside the metal of the ship.
Others were never seen again, and still others were driven insane or plagued for years by mysterious cases of phasing in and out of existence.
In typical Navy fashion, everything has been denied.
None of the above ever actually happened.
What follows did actually happen.
The secret of the mysterious experiment and its terrible aftermath was kept for 12 years until one day when Morris Jessup, the author of a book about UFOs, was unexpectedly summoned to the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research.
The ONR had received, in the mail, a copy of Jessup's UFO book filled with handwritten annotations.
The notes were all in the same handwriting, but in three characters in three colors of ink.
The notes revealed all the details of the Philadelphia experiment, and the ONR wanted to know if Jessup knew anything about who might have written these notes and sent the book to them.
Jessup recognized the crazy handwriting immediately.
He had received a series of letters from a man calling himself Carlos Allende, who claimed to have witnessed the experiment from aboard a merchant marine ship nearby, the SS Andrew Furiseth.
Jessup had dismissed Allende as a crackpot.
Among Allende's claims was that Albert Einstein had personally spent several weeks mentoring him on subjects such as invisibility and faster-than-light travel.
Several copies of the annotated book were produced, and the rest is history.
The Philadelphia Experiment Story became part of the fabric of pop culture.
Robert Gorman, a researcher of the paranormal and a friend of mine, noticed that the return address of Allende's original mailing to the ONR came from his own hometown, New Kensington, Pennsylvania.
He had spent some time putting together the history of the Philadelphia experiment story, and in 1979 found to his great surprise that Carlos Allende, whose real name was Carl Allen, was the son of a close family friend.
Over time, Gorman filled in the blanks and presented the complete case in magazine articles and on television shows such as History's Mysteries, Unsolved Mysteries, and The Unexplained, three show titles which by themselves lend far too much credence to Carl Allen's stories.
Carl Allen was something of the dark horse of the family, a creative and imaginative loner, notorious for annotating anything and everything in the house and sending bizarre writings and claims to everyone in the family for any occasion.
In a world that can feel overwhelming, spreading thoughtful, evidence-based content is one of the best ways to make a positive impact.
Ask your local public radio station to air the Skeptoid Files, a 30-minute radio-friendly version of Skeptoid that pairs two related episodes promoting real science, true history, and critical thinking.
And in these challenging times for public media, we're offering these broadcasts for free to radio stations, available on the PRX Exchange or directly from Skeptoid Media.
It's an easy ask.
Just send a quick message to your station's programming director.
By helping to bring the Skeptoid files to the airwaves, you'll help promote the essential skills we all need to tell fact from fiction.
Just go to your local station's website, find the programming director's email address, or just their general email address.
You can even use the telephone.
I know that might sound crazy.
It's an old legacy device that allows real-time voice communication.
I know that's weird, but hey, it's an option.
The world can feel chaotic, but you're not powerless.
When you promote critical thinking, you can help your community tell fact from fiction.
And that's how we shape a better future.
In uncertain times, spreading good ideas can make you feel helpful, not helpless.
Let's stand up for reason, truth, and understanding.
Together, get them to air the Skeptoid files from Skeptoid Media, available on the PRX Exchange, and they'll know what that is.
Gorman also assembled all of the facts of the USS Eldridge.
Little things, like the ship was nowhere near Philadelphia when the experiment happened, the ship had detailed corroborated records for the normal duties that it was in fact performing at the time, and that nobody who had ever been a crewman on board the ship knew anything about the experiment.
The Eldridge had been launched only two months before the experiment, and you'd think that if it was hosting Albert Einstein and the most amazing experiment in history, somebody would have known about it.
Without exception, every single fact that Carl Allen presented as evidence of the Philadelphia experiment has been easily proven to be a complete fabrication.
And therein lies the problem.
The trouble with discussing government conspiracies is that the believers generally refuse to accept the factual evidence because it becomes part of the conspiracy.
It's a bit like having a debate about creationism.
Believers simply say God did it and it's a matter of faith, not of evidence or fact.
If the government is trying to cover something up, every falsified claim becomes evidence for the conspiracy.
In summary, there is no amount of evidence that can be compiled that will be accepted by a conspiracy theorist.
In the conspiracy theorist's mind, evidence against is actually evidence for.
Among this schizophrenic evidence is the U.S. Navy's reply to the Philadelphia Experiment Story, which is available online at http: www.history.navy.mil slash faqs slash faq21-1.htm.
As you might surmise, it simply says that they have no idea what this guy could be talking about.
Here's where both ships were and what they were doing at the time, and here are the statements from their officers.
It's an entertaining report, but predictable.
Interestingly, there are some question marks left standing about the Philadelphia experiment.
As you might expect, two or three veterans of the Eldridge and the USS Ingstrom, which was once moored alongside the Eldridge in 1943, have claimed to be a guy whom Allende saw disappear in a bar or who have found themselves transported across dimensions.
It should be noted that such claims were made well after the Philadelphia experiment became a pop culture phenomenon, and in more than one case it turned out that these guys were not actually veterans at all.
A more interesting question comes from the very genesis of the story, when the Navy ONR first summoned Morris Jessup to their office to talk about the strangely annotated book.
If there was nothing in those annotations of genuine interest to them, why did they call?
Who knows?
Gorman suggested that these ONR officers did this on their own time out of personal intrigue, or that some of the illusions in the annotations were similar to actual Navy research and the ONR was simply being responsible at following every lead.
Conspiracy theorists maintain that this proves Allen's annotations must have been true.
Whatever the truth, I happen to love that this story has this annoying little footnote that can't be easily explained away.
I love a good mystery, and I remember a streak of disappointment when Gorman's debunking of the case was laid out before me.
Like most people, I'd done no thorough research of my own and only knew what the average moviegoer knows about the Philadelphia experiment.
Intellectually, I know the story is silly, but I still love that little loose end.
Carl Allen may have been a prankster, but I thank him for making this entry just that little bit more interesting.
Support Skeptoid Today 00:01:16
You're listening to Skeptoid.
I'm Brian Dunning from skeptoid.com.
Hello, everyone.
This is Adrian Hill from Skookum Studios in Calgary, Canada, the land of maple syrup and moose.
And I'm here to ask you to consider becoming a premium member of Skeptoid for as little as $5 per month.
And that's only the cost of a couple of Tim Horton's double doubles.
And that's Canadian for coffee with double cream and sugar.
Why support Skeptoid?
If you are like me and don't like ads, but like extended versions of each episode, Premium is for you.
If you want to support a worthwhile non-profit that combats pseudoscience, promotes critical thinking, and provides free access to teachers to use the podcast in the classroom via the Teacher's Toolkit, then sign up today.
Remember that skepticism is the best medicine.
Next to giggling, of course.
Until next time, this is Adrienne Hill.
From P R X
Export Selection