As I put on pace, night followed day like the flapping of a black wing. The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me, and I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, leaping it every minute, and every minute marking a day. I supposed the laboratory had been destroyed and I had come into the open air…
The twinkling succession of darkness and light was excessively painful to the eye. Then, in the intermittent darknesses, I saw the moon spinning swiftly through her quarters from new to full, and had a faint glimpse of the circling stars.
Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous greyness; the sky took on a wonderful deepness of blue, a splendid luminous color like that of early twilight; the jerking sun became a streak of fire, a brilliant arch, in space; the moon a fainter fluctuating band; and I could see nothing of the stars, save now and then a brighter circle flickering in the blue…
- The Time Machine
[N B Wells was imaginative, but he was no physicist. A minute is hardly “hopping,” nor is it “twinkling” - and as for “excessively painful to the eye,” I should hope to tell you: The Time Traveller was absorbing an entire day's worth of solar energy in moments. Not only would everything be Dopplered up past extreme ultraviolet into gamma rays, so he'd perceive only darkness - but he would only perceive that for a moment before being flash-heated to stellar fusion temperatures! Oops…]
What does any of this have to do with your own post? Not a blessed thing. How's your Mom, Ed?
Re: Time Compression
Date: 3 May 2016 17:54 (UTC)As I put on pace, night followed day like the flapping of a black wing. The
dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me, and
I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, leaping it every minute, and
every minute marking a day. I supposed the laboratory had been destroyed
and I had come into the open air…
The twinkling succession of darkness and light was excessively painful to
the eye. Then, in the intermittent darknesses, I saw the moon spinning
swiftly through her quarters from new to full, and had a faint glimpse of
the circling stars.
Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the palpitation of night
and day merged into one continuous greyness; the sky took on a wonderful
deepness of blue, a splendid luminous color like that of early twilight;
the jerking sun became a streak of fire, a brilliant arch, in space; the
moon a fainter fluctuating band; and I could see nothing of the stars, save
now and then a brighter circle flickering in the blue…
- The Time Machine
[N B Wells was imaginative, but he was no physicist. A minute is hardly “hopping,” nor is it “twinkling” - and as for “excessively painful to the eye,” I should hope to tell you: The Time Traveller was absorbing an entire day's worth of solar energy in moments. Not only would everything be Dopplered up past extreme ultraviolet into gamma rays, so he'd perceive only darkness - but he would only perceive that for a moment before being flash-heated to stellar fusion temperatures! Oops…]
What does any of this have to do with your own post? Not a blessed thing. How's your Mom, Ed?