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The Day Time Stopped Moving
The Day Time Stopped Moving, has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.
22 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1940
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 5, 2015
An interesting older time travel story
This story was first published in 1940 or 1956 depending upon which source you accept. The scientist who builds the machine explains that time can not be a chain which lengthens as time passes because if it is that would mean that it has a beginning. He asks if anyone can imagine a period in which time did not exist, so time must be circular. Of course today both scientists and theologians can imagine a beginning of time and some ask what there was before time began. The story centers primarily on three characters, two human and one canine. The explanations for how time and the machine work are also central to the story.
This story was first published in 1940 or 1956 depending upon which source you accept. The scientist who builds the machine explains that time can not be a chain which lengthens as time passes because if it is that would mean that it has a beginning. He asks if anyone can imagine a period in which time did not exist, so time must be circular. Of course today both scientists and theologians can imagine a beginning of time and some ask what there was before time began. The story centers primarily on three characters, two human and one canine. The explanations for how time and the machine work are also central to the story.
December 19, 2012
This is a weak sci-fi story from the mid-1950s, although it feels to me more like it's from the '30s or '40s. The plot is riddled with logical inconsistencies that pretty much kill anything else the story has going for it. It also includes some outdated gender roles for two of the main characters that I found laughable.
April 14, 2026
"Miller stiffened angrily, and tightened his finger on the trigger. But he had one moment of frank insight just before the hammer dropped and brought the world tumbling about his ears. It brought with it a realization that the whole thing was his fault. Helen was right—he was a coward."
My favorite bit in the story. It actually made me Laugh Out Loud. I mean, Nice Insight but isn't it a little late in the game to realize the truth?
Anyways.....
A Professor Erickson, head of Wanamaker Institute, first laboratory of them all when it came to exploding atoms and blazing trails into the wildernesses of science, creates a "Time Impulser" and he and Dave Miller are whisked Out of the Time Stresm. Sort of.
"You see, Dave, I'm a nut on so-called 'time theories.' I've seen time compared to everything from an entity to a long, pink worm. But I disagree with them all, because they postulate the idea that time is constantly being manufactured. Such reasoning is fantastic!
"Time exists. Not as an ever-growing chain of links, because such a chain would have to have a tail end, if it has a front end; and who can imagine the period when time did not exist? So I think time is like a circular train-track. Unending. We who live and die merely travel around on it. The future exists simultaneously with the past, for one instant when they meet."
So now Erickson and Miller are stranded somewhere In Between the Past and the Future. Time has Stopped Moving For Them.
And Nothing around Them Moves At All. The cars, birds, smoke, wind.....nothing moves. And not a Person around them Moves. They all stand still like statues.
Except these Two Guys. And a Dog, for some reason.
Not the most exciting story ever written.
I can easily picture this being an episode of a cheap 1950's Twilight Zone wannabe t.v. show. Complete with no budget for Special Effects and a Cardboard and Plaster Machine to be the "Impulser". It doesn't even need Blinking Lights. After all, Time has Stopped. And all the other Actors in the show have to do is Stand Still and Not Move.
Lights. Camera. Stop!
So a Below Average piece of Entertainment here. Read it if you're curious but I Don't Recommend this one.
My favorite bit in the story. It actually made me Laugh Out Loud. I mean, Nice Insight but isn't it a little late in the game to realize the truth?
Anyways.....
A Professor Erickson, head of Wanamaker Institute, first laboratory of them all when it came to exploding atoms and blazing trails into the wildernesses of science, creates a "Time Impulser" and he and Dave Miller are whisked Out of the Time Stresm. Sort of.
"You see, Dave, I'm a nut on so-called 'time theories.' I've seen time compared to everything from an entity to a long, pink worm. But I disagree with them all, because they postulate the idea that time is constantly being manufactured. Such reasoning is fantastic!
"Time exists. Not as an ever-growing chain of links, because such a chain would have to have a tail end, if it has a front end; and who can imagine the period when time did not exist? So I think time is like a circular train-track. Unending. We who live and die merely travel around on it. The future exists simultaneously with the past, for one instant when they meet."
So now Erickson and Miller are stranded somewhere In Between the Past and the Future. Time has Stopped Moving For Them.
And Nothing around Them Moves At All. The cars, birds, smoke, wind.....nothing moves. And not a Person around them Moves. They all stand still like statues.
Except these Two Guys. And a Dog, for some reason.
Not the most exciting story ever written.
I can easily picture this being an episode of a cheap 1950's Twilight Zone wannabe t.v. show. Complete with no budget for Special Effects and a Cardboard and Plaster Machine to be the "Impulser". It doesn't even need Blinking Lights. After all, Time has Stopped. And all the other Actors in the show have to do is Stand Still and Not Move.
Lights. Camera. Stop!
So a Below Average piece of Entertainment here. Read it if you're curious but I Don't Recommend this one.
December 31, 2023
I usually love reading Bronze, Silver, and Golden Age sf/f/h because they have so much to teach us. Silver and Golden Age especially, you had classically trained authors writing genre. They brought all that skill with them and their stories showed it. They created the tropes most modern authors live by.
