THE TIME MACHINE RETOLD

The dinner invite

On an enjoyable Thursday evening, I was invited to have dinner by a good friend of mine who I will call the Time Traveler. He had invited Me, along with my friend Filby. A doctor. A psychologist. An artist. And the mayor. I walked through the busy streets of London. Horse-drawn carriages rattled by me as I walked to the Time Travelers place. I soon reached his house, which was situated outside of the city of London. I saw Filby and the others that were invited, sitting around the table as I entered. Our friend the Time Traveler was an interesting but very intelligent man. His inventions and innovations filled the shelves around us. As I sat down, the Time Traveler walked in and sat down with us. "Listen carefully," he said, pushing his hands together in front of him. "What I am about to explain will sound very strange to you all. You will probably have a hard time believing me. Because I am about to tell you that what you were taught in school was wrong." There was a little bit of silence before Filby leaned forward and said. "I beg your pardon?" "Let me explain." Said the Time Traveler. "Now we've all been taught that everything has three dimensions. Length, width, and height. For example. This cube is 6 inches long, four inches wide, and two inches high. You would say that this box has three dimensions and no more."

He paused and look around the room. Seeing us agree to his statement so far. "Well you would be wrong. What they didn't teach you is that everything also has a forth dimension. And without it nothing would exist." "I don't understand." Said Filby. "The box only has three dimensions. Not four." "But wait." Said the Time Traveler. "I built that box in my workshop about a year ago. What if I threw it in the fireplace right now? We would say that the box existed for only one year. And what if I had burned it a day after I made it? We would say that it existed for one day. Even if I immediately destroyed it after making it. We would still say it existed for a short period of time." "I think I understand." Said the mayor. The Time Traveler leaned forward in his seat. "But what if the box was never made? It wouldn't exist for any time at all. So clearly. The box has to exist in all four dimensions to be real. It has to have length, width, height, and it must exist in time. Time is the fourth dimension. And it is no different from the first three." "But there is a difference." Said the doctor. "I can move my hand up and down and back and forth and left and right. But I can't move it through time." The Time Traveler smiled and seemed to get more excited. "But you can move through time! For one thing. We are always moving forward in time. From birth to death." The artist lean forward and said. "Yes. But with the other dimensions, I can move forwards and backwards. But we can't move forward and backwards in time." "But that is where you are wrong. We move by the help of our legs, a carriage, or a boat. And with the right

means. I say we can move through time as well."

"Oh this doesn't make any sense!" Argued Filby. The Time Traveler chuckled a little at this and continued asking. "What if there was a machine that could travel through time? Like how other machines travel the first three dimensions?" "That would be fantastic!" Said the artist. "You could travel back and meet famous artists that are no longer alive! Or you could see famous moments in history happen before your eyes. Imagine seeing Napoleon or Christopher Columbus!" "And you could travel into the future." said the mayor. "You could put your money in the bank and travel ahead of time to see the fortune that your savings had turned into!" The doctor chuckled a little and said. "Yes, or you might find that people no longer use money in the future." "Traveling through time. Of all the wild ideas." The mayor said as he laughed a little. "That's what I thought as well." Said the Time Traveler. "But as I thought of it more and more. The idea of how to build one become more clear to me. For years I have been working on building one. But I didn't want to tell you all about it until I could perfect my idea. But now I have completed it, and that is why I have brought you here tonight." "What?! You've built a working Time Machine?!" I cried. Up until now I had been sitting in silence, listening to my friend explain the forth dimension. But I could not believe he had actually figured out a way to travel in time. The Time Traveler smiled at us. He then got out of his chair and walked out of the room and went to grab something. He came back with a small machine in his hands. He placed it

on the table where we could all see it.

It's hard to describe what it looked like. But it looked like a small carriage like contraption. It was made of metal and bronze and had a red chair for the traveler to sit in. There was a panel in front that had some tiny dials with numbers on them, and a lever beside them. Our friend the Time Traveler sat in his chair and looked at the model himself for a second before saying to us. "This is only a small model I have built to test my ideas. Do you see this lever?" He asked as he pointed to the lever on the panel. "If I push the lever forward, it will send the machine into the future. And if I push it back, it will send it into the past." He looked at us and then continued saying. "In a moment I will push the lever, and the model will disappear before your very eyes. I want you to watch it carefully. Because you will only ever see this once." After a moment of silence, the Time Traveler reached for the lever. Then he stopped. "Actually. I think one of you should do it. Just so you'll know that I am not playing a trick on you." He looked towards me and asked. "Mr. Hillyer would you like to do it?" I was a little surprised when he called on me, but I agreed to do so and leaned down to the machine. I reached my finger in and carefully pushed the lever forward. Lights on the machine turned on, and it started to make a noise like that of a car engine. It started to turn into a blur before our very eyes. Some of us rubbed our eyes to see if we were going mad. But no. The machine had actually disappeared, just as the Time traveler said. It then completely disappeared. We all stood there, completely shocked and unsure of what to say.

The Time Travelers smile stretched from ear to ear as he saw that his invention worked. The mayor who was still in shock looked under the table and tried to come up with an explanation for this. He then said to the Time Traveler. "I must say that was a very convincing demonstration. But you don't actually expect us to believe that your machine has traveled into the future, do you?" The time traveler looked towards him. "Yes!" He exclaimed. "Well, the future or the past. I designed it to go both ways, and Mr. Hillyer pushed the lever forward which means it should have gone into the future. But I can't be sure if it did go into the future. It may have gone into the past for all we know. After all, no one has actually built a Time Machine before! But I can assure you gentlemen. It is indeed traveling through time." "It must have gone into the past then." The mayor said. "What makes you say that?" The Time Traveler asked. "Well suppose it traveled into the future." The mayor replied. "It would still be visible on the table. Because it never moved." "That makes sense." The doctor said. "Actually no it doesn't." The Time Traveler said in response. "I think we can't see it because it's speeding through time. Just like how we can't see the spokes on a bicycle wheel when it's moving. Or when a bullet flys through the air. It's too fast for us to see it. Besides. If it traveled into the past. It would have been here before we entered the room." "Unless it went farther back in time." Said the doctor. "It might have gone back to the age of the dinosaurs, and gotten crushed by one of them millions of years ago!" "Maybe so. I'm glad you're finding this idea so interesting. Because I have more to tell."

The Time Traveler stood up and placed his hands on the table. "What you saw was only a small model. I have actually made a full scale version of it in my workshop. Its not done yet, but when it is finished, I will use it to travel through time. Would you all like to see it?" He asked curiously. We said yes and followed him to his workshop, which was near the back of the house. He opened the door and showed us the machine. It was like the little one but of course bigger in size. It looked even more impressive as we looked at it. The doctor then asked the Time Traveler. "Look here. Are you serious about traveling through time? Or is this all some trick? A joke?" The Time Traveler turns back to us and responds. "I've never been more serious in my life. With this machine I intend to leave 1894, And explore the depths of time.