AtDDtA(15): The First International Conference on Time-Travel

[Dave Monroe]

   "Profits flowing from sales of Smegmo provided funding, on a scale
almost describable as lavish, for the First International Conference
on Time-Travel, a topic suddenly respectable owing to the success of
Mr. H.G. Wells's novel The Time Machine, first published in 1895 ..."
(AtD, Pt. II, p. 407)


H.G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895)

Chapter I.

THE TIME TRAVELLER (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was
expounding a recondite matter to us....

[...]

   'Clearly,' the Time Traveller proceeded, 'any real body must have
extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness,
and—Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I
will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact.
There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes
of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an
unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter,
because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one
direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our
lives.'
   'That,' said a very young man, making spasmodic efforts to relight
his cigar over the lamp; 'that … very clear indeed.'
   'Now, it is very remarkable that this is so extensively
overlooked,' continued the Time Traveller, with a slight accession of
cheerfulness. 'Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension,
though some people who talk about the Fourth Dimension do not know
they mean it. It is only another way of looking at Time. There is no
difference between time and any of the three dimensions of space
except that our consciousness moves along it. But some foolish people
have got hold of the wrong side of that idea. You have all heard what
they have to say about this Fourth Dimension?'
   'I have not,' said the Provincial Mayor.
   'It is simply this. That Space, as our mathematicians have it, is
spoken of as having three dimensions, which one may call Length,
Breadth, and Thickness, and is always definable by reference to three
planes, each at right angles to the others. But some philosophical
people have been asking why three dimensions particularly—why not
another direction at right angles to the other three?—and have even
tried to construct a Four-Dimension geometry. Professor Simon Newcomb
was expounding this to the New York Mathematical Society only a month
or so ago. You know how on a flat surface, which has only two
dimensions, we can represent a figure of a three-dimensional solid,
and similarly they think that by models of thee dimensions they could
represent one of four—if they could master the perspective of the
thing. See?'
   'I think so,' murmured the Provincial Mayor; and, knitting his
brows, he lapsed into an introspective state, his lips moving as one
who repeats mystic words. 'Yes, I think I see it now,' he said after
some time, brightening in a quite transitory manner.
   'Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this
geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my results are
curious. For instance, here is a portrait of a man at eight years old,
another at fifteen, another at seventeen, another at twenty-three, and
so on. All these are evidently sections, as it were, Three-Dimensional
representations of his Four-Dimensioned being, which is a fixed and
unalterable thing.
   'Scientific people,' proceeded the Time Traveller, after the pause
required for the proper assimilation of this, 'know very well that
Time is only a kind of Space. Here is a popular scientific diagram, a
weather record. This line I trace with my finger shows the movement of
the barometer. Yesterday it was so high, yesterday night it fell, then
this morning it rose again, and so gently upward to here. Surely the
mercury did not trace this line in any of the dimensions of Space
generally recognized? But certainly it traced such a line, and that
line, therefore, we must conclude was along the Time-Dimension.'
   'But,' said the Medical Man, staring hard at a coal in the fire,
'if Time is really only a fourth dimension of Space, why is it, and
why has it always been, regarded as something different? And why
cannot we move in Time as we move about in the other dimensions of
Space?'
   The Time Traveller smiled. 'Are you sure we can move freely in
Space? Right and left we can go, backward and forward freely enough,
and men always have done so. I admit we move freely in two dimensions.
But how about up and down? Gravitation limits us there.'
   'Not exactly,' said the Medical Man. 'There are balloons.' ...

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/35

http://www.bartleby.com/1000/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine

http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/WelTime.html


"a year often cited"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1895

Anyone have at least a reasonable guess at an approximate date for the
conference here?  Let us know ...


"flammivorous"

Vomiting flame. (definition) by Webster 1913 (print), Tue Dec 21 1999
at 23:41:04. Flam*miv"o*mous (?), a. [L. flammivomus; flamma flame +
vomere to vomit.]

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_407