onr ph1

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
OF"FICE OF" NAVAL RESEARCH
ARLINGTON. VIRGINJ.lo. 22217
Information Sheet
Philadelphia Experiment; UFO's
Over the years the Navy has received innumerable queries about the
socalled •Philadelphia Experiment" or "Project" and the alleged role
of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in it. The majority of these
inquiries are directed to the Office of Naval Research or to the Fourth
Naval District in Philadelphia. The frequency of these queries predict-
ably intensifies each time the experiment is mentioned by the popular
press, often in a science fiction book.
Tne genesis of the Philadelphia Experiment myth dates back to 1955 with
the publication of The Case for UFO's by the late Morris K. Jessup.
Some time after the publication of the book, Jessup received correspond-
ence from a Carlos Miguel Allende, who gave his address as R.D. tl, Box
223, New Kensington, PA. In his correspondence Allende commented on
Jessup's book and gave details of an alleged secret naval experiment
conducted by the Navy in Philadelphia in 1943. During the experiment,
according to Allende, a ship was rendered invisible and teleported to
and from Norfolk in a few minutes, with some terrible aftereffects for
crew mem~~ers. Supposedly, this incredible feat was accorn?lished by
applying Einstein's "unified field" theory. Allende clairred that he had
witnessed the experiment from another ship and that the incident was
reported in a Philadelphia nev-'spaper. The identity of the newspaper has
never been established. Similarly, the identity of Allende is unknown,
and no information exists on his present address.
In 1956 a copy of Jessup's book was mailed ano~ymously to ONR. The pages
of the book were interspersed with hand written comments which alleged
a knowledge of UFO' s, their means of notion, the culture and ethos of
the beings occupying these UFO's, described in pseudo-scientific and
incoherent terms.
Two officers, then assigned to ONR, took a personal interest in the
book and showed it to Jessup. Jessup concluded that the writer of
the connents on his rook was the same person who had written hiln about
the Philadelphia Experiment. These two officers personally had the book
retyped and arranged for the reprint, in ~ewritten form, of 25 copies.
Tne officers and their personal belongings have left ~~ rrany years ago,
and 0~ does not have a file COP'i of the annotated tx>ok.