Editing Time travel (section)

=== Early time machines ===
{{main| Time machine (device)}}
One of the first stories to feature time travel by means of a machine is "[[The Clock that Went Backward]]" by [[Edward Page Mitchell]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Page Mitchell|first=Edward|title=The Clock That Went Backward|url=http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a2221.pdf|access-date=December 4, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015110200/http://horrormasters.com/Text/a2221.pdf|archive-date=October 15, 2011}}</ref> which appeared in the ''[[The Sun (New York)|New York Sun]]'' in 1881. However, the mechanism borders on fantasy. An unusual clock, when wound, runs backwards and transports people nearby back in time. The author does not explain the origin or properties of the clock.<ref name="Nahin2001" />{{rp|55}} [[Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau]]'s ''El Anacronópete'' (1887) may have been the first story to feature a vessel engineered to travel through time.<ref name="firsttimemachine">{{cite journal|last=Uribe|first=Augusto|title=The First Time Machine: Enrique Gaspar's Anacronópete|journal=[[The New York Review of Science Fiction]]|volume=11, no. 10|issue=130|page=12|date=June 1999}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Gaspar|first=Enrique|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yAUiSP_Mr6wC&pg=PT17|title=The Time Ship: A Chrononautical Journey|date=2012-06-26|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=978-0-8195-7239-4|language=en|access-date=2022-12-29|archive-date=2023-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324181757/https://books.google.com/books?id=yAUiSP_Mr6wC&pg=PT17|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Andrew Sawyer]] has commented that the story "does seem to be the first literary description of a time machine noted so far", adding that "Edward Page Mitchell's story ''The Clock That Went Backward'' (1881) is usually described as the first time-machine story, but I'm not sure that a clock quite counts".<ref>{{cite news|last=Westcott|first=Kathryn|title=HG Wells or Enrique Gaspar: Whose time machine was first?|work=BBC News|date=9 April 2011|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12900390|access-date=August 1, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329161914/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12900390|archive-date=March 29, 2014}}</ref> [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (1895) popularized the concept of time travel by mechanical means.<ref name="britannica1">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Sterling|first=Bruce|url=http://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction/Major-science-fiction-themes#toc235731|title=science fiction &#124; literature and performance :: Major science fiction themes|publisher=Britannica.com|date=August 27, 2014|access-date=November 27, 2015|archive-date=October 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005152142/http://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction/Major-science-fiction-themes#toc235731|url-status=live}}</ref>