Charlie Chaplin Time Traveler

A Siemens 1924 hearing aid may explain the Charlie Chaplin time travel clip. Of course, the Siemens 1924 hearing aid is a far less intriguing explanation than a time traveler caught on film. The behind-the-scene footage of the 1928 Charlie Chaplin film The Circus became an Internet sensation because of time travel. When users saw a woman talk into what looked like a cell phone, it got everyone talking. But now reality may be settling in, now that a Siemens hearing aid might disprove the time travel theory.

Since filmmaker George Clark posted the video days ago, Internet viewers and bloggers have gotten carried away. Clark found behind-the-scenes DVD footage from Charlie Chaplin's The Circus in which a woman passing by may be talking into something - something that wasn't around in 1928.

Although the Siemens hearing aid was around back then, and may be the actual answer to the mystery, it was easier to say that a time traveler was caught on film. To many, the device the woman was holding almost looked like a cell phone - or, at the least, it was fun to assume that it was.

This theory made the "Charlie Chaplin time travel" video into the YouTube hit of the week, which is now up to over 2.6 million hits. But inevitably, people who weren't time travel buffs took a look at it and presented their own answers to what the woman had.

In all likelihood, the woman may have been trying to hear better, since aids for that were invented in the 1920s. The Siemens 1924 hearing aid is being brought up as the possible brand name, as explained in another YouTube clip.

The video shows a Google search for "1924 hearing amplifier," which took the user to the 1924 Siemens model. A picture of a man using that device appears to resemble how the woman used her device on The Circus set.

If this solves the Charlie Chaplin time travel mystery, it shows how Internet users can both embrace myths and debunk them. But Clark didn't come up with it, although he claims to have tested the video with friends and audiences before making his claim. Yet for all the vetting, the Internet at large debunked him in just a day or two.

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