I think we'd all like to have our own time machine. Jump in, type a date in time we'd like to goto, push the lever (or accelerate to 88 mph) and in a flash magically appear in some future world with flying cars or some time in the distant past where a Pterodactyl swoops over just as you appear. Here we will look at some of the most famous 'time travel' claims.
1. The sun glass wearing hipster photograph
The famous photo is from 1941 taken in Canada at the reopening of the South Fork Bridge. The man seems to be wearing modern sun glasses and a modern printed T-shirt. The suggestion here is that he is so out of place for the time period and therefore must be a time traveller from the future. I'd like to see stronger evidence than this. The glasses are probably on trend for their time.
2. The Philadelphia experiment – 1943
This is how the story goes. The ship USS Eldridge had generators that would produce a new magnetic field that would make the ship invisible to enemy radar. When it was switched on the ship was witnessed to have disappeared. However it had subsequently been seen to re appear mysteriously 250 miles away in Norfolk Virginia. It appeared in Norfolk 10 minutes earlier in the day than when it had disappeared from Philadelphia.
When it re materialised all was not well on board. It is claimed some crew members had somehow fused with the metal of the ship at a molecular level. Some members experienced nausea, confusion and even went insane.
3. The Chronovisor (Vatican Time Machine)
This involves all the secrecy of the Vatican and a device that can see through time. Allegedly developed by Italian priest Father Pellegrino Ernetti in the 1950s, this device allowed users to view past events. The device called the Chronovisor supposedly captured residual electromagnetic radiation left behind by past events.
According to Ernetti who went public with his claims in 1970 the device captured events like the crucifixion of Christ and Napoleon's military campaigns. Legend says that the Vatican eventually confiscated the device.
4. Charlie Chaplin's time traveler 1928
In behind-the-scenes footage from The Circus, a woman walks by holding what looks like a cell phone to her ear. Probably an ear trumpet.
5. The Man from Taured
In July 1954 in Tokyo airport a business man presented a passport from the 'United Kingdom of Taured' – a country that does not exist. When asked to point to the country on a map he pointed to an area between France and Spain. He was detained in a local hotel with armed guards. However when they went to check on him in the morning he had gone! Every trace of this man from Taured had vanished.
6. The Tesla Time Travel Incident
Nikola Tesla believed that time and space could be influenced by magnetic fields. In 1895 he was said to have been electrocuted and transported to a different time and space where Tesla could see the past, present and future all at the same time. Following Tesla's death the FBI apparently raided his house and removed and sealed related documents.