The Time Machine

The Time Machine Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

The book opens in the home of the Time Traveler. The dinner guests include the narrator, the Medical Man, the Psychologist and Mr. Filby, and the Very Young Man. After dinner, the Time Traveler and his guests sit in the smoking room and become involved in a discussion of science. The Time Traveler tells his guests that geometry is based on a misconception. He begins to speak of the Fourth Dimension, which is Time. He tells his guests that modern science has overlooked the Fourth Dimension, which he tells them is no different from the other three. The reason it is overlooked, according to the Time Traveler, is that this is the dimension in which humans move throughout their lives.

The Time Traveler speaks of scientists working on models and mathematics of the Fourth Dimension and mentions Professor Newcomb of the New York Mathematical Society. His guests are not easily convinced and do not believe it is possible to move throughout time. The Time Traveler tells them it is possible to move through time because it is just another kind of space. The Psychologist, the Very Young Man, the Medical Man and the narrator begin an excited discussion about the possibility.

The Time Traveler tells them he has been working on a time machine. He brings out his model of the time machine and tells his guests he has been working on it for the past two years. The Psychologist presses the lever; the model disappears. The narrator remarks that the model became ghost like in appearance before disappearing. He does not think it was a trick. The Time Traveler then takes his guests to the laboratory and shows them the full-scale model of the time machine. He tells them he plans to use it to visit and explore places in time.