Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain In 1911,
Charlotte Anne Moberly (1846–1937) and
Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924) published a book entitled
An Adventure, under the names of "Elizabeth Morison" and "Frances Lamont". They described a visit to the
Petit Trianon, a small
château in the grounds of the
Palace of Versailles, where they claimed they saw
ghosts, including that of
Marie Antoinette and others. Their story caused a sensation but was not taken seriously.
"Chaplin's Time Traveller" In October 2010, Northern Irish filmmaker
George Clarke uploaded a
video clip entitled "Chaplin's Time Traveller" to
YouTube. The clip analyzes bonus material in a DVD of the
Charlie Chaplin film
The Circus. Included in the DVD is footage from the film's Los Angeles premiere at
Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1928. At one point, a woman is seen walking by, holding up an object to her ear. Clarke said that, on closer examination, she was talking into a thin, black device that had appeared to be a "
phone". Clarke concluded that the woman was possibly a time traveller. The clip received millions of hits and was the subject of televised news stories. Nicholas Jackson, associate editor for
The Atlantic, says the most likely answer is that she was using a portable hearing aid, a technology that was just being developed at the time.
New York Daily News writer Michael Sheridan said the device was probably an early hearing aid, perhaps an Acousticon manufactured by
Miller Reese Hutchison. It was claimed that his clothing and
sunglasses were of the present day and not of the styles worn in the 1940s, while his camera was anachronistically small. Further research suggested that the man's present-day appearance would not necessarily have been out of place in 1941. The style of sunglasses he is wearing first appeared in the 1920s. On first glance, the man is taken by many to be wearing a printed T-shirt, but on closer inspection, it seems to be a sweater with a sewn-on emblem, the kind of clothing often worn by sports teams of the period. The shirt resembles one worn by the
Montreal Maroons, an ice hockey team from that era. The remainder of his clothing would appear to have been available at the time, though his clothes are far more
casual than those worn by the other individuals in the photograph. His camera is smaller than most of that era, but cameras of that size did exist; while it is unclear what make his camera was,
Kodak had manufactured portable cameras of equivalent size since 1938. The "Time Traveling Hipster" became a case study in viral Internet phenomena which was presented at the
Museums and the Web 2011 conference in
Philadelphia.
Mobile device in 1943 A photograph from 1943 of genuine authenticity, showing a scene of holidaymakers on Towan Beach in
Newquay, Cornwall, was uploaded to
Twitter in November 2018 by multimedia artist
Stuart Humphryes, which was alleged by some viewers to show a time traveller operating an anachronistic mobile device, such as a phone. This tweet was picked up by news outlets including
Fox News in the US, and various tabloid newspapers in the UK, such as
The Daily Mirror. Fuelled by media websites such as
LADbible it gained global coverage via news outlets in Russia, Iran, Taiwan, Hungary, China and Vietnam. amongst others. Humphryes, the original uploader, was quoted in these stories as dismissing the time travel theories, stating that the man in question was probably just rolling a cigarette.
Rudolph Fentz The story of Rudolph Fentz is an urban legend from the early 1950s and has been repeated since as a reproduction of facts and presented as evidence for the existence of
time travel. The essence of the legend is that in New York City in 1951 a man wearing 19th-century clothes was hit by a car. The subsequent investigation revealed that the man had disappeared without a trace in 1876. The items in his possession suggested that the man had traveled through time from 1876 to 1951 directly. The
folklorist Chris Aubeck investigated the story and found it originated in a science fiction book,
A Voice from the Gallery (1953) by Ralph M. Holland, which had copied the tale from "I'm Scared" (1951), a short story by
Jack Finney (1911–1995).
Mike "Madman" Marcum In 1995, a caller to
Art Bell's syndicated radio show
Coast to Coast AM named Mike Marcum claimed to have discovered a means of time travel using a
Jacob's ladder. In attempting to build a larger version of this device, Marcum admitted that he had stolen several power transformers from the local power company, St. Joseph Light and Power in
King City, Missouri; in using them to power his "time machine" he caused a local blackout that brought him to the attention of authorities. Police records confirmed that he had been arrested for this theft and sentenced to 60 days in jail plus a suspended sentence. In 2015, Bell interviewed him again on his radio show,
Midnight in the Desert, where Marcum claimed that he had been transported two years into the future and away, landing near
Fairfield, Ohio, but suffered amnesia. While living in a homeless shelter, Marcum slowly remembered his name, his
Social Security number, and other memories that enabled him to re-enter society. However, the
Missouri State Highway Patrol has no record of him being reported as a missing person. which will "kill three billion people". In the years following his last posts and disappearance in 2001, the failure to fulfill his specific predictions led to a decrease in his popularity. Criticism has pointed out flaws in Titor's stories, and investigations suggested his character may be a hoax and a creation of two siblings from Florida. The story has been retold on numerous websites, in a book, in the Japanese
visual novel/
anime Steins; Gate, and in a play. He may also have been discussed occasionally on the radio show
Coast to Coast AM.
Bob White/Tim Jones Similar to John Titor, Bob White, or Tim Jones sent an unknown number of
spam emails between 2001 and 2003. The subject of the emails was always the same: an individual seeking someone who could supply a "Dimensional Warp Generator." In some instances, he claimed to be a time traveler stuck in 2003, and in others he claimed to be seeking the parts only from other time travelers. Several recipients began to respond in kind, claiming to have equipment such as the requested dimensional warp generator. One recipient, Dave Hill, set up an online shop from which the time traveler purchased the warp generator (formerly a
hard drive motor), while another Dave charged thousands of dollars for time-travel "courses" before he would sell the requested hardware. The name "Bob White" was taken from an alias that the second Dave used when responding (a reference to the "Bob-Whites" of
Trixie Belden-fame). Soon afterward, the time traveler was identified as professional spammer Robert J. Todino (known as "Robby"). Todino's attempts to travel in time were a serious belief, and while he believed he was "perfectly mentally stable," his father was concerned that those replying to his emails had been preying on Todino's psychological problems. In his book
Spam Kings, journalist Brian S. McWilliams, who had originally uncovered Todino's identity for
Wired magazine, revealed that Todino had been previously diagnosed with
dissociative disorder and
schizophrenia, explaining the psychological problems of which his father had spoken. Todino's time traveller was referenced in the song "Rewind" by jazz trio
Groovelily on their 2003 album
Are we there yet? The song used phrases taken from Todino's emails within its lyrics. although he refused to tell investigators the location or workings of his craft. A mysterious man posted his bail, and Carlssin was scheduled for a court hearing but was never seen again; records show that he never existed. The Carlssin story likely originated as a fictional piece in
Weekly World News, a satirical newspaper, and was later repeated by
Yahoo! News, where its fictitious nature became less apparent. It was soon reported by other newspapers and magazines as fact. This, in turn, drove word-of-mouth spread through email inboxes and internet forums, leading to far more detailed descriptions of events.
Håkan Nordkvist A video uploaded in 2006 shows a Swedish man named Håkan Nordkvist claiming he was accidentally transported to 2046 while attempting to fix the sink in his kitchen. There in the future, he immediately met someone who turned out to be himself, about 70 years old, and with whom he "had a great time". He filmed short footage of the two smiling and hugging each other and showing the tattoo they had on their right arms. The story was part of a marketing campaign promoting the insurance company's pension plans. ==Alleged time-travel technology==