Various hardware used for the “Philadelphia Experiment” had been provided sub rosa by Westinghouse and Federal Telephone. By 1943, quite a lot of people were involved with the project, both at the IAS (Institute of Advanced Study) and at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. (Background: Our Friend, The Ether (Part 29), Ersjdamoo’s Blog entry of November 30, 2013.)
Albert Einstein was never directly involved with the engineering aspect of the experiment. He was a consultant dealing with theoretical aspects. “He was concerned with some of the hardware which was carried daily on and off ship.” Einstein’s direct involvement with the practical aspect was that the hardware was set up according to his wishes. Einstein was an internal consultant for about a dozen projects going on at the IAS at the time of the “Philadelphia Experiment.”
(Recall how a Victor Silverman, who claimed he had been onboard the USS Eldridge in the time frame of the “Philadelphia Experiment”, had noticed a man who needed a haircut and that Silverman later discovered that the shaggy civilian had been Albert Einstein. Background: Our Friend, The Ether (Part 10), Ersjdamoo’s Blog entry of October 30, 2013.)
On the day of the first manned experiment, July 20th 1943 according to some sources [1], the ship traveled about six miles downriver from the Philadelphia Navy Yard, adjacent to an island called “Tinacum Island”. One observer ship, a small aircraft carrier (not full sized), was nearby. A Captain Harrison was in charge of the test in terms of the Navy’s interests. John von Neumann was in charge in terms of the IAS interests. Harrison was on the small carrier, to observe any invisibility effect. Onboard the USS Eldridge, below deck, Al and Duncan Bielek “pulled the triggers” to start the experiment after receiving an order by radio. About half the skeleton crew (12 men) was on deck, exposed to all the radiation. (Below deck, the rest were shielded from the full effects.) The coils and antennae were all on deck.
They flipped the switch. The power level slowly rose. There was a radio link to the outside world. On this first test, after 20 minutes, the Captain told them to shut the equipment down because the observers on the carrier saw that the ship had gone invisible as it was supposed to. All that could be seen was an outline in the water of the river where the ship should have been. The outline included the surrounding field, so it was longer and wider than the ship’s hull. Because of the fields surrounding the ship, the water also became invisible up to a certain point.
But how was a radio signal transmitted from outside to the Eldridge while it was invisible, telling them to shut the test down? Al Bielek (a.k.a. Ed Cameron) told the interviewer he did not know.
One of the sailors onboard was named Bill Cody. Cody and Bielek used to sometimes go drinking at a Philadelphia tavern, the Blue Lagoon. Most of the project sailors went to this bar. (Is this “Blue Lagoon” tavern the same place where an eerie bar-room brawl is said to have occurred? Carlos Allende (a.k.a. Carl Allen) wrote a letter to Morris K. Jessup in which Allende suggested that Jessup check Philadelphia newspapers for a small report describing sailors’ actions in which “daffy dames” (waitresses) were “shocked and paralyzed” by what they had seen. A second letter from Allende repeated that a skeptical reporter had written about a raid on a Philadelphia tavern in which the out-of-control crew had been invisible. [2])
After the first test, some of the crew were ill. The illness affected those who had been on the deck, not those below deck. In those days, steel was used on the ships and the steel provided excellent shielding for those below deck. The ill sailors had become highly disturbed emotionally, they were disoriented physically. The magnetic fields alone could have given the above-deck sailors severe problems. On this first test, the on-deck sailors hadn’t merged with the deck or disappeared, but they were quite ill and nauseated. These sailors went to sick bay to recover. [3]
——- Sources ——-
[1] http://www.phils.com.au/philadelphia.htm
[2] The Philadelphia Experiment, by William L. Moore (with Charles Berlitz). New York: Fawcett Crest, 1979
[3] For info on my source for Al Bielek’s information, see “Our Friend, The Ether (Part 26)”, Ersjdamoo’s Blog entry of November 27, 2013. https://ersjdamoo.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/our-friend-the-ether-part-26/
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