Philadelphia experiment

[russ]

Does anyone know where I can find info on the Philadelphia Experiment?  If you dont know what that is, its an experiment when Americans tried to make a ship disappear, but it turned into a disaster.

[DanielF]

Is this what you are looking for?
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm

I saw a show about that on the history channel once.  It sounds pretty scary.  :o

[Iroquois]

Oh yes, I heard about this. Apparently the US Navy tried to outfit a ship with an experimental cloaking device. Apparently when the cloak was activated the people disappeared, were transported to other places, and some got stuck in the ship's hull when the device was de-activated. Very strange but it's probably just a tall tale.

I found some interesting sites on Yahoo. Here's one for example. Just search for "Philadelphia Experiment".
http://www.crystalinks.com/phila.html

Cloaking has been a staple Sci-Fi technology but this makes you wonder if it's possible. Has it been done, probably not but maybe in the future.

[DanielF]

Oh yes, I heard about this. Apparently the US Navy tried to outfit a ship with an experimental cloaking device.

The story I've heard is that it was a teleportation device.

[Iroquois]

[quote]

The story I've heard is that it was a teleportation device.

[denishc]

 In Second World War, during the Battle of the Atlantic, it was found that if bright lights were placed along the wings and fuselage of a patrol aircraft and the aircraft was flowen close to the water the aircraft was difficult for U-boat spotters to see.  Many U-boats did not realize there was an aircraft in the area until they came under attack.  The is probably the closest thing to "cloaking" at that time.
 The Navy had hope that a similar effect could be done for surface vessels by out fitting them with lights along the ships hull.  The testing of such out fittings has since led to the myth of the "Philadelphia Experiment".  

[russ]

The whole point of the experiment was not to teleport the ship but to make it invisible. People were stuck in the ship because when it became invisible, people could walk through its walls. But when it apperaed the walls went back to normal, that's how people got stuck in them.

[BFMF]

Never heard of this before. Is it a legend or did it really happen? I have a hard time believing that people were able to walk through walls then got stuck in 'em

[russ]

No one knows for sure