USS Eldridge and Proj Rainbow

[Trout]

I know it's been talked about seemingly forever but what do you really think?

Bullshit? Truth? Mistake? Hoax?

http://www.navalships.org/eldridge.html

Project Rainbow was allegedly an experiment conducted upon a small destroyer escort ship during World War II, both in the Philadelphia Naval Yard and at sea; the goal was to make that ship invisible to enemy detection.
The accounts vary as to whether the original idea was to achieve invisibility to enemy radar or whether the prize sought after was more profound: optical invisibility. Either way, it is commonly believed that the mechanism involved was the generation of an incredibly intense magnetic field around the ship, which would cause refraction or bending of light or radar waves around the ship, much like a mirage created by heated air over a road on a summer day.

[Derec]

Bullshit.

Magnetic fields would not "bend" EM-waves because photons are not charged. No charge, no Lorentz force.

Derec

[Ovazor]

It might refer to degaussing experiments where the ship's magnetic field was reduced to make it less vulnerable to torpedoes or mines with magnetic exploders.

[Amen-Moses]

Cover story, probably for any of a range of new equipments being fitted by British engineers to US ships near the end of WWII, either as already mentioned as anti mine equipment or possibly anti torpedo gear being developed. Pulsing EM could set off magnetic mines at a distance and could also fuck up the delicate aiming mechanisms in the later torpedos, another technique used huge underwater speakers (which to the untrained eye just look like coils of wire) designed to fool acoustic mines and torpedos by transmitting the sound of the engine at greater volume than the real ship but from the speaker rig being dragged some distance behind the ship (not to mention deafening any poor sonar operators in the area!).

There is no way in hell that any real experimental stuff was going on off the US east coast for security reasons, all the good stuff went on off of the NW coast of Scotland or in Canadian Lakes well away from prying eyes.

Amen-Moses

[Trout]

There is no way in hell that any real experimental stuff was going on off the US east coast for security reasons, all the good stuff went on off of the NW coast of Scotland or in Canadian Lakes well away from prying eyes.
Amen-Moses

Ever see the crazy security around a FL shuttle launch? Lots o big and small helicopters flying up and down the shore with at least a few attack and nuke subs around. The military could provide security if wanted.

Not sure what Canadian lakes you mean though...

Also not sure what the heck 'Lorentz force' means either (Derec)

[Amen-Moses]

Ever see the crazy security around a FL shuttle launch? Lots o big and small helicopters flying up and down the shore with at least a few attack and nuke subs around. The military could provide security if wanted.


Now, but not in 1943-4. Back then U-boats could pop up anywhere they wanted on the US eastern seaboard. Only the Islands off NW Scotland had the security coverage needed for really secret stuff.

Amen-Moses

[Trout]

Now, but not in 1943-4. Back then U-boats could pop up anywhere they wanted on the US eastern seaboard. Only the Islands off NW Scotland had the security coverage needed for really secret stuff.

Amen-Moses

True. Still, you could hide a lot more too. I'm not sure where the ship was docked but places like Halifax harbour held dozens of ships in WWII before the convoys shipped out and were well protected until they reached open sea.

[ZouPrime]

http://skepdic.com/philadel.html

[Jesus Tap-Dancin' Christ]

It's bowshat. An E/M field strong enough to interact with light waves to a significant degree would tear any metal to shreds, let alone the people.


BULLSHIT.

[Derec]

Also not sure what the heck 'Lorentz force' means either (Derec)

Lorentz force is a force acting on a charge moving through a magnetic field. Since the Lorentz force is proportional to the cross product of the velocity vector and the magnetic field vector it is perpendicular to both.

http://patsy.hunter.cuny.edu/CORE/CORE4/LectureNotes/Magnetics/magnetic2.htm

Derec

[Loren Pechtel]

It's bowshat. An E/M field strong enough to interact with light waves to a significant degree would tear any metal to shreds, let alone the people.


BULLSHIT.

I would think it would have the power to tear electrons off atoms, thus converting everything to a plasma.

[ohwilleke]

Belongs in Science and Skepticism.

[someotherguy]

Belongs in Science and Skepticism.

Agreed. Off to S&S!

[hagiograph]

Isn't the Philadelphia Experiment based on some apocryphal scribblings and letters from a single pretty questionable source? I remember once watching some show about the source of the legend but I don't recall the details of who the guy was or what was so mysterious about him.

Still, at the end of the day I can always annoy my wife by referring to one of her favorite movies "Philadelphia Story" (some 1940's love story with Kate Hepburn and some other big stars) as "Philadelphia Experiment". So even if it's total BS it's still useful at times. :)

-h.

[Heurismus]

Why do I keep doing this Heuri. It is a total crock. What's a Tx'er Heuri? Here we go again.

Excerpted from "Hypotheses - Superatoms, Neutrinos and Extraterrestrials"

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/project275.html

Scan the entire entry. Notice any buzzwords like It is also strongly rumored that the results of this experiment will be de-classified in 2002.
They haven't been because they are not there. Every source I have checked cannot substatiate a single damned word. And no, I am not going to advertise anyone's stupid conspiracy theory book (Damn! I just did). There's a bloody cottage industry going on this precise crap. Where are you big grey when we need you. :rolleyes:

[Dark Knight Bob]

incredibly intense magnetic field around the ship, which would cause refraction or bending of light or radar waves around the ship

Light Waves don't bend in an electromagnetic field they bend in a gravitational field.

You know of any technology NOW that is capable of producing artificial gravity?

On a realistic note the only major use of EM fields in military research has been recently in designing british tank defence mechanisms from LAW's (Light Antitank Weapons)

Because the mechanism of a LAW is to shoot molten copper through into the tank frying it's insides, the british army designed an internal electric field to deflect the copper from reaching critical areas. I can't find the link to the article but when they tested it on a light armoured vechicle it managed to withstand over 10 direct hits and still keep going.

So once again truth is just as interesting as fiction. I find it bizarre that they would have the technology to do something like the philidelphia experiment and yet be barely able to produce enough usable plutonium for an atomic bomb or even produce effecitve rocket technology. Hardly the work of people who had the capabilites to untap unseen exploitations in the laws of the universe.