A science fiction writer by the name of HG Wells, born in the year 1866, wrote many novels using available scientific theory woven around a little fantasy.

One of them was about a device called the time machine. You guessed right. This machine enabled traveling through time, forward and backward.

Jarvis* the main character in the story, a scientist himself, expresses his opinion on "time."

He states that time is just like space, and that one could move forward and backward in time just like being able to move likewise in space.

To illustrate his point, he gets set and invents a time machine. Just like that.

The air of simplicity given to this venture was such that inventing a time machine was just a trifle. Anyone could do it.

In the illustrated version of the story, the artist has created the image of the instrument obviously using the author's description of it.

This time machine resembles an overgrown exercise bicycle, with a handle bar to hold on to. There is a control panel on which two levers are mounted, alongside some dials with pointers, resembling analog speedometers.

The time traveler just occupies the seat and then pushes a lever, and then "whoosh," off he goes into time.

Very conveniently the functions of the two levers are, one to move forward and the other to move backwards in time. Very user friendly indeed!

The "forward and backward" element is a must for all time machines, for, what use would it be if one goes into the future or past and cannot get back to the present?

There is absolutely no mention about the mechanism behind this invention, and the propellant or principle which governs it's functions.

The main focus of the tale is on the traveling part only. One could argue that this is more adventure oriented than a work of science fiction.

The hero of the story puts the finishing touches to the machine, and takes a test drive. He just pushes the future lever by a fraction, and then notes the result.

The wall clock in his laboratory, in which the time machine is parked, indicates that so many hours have elapsed, proving that he has moved forward in time by the number of hours the clock has registered. The test flight was successful.

The machine works! He thought to himself and then unceremoniously takes that small step of pulling the lever a little further, with the hope of making one giant leap into the future.

With my profound apologies to Neil Armstrong, I continue this description. That one small step hurls him into the future by 800,000 years. What a giant leap!

The time taken to reach this destination is unknown. He just traverses forward, with events of the future coming into his line of vision just like a film unfolding, in a sequence.

Motor cars and vehicles, space rockets, modern buildings appear before him as he passes our era or the present era. Then there are visions of ruins too, of wreckages and buildings of shapes that are not familiar to us.

When Jarvis feels he has gone far enough, he releases the grip on the lever and then comes to a halt. The meter on the panel indicates that he has traveled forward by 800,000 years. Ouch!

There is controlled vegetation all around him, and buildings which are different to anything familiar to us. Jarvis is greeted by a curious group of denizens of the future. They are all dressed in designer rags, both males as well as females. They are small made and good to look at. This species is flower powered, grass loving and rather meek.

Sign language enables communication, and Jarvis the tourist is shown around by these enthusiastic people. He learns that these people are the Eloys. A museum which he visits later on, contains all the horrors of the past. Instruments of partial and total destruction are displayed, from the simplest to the most advanced.

He partakes in a meal with them. Meal? Yes, the meal consists of fruits, nuts, legumes and leaves. Looks like these future cats are non carnivorous!!!

Well, spoken too soon, I guess. Jarvis learns in time that there is another species called the Morlocks. The Morlocks can only live in darkness, and so they dwell in channels underground. Light is a poison to the Morlocks, and so they emerge only at nights, to hunt. The Morlocks eat the Eloys. Ugh!

Right! Now the stage is set for an adventure to unfold, and it does!

An adventure involving Jarvis, the Morlocks and the Eloys gets under way.

Jarvis is captured by the Morlocks, and he manages to escape, thanks to his strength and his wits, and of course a box of matches he had found in the museum.

Since light repels the Morlocks, this helped him make his getaway from the underground domain of the Morlocks which he chose to explore.

On getting back, Jarvis is wearied by all this. He wants to go back home, but his time machine is missing.

The Morlocks have taken it! It was just outside the door of what he later learns to be an entrance to the domain of the Morlocks.

He forces open this door and finds his time machine there. As he enters, the door bangs shut. He is trapped once more. Fortunately Jarvis had already removed the two control levers and put them away safely into his pockets. Now he just screws them back and just in time to evade a Morlock onslaught, pulls the "go back in time" lever.

Moments later he is back in his laboratory. Safe, in the era to which he belongs. The time machine has moved from one end of his laboratory to the other. This is the distance the Morlocks had moved it.

Whew! What a relief! Knowing what the future holds in store for us I might as well stay in the present!

Morlocks ... Eloys, who wants them anyways? The Morlocks are too obnoxious to behold, and the Eloys are too meek to hang out with! I would prefer this era to any other. I personally believe that we are in the best of times although most people scream we are in the worst of times. What do you think?

... review concluded

FOOTNOTE: The hero* of the story writes in the first person, and does not introduce himself to the reader by his name. Nowhere in the story is his name revealed. There are occasions in which he is in the company of his friends, and they address him as "man," saying things like "what happened to you, man?"

In the course of his adventures in the future, when he speaks to the Eloys he introduces himself by saying "me man."

Even when he gives a crash course in English to one of those Eloys he still prefers to refer to himself as "man."

This story is set in a place called Richmond in England, and for the sake of convenience, I chose to give him a typical English name, "Jarvis." My apologies to Mr Herbert George Wells.

Albert Einstein stated that time can be pierced by travelling at the speed of light. Einstein's theory associates the speed of light as the only ingredient necessary to conquer time. Most of his theories, if not all, require an understanding of a little bit of mathematics and a lot of pondering.

There are of course many obstacles to reaching the speed of light. Even if these obstacles are overcome. a lot more has to be considered by scientists before any kind of launch into time travel gets under way.

My article entitled "Light As We Know It" contains a brief description on the speed of light and a little beyond. I am in the process of updating the "little beyond" part of it.

Explaining these concepts in simple English require a lot of thinking. That is one reason I keep updating. Please check it out.