[edit] Synopsis of the experiment
Several different, at times conflicting, versions of the purported experiment have circulated over the years. The following synopsis serves to illustrate key story points common to the majority of accounts.[2]
According to some accounts, the experiment was conducted by a Dr. Franklin Reno (or Rinehart) as a military application of a Unified Field Theory, a term coined by Einstein. The Unified Field Theory postulates the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity, although to date no single theory has emerged with a viable mathematical expression. Through a special application of some version of the theory, it was thought possible, with specialized equipment and sufficient energy, to bend light around an object in such a way as to render it essentially invisible to observers. The Navy, which was engaged in World War II at the time, considered this application of the theory to be of obvious military value and approved and sponsored the experiment. A destroyer escort, the USS Eldridge, was allegedly fitted with the required equipment at the naval yards in Philadelphia.
The equipment was further alleged not to have properly been re-calibrated to this end, but in spite of this, the experiment was performed again on October 28. This time, Eldridge is alleged to have not only become almost entirely invisible to the naked eye, but actually vanished from the area in a flash of blue light. However, the U.S. naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, just over 215 miles (346 km) away, is alleged to have reported sighting the Eldridge offshore, whereupon the Eldridge vanished from their sight and reappeared in Philadelphia at the site it had originally occupied, in an apparent case of accidental teleportation.
The alleged physiological effects of the experiment on the crew were profound: almost all of the crew were violently ill. Some were alleged to have suffered from mental illness as a result of their experience; behavior consistent with schizophrenia is described in other accounts. Still other members, like Jacob D. Murray, were physically unaccounted for — supposedly “vanished” — and five of the crew were allegedly fused to the metal bulkhead or deck of the ship. Still others were said to fade in and out of sight. Sometimes they would disappear, then crewmates would stick their hands into the spot they had disappeared and try to grab the crewmate, but, if they did not, that spot would burst into flames. Horrified by these results, Navy officials immediately canceled the experiment. All of the surviving crew involved were discharged; in some accounts, brainwashing techniques were employed in an attempt to make the remaining crew members lose their memories concerning the details of their experience.
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