Chapter 1.
The Time Traveler I will call my friend the Time Traveler.
It was Thursday, and I was on my way to his house.
He had invited me to dinner, and it was such a lovely evening that I decided to walk.
The streets of London were busy with people enjoying the night.
Horse-drawn carriages rattled by.
The flickering flames of street lamps began to light my way.
As I crossed the River Thames, I saw the last rays of the setting sun reflected in the water.
By the time I arrived at the time traveler's home, it was night.
My friend Philby was there, along with the mayor, the doctor, and the artist.
After a wonderful meal, we moved to the study.
The fire in the fireplace and the burning lamps and candles made the room glow.
The lights of the city shone through the windows.
Our friend, the time traveler, was an inventor.
Some of the odd devices he had made were scattered on the shelves and tables around us.
Once we all sat down, he began to speak, his gray eyes twinkling and his face red with excitement.
Listen carefully, he said, moving his hands about as he talked.
What I'm going to describe will sound very strange to you.
You will probably have a hard time believing me.
The reason it will sound far-fetched is because it means that much of what you were taught in school was wrong.
Hmm.
That does sound strange, said Philby.
I know, said the time traveler, but let me explain.
He paused, took a breath, and continued.
Now, we've all been taught that every object has three dimensions, length, width, and height.
For example, that box sitting on the table is about six inches long, four inches wide and two inches high.
That's right, said the artist, slowly looking puzzled.
And you would say that the box has three dimensions and no more after all.
What is there besides length, width, and height, correct?
The time traveler paused and looked around the room.
Well, you would be wrong.
What they don't teach you in school is that everything also has a fourth dimension.
And without that fourth dimension, nothing would exist.
I don't understand, Philby interrupted.
The box only has three dimensions, and there it is as plain as the nose on my face.'
"'But wait,' said our friend.
"'I built that box in my workshop a year ago.
What if I threw it in the fireplace this very moment and it burned to ashes?
We would say that the box existed for one year.
And what if I had burned it after only a day?
Then we would say that the box had existed for one day.'
Even if I destroyed the box after one second, we would say that the box existed for that one second.
I think I follow, said the mayor.
The time traveler leaned forward.
But what if the box didn't last for even a second?
What if it didn't last for any time at all?
Would we say that it was real, that it ever existed?
Clearly, the box must exist in four dimensions to be real.
It must have length, width, height, and it must exist in time.
Time is the fourth dimension and there is no difference between time and the other three dimensions.
But even if time is a dimension, there is a difference, said the doctor.
I can move to my left and right.
I can move backward and forward.
I can move up and down, but I can't move through time.
But you can move through time, said our friend with great excitement.
For one thing, we are always moving forward through time, from the moment we are born to the day we die.
Yes, but...
With the other dimensions, I can move in both directions, said the artist.
I can't move backward and forward in time.
But that is where you are wrong, said the time traveller.
We move left and right or back and forth with the help of our legs or a boat or a carriage.
We can move up and down with the help of stairs, a ladder, or a hot air balloon.
And with the right means, I say we can go back and forth through time.
I say we can go slowly or quickly.
We can even stop and change direction.
Oh, this doesn't make any sense at all, argued Philby.
What if there was a machine that could travel through time the way other machines travel through the other dimensions?
The time traveler asked.
That would be wonderful, said the artist.
You could travel back through time and see all of history.
You could witness the great events that you only read about in history books.
Imagine meeting Napoleon or Christopher Columbus.
And you could travel into the future, said the mayor.
All your money in the bank, then travel thousands of years from today.
When you arrived, you'd find your savings had grown into a fortune.
Yes, said the doctor chuckling, or you might find yourself in a future where people no longer use money.
Traveling through time of all the wild ideas, said the mayor.
That's what I thought at first, said the time traveler.
Then I began to think about how to build a machine that could cross the ages.
I've been working on the problem for years, but I never said anything to any of you.
I didn't want to talk about it until I could show you that it worked.
What?
You've built a time machine, I cried.
The time traveler smiled at us, then stood up and left the room.
Through the open door, we saw him walk down the hall to the workshop where he built his inventions.
He disappeared into the room but was only gone for a minute before he returned.
Our friend stood in the middle of the study, holding an odd-looking machine in his hands.
It was about the size of a small clock and looked very delicate.
Most of the machine was metal, but it also had small parts made of ivory and glimmering crystals.
He placed it on a table and pulled the table closer to the fire.
We all drew our chairs in to get a good look.
The time traveler sat in his chair, looked at us, and then turned to the machine.
This, he began, is only a model.
I built it to test my ideas.
Do you see this lever, he asked, pointing to a small part of the machine?
If I push it forward, it will send the machine into the future.
If I pull it back, it will send the machine into the past.
Then he pointed to what looked like a tiny chair in the middle of the machine.
And this is where the time traveler will sit.
In a moment, I'm going to push the lever forward.
The machine will disappear and travel into the future.
I want you all to watch carefully, because you'll only see it once.
After a moment of silence, the time traveler moved his hand toward the lever.
Then he stopped.
No, one of you should do it, to see that I'm not playing a trick.
He looked at the artist and said, Would you do the honors?
The artist turned to us with a surprised look on his face.
He gazed down at the machine and slowly reached out his hand.
He gently touched the lever with one finger, then pushed it forward.
A small breeze blew out one of the candles and made the lamps flicker.
The little machine appeared to move.
Then it became harder to see.
It was disappearing.
For a moment you could see through it as if it was a ghost.
Then it was gone.
No one said a word.
The time traveler laughed as the mayor looked under the table.
We all stared at one another wide-eyed.
Look here, the doctor said finally.
You don't expect us to believe your machine has traveled into the future, do you?
Yes, said the time traveler with a smile.
Well?
The future or the past.
I designed it to go forward in time when you push the lever forward, but I can't be certain that it works that way.
After all, no one has ever built a time machine before.
But whether it's speeding into the future or the past, I assure you that it is travelling through time.
It must have gone into the past, said the mayor.
What makes you say that? asked the time traveller.
Well, suppose it traveled an hour into the future.
To eleven o'clock, replied the mayor looking at his watch.
It would still be on the table.
To go from ten o'clock now to eleven o'clock, it would have to travel through one minute past ten.
Then it would travel through two minutes past ten, and so on.
So it should still be visible on the table.
That makes sense, muttered the doctor.
Not at all, said the time traveler.
I think it's invisible to us as it travels.
It's like the spokes on a spinning bicycle wheel or a bullet flying through the air.
They're moving so fast we can't see them.
He passed his hand over the table where the time machine had been sitting and laughed.
He was excited at his success.
Besides, I said, if it went into the past it would have been here on this table before we entered the room.
Unless it went far back in time, replied the doctor, it might have gone back to the time of the dinosaurs and had been crushed beneath their feet millions of years ago.
I'm glad to see you find the idea so fascinating.
The time traveler said with a grin because there's more.
What you saw was only a small model.
I've almost finished building the real thing, and when it's done I'll use it to carry me through time.
Would you like to see it?
We said yes, and the time traveler led us down the hallway to his workshop.
There in a corner, lit by lamplight, was another machine.
It looked like the small model, but it was much bigger.
Like the model, it too was made of metal, ivory, and crystal.
And like the model, it looked like an odd mix of bicycle, clock, carriage, and radio.
We could see that it was almost finished, except for some pieces sitting on the time traveler's workbench.
Drawings of the machine were scattered around the room.
Look here, said the doctor.
Are you serious?
Or is this all a trick, a joke?
I have never been more serious, said our friend.
With this machine, I intend to leave the year 1895 and explore the depths of Ta.
