Now you don't!
Many unusual experiments were conducted during the war years, each side wanting to get one step ahead. The German's experimented with levitation and anti-gravity with the use of 'Die Glocke' (The Bell), and the American's experimented with Montauk project to master mind-control and to travel in time, and also the Manhattan Project which developed the first Nuclear weopons that were later used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The story of the Philadelphia Experiment (Project Rainbow) is a very strange one, it was a classified military experiment undertaken in 1943 by the US Navy with Albert Einstein, the results of which were very unexpected to say the least, and which were covered up for many years under the 'Beyond Top Secret' classification. The experiment was initially an attempt to create invisibility for warships by using very high voltage electricity to form a 'force field' that would cloak the ship from radar.
The ship allegedgely vanished and then reappeared briefly at another location in Norfolk Virginia over 300 miles away before returning, bringing in talk of teleportation and time travel. However things went badly wrong during the experiment and many sailors and scientists were killed their bodies vapourised, others with bodies being partly buried and fused into the metal decks of the ship.
Survivors were later witnessed 'vanishing' or fading in and out during a bar brawl, revealing how the experiment had affected them.
The USS Eldridge (DE-173) was a Cannon Class Destroyer built for the Us Navy in 1943 that had seen service as an escort ship around North Africa and southern Europe. She was placed out of commision in June 1946 and placed in the reserve. In 1951 she was transferred to Greece and was renamed 'Leon' (D54), finally being decommisioned 5th November 1992. She was sold as scrap in 1999.
There have been a few films made about the Philadelphia experiment, "The Prestige" directed by Christopher Nolan in 2006 tells the story from its start, with the 1930 experiments of Nikola Tesla attempting to multiply objects or living beings, and to make a body invisible to sight using elecricity. Nine years later the project was moved to the 'Deep Studies University' in Princetown where he was joined by Albert Einstein and a team of researchers. The full results of the project to this date have not been fully released, most probably due to the cover up and initial lies told to the families of those that lost their lives. But it is believed that the technology has been proved to be possible but only with small objects.
The first attempt at creating 'Invisibilty' for a ship was accomplished in 1940 when a crewless ship disappeared. Nikola Tesla immediately warned of serious consequences using Gauss's coils with people present, and not wanting to cause destruction to human life he completely left the project in 1942. The US military though were not willing to postpone experimentation, being eager due to the conflict both in the Atlantic and Pacific and continued to push forward. In 1943 Dr. Von Neumann was handed the project and formed a team of doctors David Hilbert, Henry Levinson, Gustoff and Clarkson to continue investigation in the invisibility of human beings and the ships they were in.
The US Army made available the destroyer USS Eldridge and the Port of Philadelphia, and on the 28th October 1943 the full experiment finally took place.
The ship was fitted with huge and very powerful electrical generators, and shortly after these were turned on a 'white-green' fog started to materialise around the ship, and this then caused the ship to disappear both visually and from radar for five minutes. During this time witnesses saw the Eldridge suddenly materialise in a base at Norfolk in Virginia over 300 miles away, it vanished again just as suddenly and reappeared once again back in Philadelphia.
On its reapperarance it revealed a nightmare picture, Some crew members aboard had vanished completely, their bodies vapourised and carbonised, others had 'melted' into the metal structure, their bodies partly fused in to the metal. Those remaining alive showed signs of extreme madness so the US Army officials quickly stopped the experiment. A cover-up was started, families of those lost in the incident including the men that were still alive but hidden away in a mental institution were told they had been lost during conflict at sea. The experiment was then marked as 'Beyond Top Secret' and it was hidden away from the public.
Full Documentary - (40 mins)
