HISTORY. Philadelphia experiment: between reality and fiction.

The mystery of the Philadelphia experiment has been living for more than half a century. During this time, the movement in the space of the destroyer of the US Navy Eldridge allegedly took place in 1943, managed to build an unthinkable number of myths, turning into an "urban legend". But does this story have a real underlying reason?

Missing destroyer

Astronomer Morris Jessup laid the beginning of the legend. However, it is still quite unclear whether this man was really a scientist: it is for certain only known that Jessup was selling auto parts and was fond of ufology. In 1955 he published the book "Arguments in favor of UFOs". She did not bring the author of fame, but it was one of the reasons that Jessup's life abruptly changed.

Shortly before the publication, he received a letter from a man who called himself a retired sailor Carlos Miguel Allende. It told of the event no less mysterious than the flying saucers. Allegedly, in 1943 the US government conducted a number of experiments on the basis of the Navy in Philadelphia involving the destroyer Eldridge. Refracting electromagnetic waves in a very powerful field, the ship had to become invisible not only for radar, but also just for the eye.

Destroyer "Eldridge" (DE-173) was put into operation in the summer of 1943. The length of the vessel was 93 m, displacement - 1260 t. It is believed that at the time of the "experiment" on board there were 181 people. From January 4, 1944 to May 9, 1945, the ship carried out combat missions in the Mediterranean Sea. May 28, 1945 he went to the Pacific Ocean to support the American fleet in the war with Japan. In 1951 the ship was transferred to the Greek fleet and renamed Leon. In 1992, the destroyer was decommissioned, and in 1999 was handed over for recycling.

Allende said that after the experiment began, the destroyer was enveloped in a greenish cloud, and ... the ship disappeared. Only a moment later he "materialized" again with his entire team. The author saw all this with his own eyes, being on the deck of one of the ships standing on the same base. He also mentioned that the experiment did not go smoothly: several seamen died, and some went mad.

According to legend, a second experiment was held in October of the same year. As a "guinea pig" decided to use another team. When the generators were turned on, the ship disappeared again - it is sometimes claimed, it temporarily appeared 300 km from Norfolk - and after turning off the field returned to its original location.

Outwardly, everything looked almost like last time, but now the test ended in a large-scale tragedy. At the time of the "move", there were 181 people on board, and almost all of them died or received the most incredible mutilation. So, 27 sailors literally "merged" with the ship, as if they were immured at the time of construction of the ship. 13 team members died from burns and for other reasons. After the shock of all the tragedy, the US government refused to continue working on the project.

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Where is your evidence?

The letter of Carlos Allende is difficult to take seriously because of the countless errors and incoherence of the presentation. His story is more like a stream of consciousness. In the books devoted to this legend, the letter to Allende was almost always printed in edited form, where its history was given at least the appearance of clarity.

Moreover, there is no clear evidence that the author of the letter is real, and that it is not a figment of Morris Jessup's imagination. True, over the long decades, thousands of researchers of this phenomenon have been able to find some evidence. It is believed that Carlos Miguel Allende is a pseudonym, behind whom was a man named Carl Allen. Allen did serve on one of the transport ships and theoretically could see some tests at the base in Philadelphia.

But it will be much later. And then Jessup's book arrived at the naval department, the very "Arguments in favor of UFOs", with a mass of all sorts of notes. After the ufologist was presented with a book, he stated that he would recognize the handwriting - the author of the comments on the margins was none other than Carlos Allende. After some questioning, the military dismissed Morris, who continued his investigation, although he often complained about shadowing and strange phone calls that began to alarm him.

On April 20, 1959, Jessup was to meet with one of his friends to share the fresh results of his searches. But the meeting did not take place: according to the official version, Jessup committed suicide, suffocating with exhaust fumes in his car. An autopsy was not conducted, and the doctor who ascertained death could not be found by any of the following enthusiasts. However, Jessup's suicide was not aroused by suspicions: in recent years, failures in business and personal life pursued him one after another.

