The Official History of The Santa Maria Experiment: The World's First Demonstration of a Working Invisibility Cloak!
The series of tests in the area of true (optical) invisibility, that have now become known as the Santa Maria Experiment, had their genesis in March of 1994 when then video wizard extraordinaire - turned researcher, Marshall Barnes, became interested in discovering if there was a scientific basis for the legend of the so-called Philadelphia Experiment. The Philadelphia Experiment, or properly named, Project Rainbow, was a top secret research project conducted by the National Defense Research Committee, the U.S. Navy and Naval Research Laboratories during WWII to see if it were possible to make a destroyer escort vessel invisible to sight and radar. The Office of Naval Research, as well as the Naval Historical Center, deny that any such experiments were ever conducted, the ONR going as far as saying in the standard form letter that their scientists had concluded that "such an experiment is only possible in the realm of science fiction".
Marshall used the following excerpt from an interview with an anonymous scientist published in the book, The Philadelphia Experiment:Project Invisibility, by William Moore and Charles Berlitz, as the best technical data avaliable that could be tested to see if there was any validity to the legend.
"One of the problems involved was that the ionization created by the field tended to cause an uneven refraction of the light. The original concepts that were brought down to us before the conference were laid out very nicely and neatly, but both Albrecht and Gleason and I warned that according to our calculations the result would not be a steady mirage effect, but rather a 'moving back and forth' displacement caused by certain inherent tendencies of the AC field which would tend to create a confused area rather than a complete absence of color."
From this excerpt, Marshall determined that the key to the type of optical invisibility that was being discussed involved two basic and very key elements - refraction and mirage effects. These two elements tell, on one hand, what type of invisibility was being attempted and how that attempt was going to be made. There are many ways in which invisibility is presented in stories and science fiction that have no basis in scientific fact, or if they do, limited practical application. However, the idea of refracting, or bending light through a medium, which would in turn result in a mirage or optical illusion of invisibility, is scientifically sound in theory. In fact, there has never been a skeptical attack against the information contained in that interview.
Marshall knew, that in order to test this theory, he would have to find a way to refract or bend light to see if a mirage of invisibility would be possible. He found material that bends light through a similar process called diffraction and began doing tests with it. After some modification, he was shocked to discover that he got the results that he was looking for. He then conducted a series of experiments, some photographed and others video taped, that demonstrated invisibility effects on a wide range of objects, the largest being the full scale Santa Maria replica at the riverfront in downtown Columbus, Ohio. After gathering his evidence and also being prepared to demonstrate the effect on the spot to any reporter that was interested, he began to take his findings to the media and beyond. The result is a well documented history that establishes Marshall as having produced the first demonstration of a working invisibility cloak, more than a decade before Duke University would erroneously make the same claim with their exaggerated headlined press release.
The following is a list of highlights that establish this history and are available for proof. All print accounts are part of the Santa Maria Experiment exhibit at the Santa Maria Seeds of Change Visitor Education Center, along with many photographs and scientific diagrams.
1. 3/20/94 : First press release issued.2. 5/12/94: First article ever published mentioning the invisibility accomplishment, The Call & Post newspaper.
3. 5/94: First radio news report citing invisibility accomplishment, WOSU AM news with reporter Andrew Marcelain.
4. 5/14/94: The first ever public presentation of the Santa Maria Experiment series video footage, MarCon science fiction convention.
5. 6/94 : First ever photograph published, July 1994 issue of Purpose Magazine, of the Santa Maria vanishing.
6. 10/95: First national TV appearance, Danny!, The TV talk show of Danny Bonaduce. A black spool of thread was made to appear transparent to sight.
7. 11/11/95: The second photo of the Santa Maria vanishing published in a newspaper, The Columbus Times
8. 3/96: First foreign lecture and video presentation, the X Chronicles Convention, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.
9. 4/2/96: The first international article published with a photo of the Santa Maria vanishing, in The Sun.
10. 5/1/96: First international radio interview, Coast To Coast AM with Art Bell.
11. 5/2/96: First scientific presentation, sponsored by the Biological and Physical Sciences Department of Columbus State Community College, facilitated by Jean Claude Ba, PhD.
12. 5/2004: COSI is approached in a meeting about hosting a multimedia and interactive exhibit. The idea is warmly greeted but due to the loss of expected funding from a failed bond issue, the idea must be put on hold until the science center can figure out its financial future.
13. 10/2005: Linda Ketcham, executive director of Santa Maria Columbus, Inc. is approached about the possibility of having an exhibit at the Santa Maria Visitor Education Center. Due to the lateness of the season, discussions are put off for the following year.
14. 5/2006: After a meeting where she reviews the basic idea and the nature of the research, Linda Ketcham agrees to have the Santa Maria Visitor Education Center host a permanent exhibit based upon its educational nature and the increased draw and promotion that it would give the Santa Maria attraction.
15. 10/8/2007: The Santa Maria Experiment exhibit officially opens with a grand opening scheduled for 4/5/2008.
Besides using the diffraction material to demonstrate how light can, in fact, be manipulated to acheive invisibility, Marshall went on to develop methods to use the modification of the diffraction material as a practical tool for invisibility cloaking with military, paramilitary, security and law enforcement applications. Because it is now essentially "weaponized", and because of the proprietary nature of the modifications that he invented, he does not reveal or demonstrate these latest developments for the public at this time. Limited demonstrations of non-weaponry examples are planned for the future, and will be announced as part of the Santa Maria Experiment exhibit program.
As for Project Rainbow, James Corum, PhD published a report in 1994 on how he and a two man research team, used a rotating magnetic field to produce a radar cloaking effect, another disqualifier for Duke University's "first" cloaking claim. Canadian researcher John Hutchison has stumbled into another aspect, that of the things that allegedly went wrong with Project Rainbow, resulting in terrible side effects. The Hutchison Effect, as it is known, has produced similar results . It would seem that Marshall, Corum and Hutchison, have solidly shown the ONR scientists to be very, very wrong. Simultaneously, the ONR claim that such experiments are only possible in the realm of science fiction ignores a very important point - most of our modern technologies were once only possible in the realm of science fiction. That includes such things as the nuclear powered submarines and ships that the Navy was using at the time that ONR first issued that statement.
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The idea, that something seems impossible, should never be the reason to dismiss it. If that were the case, NASA would have no reason to exist, there would be no aircraft aside from hot air balloons, and Christopher Columbus never would have sailed in search for a new trade route to India. These facts aside, it is not the intention, nor purpose, of the Santa Maria Experiment exhibit to prove the Philadelphia Experiment, nor does it support any other claims besides those explicably cited here. Independently, Marshall has proved that nearly 100% of the claims surrounding the Philadelphia Experiment legend, that have been developed separately from the Moore/Berlitz book, are false. Conversely, he has also proved that 100% of the skeptical arguments published against it are equally false. This information is only shared to provide the context in which the research into invisibility, that resulted in the Santa Maria Experiment, was conducted - leading up to the breakthroughs that it represents today. | ||