No idea what happened with this one, though. For that matter, no idea what happened with most of the Golden Age material I read this month. They all flopped. I suspect their floppiness was due to the late Golden Age being when the genres transitioned from character-based stories to technology-based stories, what I refer to as "tour-of-wonders" stories, when Big Iron ruled, when the fear of computer technology created the seed of the present day fear of AI.
One thing about living long enough is you nod and say, "Get over it."
One serious flaw in tour-of-wonder stories is when the author doesn't really understand the tech they're using in the story. Yes, machines may be wonderful, and the machine you've described in your story violates so many laws of physics and basic engineering principles it couldn't exit or work if it did.
(I see problems like that in lots of steampunk. Great tech but it wouldn't work so unless your story really involves relatable characters making the tech work, your story fails)
So a pass on this one.
No idea what happened with this one, though. For that matter, no idea what happened with most of the Golden Age material I read this month. They all flopped. I suspect their floppiness was due to the late Golden Age being when the genres transitioned from character-based stories to technology-based stories, what I refer to as "tour-of-wonders" stories, when Big Iron ruled, when the fear of computer technology created the seed of the present day fear of AI.
One thing about living long enough is you nod and say, "Get over it."
One serious flaw in tour-of-wonder stories is when the author doesn't really understand the tech they're using in the story. Yes, machines may be wonderful, and the machine you've described in your story violates so many laws of physics and basic engineering principles it couldn't exit or work if it did.
(I see problems like that in lots of steampunk. Great tech but it wouldn't work so unless your story really involves relatable characters making the tech work, your story fails)
So a pass on this one.
June 10, 2020
This fun, short story published in the 1950’s leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination. Time travel is one of my favorite genres.
The only part that bothers me is time is still passing for the two men and the dog so time definitely isn’t standing still. Actually time was passing in both worlds at different speeds or measures. I assume he was the one transferred back because he was the only one touching the final metal piece. The scientist wouldn’t know if the guy had made it or ended up somewhere else. Hopefully someone new will come along carrying metal items and he can try again. The story wouldn’t work today because most things are unfortunately made of plastic.
Parallel worlds always end up making my head spin. The more I think about it, the more unanswerable questions I have. I love it.
The only part that bothers me is time is still passing for the two men and the dog so time definitely isn’t standing still. Actually time was passing in both worlds at different speeds or measures. I assume he was the one transferred back because he was the only one touching the final metal piece. The scientist wouldn’t know if the guy had made it or ended up somewhere else. Hopefully someone new will come along carrying metal items and he can try again. The story wouldn’t work today because most things are unfortunately made of plastic.
Parallel worlds always end up making my head spin. The more I think about it, the more unanswerable questions I have. I love it.
December 17, 2023
Rating: I liked it 😊
Format: Ebook
Random pick project Dec 2023
Very interesting, clever and engaging short story.
Format: Ebook
Random pick project Dec 2023
Very interesting, clever and engaging short story.
I could stand being married to a drunkard, Dave, but not to a coward ..."
July 25, 2022
The story itself was very well told with a good grasp on how to not make time confusing. The period when it was wrote definitely shows, but it's not too bad. I just Buckner didn't make is so confusing as to who was saying a line sometimes though.
November 22, 2017
Rushed ending and I felt like this book left a lot of unanswered questions. Didn't like the main character, was very contrived.
July 21, 2019
Nothing particularly awesome about this little story, nothing bad either. Just fine.
December 31, 2025
No, not the story of my Tuesday schooldays, when I had double maths in the afternoon. Instead the considerably more interesting story of a drunkard and gambler who commits suicide after his wife leaves him. Only he doesn't die!
When he awakes after doing the deed the world seems to have frozen solid, everyone is rooted to the spot like a statue, he can't open doors or even move a blade of grass. Then a dog bounds up to him, and he meets an old man in a library who explains that they are "caught in time's backwash. Castaways, you might say."
Sounds silly, but it's still better than double maths.
When he awakes after doing the deed the world seems to have frozen solid, everyone is rooted to the spot like a statue, he can't open doors or even move a blade of grass. Then a dog bounds up to him, and he meets an old man in a library who explains that they are "caught in time's backwash. Castaways, you might say."
Sounds silly, but it's still better than double maths.
May 9, 2015
All Dave Miller wanted was to commit suicide in peace. He was drunk. His drugstore was going under and he was doing nothing but drinking only more. His refinance scheme involves race horses. Now Helen was leaving him. Well, he would show her! So he picked up his gun and—
Please read the rest of the review here.
Please read the rest of the review here.
April 11, 2013
That was a nice little story. I liked the theory of time-traveling the author explored not sure I got the science of it or if it would be possible at all, but it made it interesting. The characters were well written and believable for people trapped in a timelessness.
December 8, 2010
Short, but an interesting science fiction story. As I red this, I imagined it as a seed for "The Twilight Zone" or "One Step Beyond"
June 30, 2015
Nice short story...
November 26, 2018
In this short story, the narrator relates his experience with time completely stopping dead in its tracks. He meets a German shepherd and the old scientist during this period, and he finds that time didn’t quite stop with the three of them, just the wo
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews