The Time Machine: Level 3

By H.G Wells

A Time Traveler goes far into the future, and finds human-likecreatures living there. Then someone takes his time machine.Can the Time Traveler return to the present?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Compass Publishing
• Release date: Feb 24, 2009
• ISBN: 9781599662350

Book preview

The Time Machine

The Fourth Dimension

We sat in comfortable chairs. They were designed by the time traveler, as we shall call him.

Listen carefully to what I say, he said. I shall make statements with which you will not agree.

Why will we not agree? I asked.

"Because the science and mathematics you know are not correct, he said. You believe there are only three dimensions—length, breadth, and thickness."

There is nothing to argue with that, the youngest member of our little group said.

Exactly! the time traveler answered. But there is also a fourth dimension—time.

We know all about time, another member of the group said. Time passes.

I do not agree, the time traveler said. Length, breadth, and thickness do not pass. They stay in the same place in space. We move about them. I can prove that time is the same. It does not pass. We move in time the same way that we move in breadth, length, and thickness.

None of us believed the time traveler, and we argued with him for many hours.

If we could travel back in time, the scientist remarked, we could do things to change the future.

If we could travel forward in time, the doctor said, we could do things that change our present.

The time traveler smiled. It is clear, he said, "that there is only one way I can convince you that I am right. We must conduct an experiment. Please wait here."

He left the room, and we heard him walking toward his laboratory. He soon returned. He was carrying what looked like a clock.

This is a model of a time machine, he said. I plan to build such a machine. Notice that there are two white levers.

The model is very well made, the doctor commented.

It took me two years to make, the time traveler said. I want all of you to understand that when I move the first white lever, the machine will immediately travel in time. It will disappear from the present. It will leave this room.

He turned to the youngest of us. Give me your hand, he said.

The young man put out his hand. The time traveler took it and placed it on the lever.

Now move the lever down a little way and quickly pull back your hand.

The young man did as he was asked. Immediately, there was a sudden wind, and the little machine disappeared.

I was certain this was not a trick, but the doctor was not so sure.

Are you asking us to believe, he said, that the machine is now in a different time?

Certainly! the time traveler answered. Did you notice that in the model there was a seat?

I noticed that, I said.

That is for the time traveler to sit in, he remarked. In my laboratory, a full-size machine is almost complete. As soon as it is complete, I shall sit in the seat and send myself on a journey through time.

Which way did the model go? the scientist asked. Into the future or into the past.

I do not know, the time traveler answered. That is something I still have to work on. He smiled at us. Would you like to see my machine? It is in my laboratory.

Are you serious about this? the doctor asked.

I have never been more serious about anything, the time traveler said. Come.

We followed him to his laboratory. There, we saw the actual machine, not quite complete, but large enough for a man to sit in.

The Time Traveler Leaves and Returns