[adapted]

by
H. G. Wells

Chapter 1
Introduction

The Time Traveller was talking to us after dinner. We sat in comfortable chairs in his warm room. The fire was burning, and the lights were soft. He looked excited and serious.

“You must listen carefully,” he said. “Some ideas you learned at school are not completely right. For example, geometry.”

Filby, a man with red hair who liked to argue, said, “That sounds difficult to believe.”

The Time Traveller smiled. “I will explain. A mathematical line has no thickness. A mathematical plane has no thickness either. These things do not really exist in the real world. They are only ideas.”

The Psychologist agreed.

The Time Traveller continued, “We say that objects have three dimensions: length, breadth, and thickness. But that is not complete. Every real thing also has Duration. Duration means it exists in Time. So there are four dimensions: three of Space and one of Time.”

Some of us looked confused.

He explained more. “We move through Time from the day we are born to the day we die. We think Time is different from Space. But it is just another dimension.”

The Provincial Mayor tried to understand. Slowly, he said, “Yes… I think I see.”

The Time Traveller went on. “Look at a man at eight years old, then at fifteen, seventeen, and twenty-three. These are only parts of the same person. The whole person exists across Time.”

He showed us a simple example. “Look at this weather chart. The line shows how air pressure changes. The line moves across Time. Time is like a direction.”

The Medical Man asked, “If Time is like Space, why can we not move in Time like we move in Space?”

The Time Traveller said, “Are you sure we can move freely in Space? We can move left and right, forward and back. But moving up is harder. Gravity pulls us down.”

“There are balloons,” said the Medical Man.

“Yes,” said the Time Traveller. “People learned to go up with balloons. So why can we not learn to move in Time? Our minds already move through Time. We remember the past. We imagine the future.”

“But we cannot really travel in Time,” said the Psychologist.

“That is where you are wrong,” said the Time Traveller. “I have been working on a machine.”

“To travel through Time?” asked the Very Young Man.

“Yes. A machine that can move in Space and in Time.”

Filby laughed. He did not believe him.

“I have tested it,” said the Time Traveller.

We began to imagine the possibilities.
“A historian could check past events,” said the Psychologist.
“We could learn Greek from Homer,” said the Very Young Man.
“We could go to the future and become rich,” he added.

Some of us thought the idea was crazy. Others were curious.

“Let us see this experiment,” said the Psychologist.

The Time Traveller smiled. He put his hands in his pockets and slowly left the room. We heard him walk down the hall to his laboratory.

We looked at each other. “I wonder what he will show us,” said the Psychologist. Maybe it was only a trick, we thought. Soon, the Time Traveller returned.

Chapter 2
The Machine

The Time Traveller came back into the room. In his hand, he held a small machine. It was shiny and made of metal. It was not bigger than a small clock. It had small parts of ivory and clear crystal.

He put a small table near the fire and placed the machine on it. A bright lamp shone directly on the model. The room was very well lit. We all watched carefully. It did not seem possible that he could trick us.

“This is only a model,” he said. “It is my plan for a machine that can travel through Time.”

He showed us two small levers. “If I push this lever, the machine will move into the future. If I push the other one, it will move back.”

The Medical Man looked at it closely. “It is beautifully made,” he said.

“It took me two years to build,” the Time Traveller replied.

He continued, “In a moment, the machine will disappear. It will travel through Time. Look carefully. I do not want you to think this is a trick.”

We were silent. The Psychologist was about to speak, but he stopped.

Suddenly, the Time Traveller said, “No. You press the lever.” He took the Psychologist’s hand and guided his finger to the lever.

The Psychologist pushed it. We all saw the lever move. There was no trick.

A small wind moved the lamp flame. One candle went out. The little machine began to spin. It became unclear, like a shadow. For a second, we could still see it. Then it disappeared.

The table was empty. We sat in silence. Filby swore in surprise. The Psychologist quickly looked under the table. The Time Traveller laughed and calmly began to fill his pipe.

“Are you serious?” asked the Medical Man. “Do you really believe that machine travelled through Time?”

“Yes,” said the Time Traveller. “And I have a larger machine in my laboratory. When it is finished, I will travel myself.”

“Did it go into the future or the past?” asked Filby.

“I am not sure,” said the Time Traveller.

The Psychologist thought for a moment. “If it went anywhere, maybe it went into the past,” he said.

“Why?” asked the Time Traveller.

“If it went into the future, it would still be here now. It would have to pass through this moment,” he explained.

“But if it went into the past,” I said, “we would have seen it here before.”

The Provincial Mayor said, “Those are serious problems.”

The Time Traveller shook his head. “Not really. If the machine is moving very fast through Time, we cannot see it. When something moves very fast, like a wheel or a bullet, we cannot see it clearly. It becomes almost invisible.”

The Psychologist agreed. “Yes, that makes sense. If it moves much faster than we do in Time, we cannot see it.” He moved his hand through the empty space above the table.

The Medical Man said, “It sounds possible now. But tomorrow, we may think differently.”

“Would you like to see the real Time Machine?” asked the Time Traveller.

He took the lamp and led us down a long, cold hallway to his laboratory. Inside, we saw a larger machine. It looked like the small model, but much bigger. It was made of metal, ivory, and crystal. Some parts were still unfinished. Papers with drawings lay on a table.