There is a new viral video floating around, dubbed the “Charlie Chaplin Time Traveler.” Someone made a discovery in a clip from the Charlie Chaplin film “The Circus” in which a woman appears to be talking on a cellular phone. The anomaly was discovered in a behind-the-scenes feature by George Clarke, an Irish film maker. However, a cell phone wouldn’t work in 1928, and time travel is still impossible.
The Charlie Chaplin ‘time traveler’
George Clark, a filmmaker in Ireland, discovered the anomaly in the Charlie Chaplin film “The Circus,” which was filmed in 1928. He noticed in the DVD extras, according to CBS, a most unusual image. The clip in question of people attending the premiere of the film at the then Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the famous Hollywood venue, now Mann’s Chinese Theater. While people are hustling, bustling and hob-nobbing among themselves, a woman walks through the frame, appearing to hold a cellular phone. The clip shows the woman in detail, and it does look like it could be a time traveler caught on film. However, there are a few unfortunate hitches in the theory.
A slight catch
Traveling through time is theoretical. It has never been proved, in any meaningful sense, to be possible. So far, the leading idea is that a “wormhole” would have to be tunneled from one point in space and time to another. It works fine on paper but hasn’t been proven. Assuming that time travel is possible, how is a cellular phone supposed to work in 1928? There wasn’t even FM radio yet. Since the time traveler is entirely theoretical, perhaps it’s a Verizon iPhone, or even a Verizon white iPhone 4 from the future. (Those also aren’t proven to exist, either.)
Surroundings
The other problem is that if the lady with the “cell phone” in the frame was a time traveler, the people around her would be panicking. They aren’t, so it is obviously not a time traveler, just a person with an incredible imagination and maybe too much time on his hands.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Charlie Chaplin Time Travel
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