Even if we take the testimony of the "eyewitnesses" on faith, it remains unclear whether the second experiment took place, or only one was conducted. Some researchers of this topic believe that the first experiment was conducted on July 20, and the second one on October 28, 1943. In this letter, Carlos Allende says only about one experiment, but for some reason the author calls different dates for its conduct.

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Einstein and Tesla

There is a legend that Albert Einstein himself put his hand to the Philadelphia experiment - indirectly, of course. The fact is that in his letter Allende referred to the Unified Field Theory, over which the great scientist worked for many years. Although this theory has not been created so far, mysticism fans do not mind: in their opinion, Einstein himself could destroy his papers, fearing that the discovery would fall into unworthy hands.

However, there is some truth in the allegations of Einstein's participation in this story. Judging by some documents, the genius physicist really cooperated with the US Navy in the years 1943-1944, although there is no evidence that he was somehow involved in the Philadelphia experiment.

Another great physicist, whose name is often associated with the missing destroyer, is Nikola Tesla. Alfred Bilek, who claims to have served on the Eldridge, states that Tesla personally supervised the organization of the experiment, although he did not live to see it carried out. Of course, conspiracyologists like to link these events, giving the death of the aged genius a special conspiratorial meaning.

It is believed that under the name of Carlos Allende, Carl Allen was hiding, who in 1943 served as a sailor on the ship Andrew Feweset, which was located at the base in Philadelphia next to the destroyer Eldridge. Allen-Allende suffered from a mental disorder and sent letters not only to Jessup, but to many other ufologists.

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Destroyer "Eldridge", our days

The film «Philadelphia experiment», which was released in 1984, caused a new wave of interest in the topic. It was after his review of one of the members of the team "Eldridge" - to Alfred Belek - suddenly returned to memory. During numerous interviews and press conferences Bilek drew more and more strokes to history. He stated that during the experiment the destroyer moved not only in space, but also in time, and briefly ended up in 1983 on the base of Montauk, and then moved back to Philadelphia. Another story of Alfred Bilek was even attended by aliens ... There are a lot of such evidence today, as there were many witnesses of that "inhuman experience".

For many years, the US Navy command refused to comment on the Philadelphia experiment. But in the 1990s, under pressure from the public, the military decided to dot the i's. In the free access were posted all the log files of the destroyer "Eldridge", which, of course, completely refuted the story of Allende. Suffice it to say that the ship ... never was in Philadelphia. But the legend proved to be tenacious, and this step only gave her a second birth: the conspiracy theorists accused the military of falsification and began searching for real records.

In 1999, there was an event that was supposed to convince everyone once and for all: gathered all the surviving sailors, who served in 1943 on the Eldridge. There were fifteen people, including the captain of the ship, the 84-year-old Bill Van Allen. All of them unanimously assured the audience that no experiment was conducted with the team, and Allende's testimony is a hoax. That no Alfred Bilek any member of the team knew. Shortly and clearly commented on the rumors of the former sailor, 74-year-old Ed Vise: "I think that someone invented it, having gotten fooled by a fool."

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What really happened?

It is possible that the experiments at the base in Philadelphia were really carried out, but they had nothing to do with teleportation. In those years, engineers were actively studying the possibilities of "demagnetizing", reducing the magnetic field of the ship, to make it immune to magnetic sea mines, which were of great danger. For this purpose, the ship's side was wound with electric wires, they fed a current to the uninitiated person, this, of course, could seem very strange.

However, there is another version, which is not common. After all, do not forget that in the 1950s, the US and the USSR were drawn into the arms race. And the Philadelphia experiment could be an attempt to misinform the Soviet leadership. It's hard to say how much this story could convince scientists in the USSR, but it had a stunning success with its own American public.

From the legend of the Philadelphia experiment, many writers and writers have drawn their inspiration. The first film dedicated to these events was released in 1984, and in 1993 a continuation of the picture appeared. The newest film covering this topic was filmed in 2012. In addition, the experiment is devoted to a lot of science fiction stories.