# Bradbury first to imagine past altering future? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314 "2008-12-31T03:12:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/1 "2008-12-31T03:12:27Z")
Was Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” the first literary work that presented the idea that altering an event in the past would affect the future? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/2 "2008-12-31T03:22:36Z")
According to Andy’s Anachronisms [Andy's Anachronisms -- Time Travel Reviews](http://www.timetravelreviews.com/default.htm) Other Tracks by William Sell published in 1938 > [@](#): > > This short story is one of the earliest that I have seen which attempts to explain the branching of timelines, complete with diagrams, as the result of time travellers influencing the past. > Two research assistants borrow an inventor’s time machine and inadvertently change the past. Upon their return they discover their own present altered. Using this knowledge to their advantage the pair hit upon a novel idea to create a more powerful power supply for the time machine, by returning to the past with present technology and allowing inventors of the time a head start on inventing the battery they need. Returning to the present they discover that their gambit has worked and technology has much advanced past where it had been in the own timeline. Having obtained the power supply the pair return to the past where they undo the events that created the accelerated technological timeline. Having put the past back in order they return to a present closely resembling the original one they left, this time with the fruits of their labour. There are probably other examples. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/3 "2008-12-31T03:36:43Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > According to Andy’s Anachronisms [Andy's Anachronisms -- Time Travel Reviews](http://www.timetravelreviews.com/default.htm) > Other Tracks by William Sell published in 1938 Wow! Thanks for the cite. In 1938, altering the timeline ultimately results in a positive outcome for two inventor/entrepreneurs. In 1952, it results in a fascist society, and the guy who causes it is a thrill-seeker. I think there’s a doctoral thesis in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/4 "2008-12-31T07:16:26Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Having put the past back in order they return to a present closely resembling the original one they left, this time with the fruits of their labour. Damn, that’s a brilliant idea! When I get a time machine, I’m going to do something like this! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/5 "2008-12-31T16:07:39Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Damn, that’s a brilliant idea! When I get a time machine, I’m going to do something like this! Sorry. I already have. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/6 "2008-12-31T17:48:57Z")
It’s not exactly like the time we made sure Queen Victoria didn’t get an atomic bomb, but it is close. That time we just made sure Hilderbrandt \*didn’t \*discover radium, and the rest fell into place. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/7 "2009-01-01T00:05:11Z")
I went back and arranged for Harold the Saxon to be killed in 1066, but not much changed (except the @ is not called the appersat as it used to be). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/8 "2009-01-01T02:44:54Z")
Just nobody screw up the election of President Gore in 2000, is all I ask. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/9 "2009-01-01T04:09:09Z")
Just had to post this: [http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html](http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html) ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/10 "2009-01-01T04:42:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Just had to post this: [http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html](http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html) I wish! If he’d assassinated Hitler at the opening of the 1936 Olympic games, _Valkyrie_ wouldn’t have been inflicted upon us. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/11 "2009-01-01T08:16:06Z")
I believe that Heinlein’s short story, “By His Bootstraps” should be mentioned here even though it’s not the first published. Also, even though this is a question that has a factual answer, I think it really belongs in Cafe Society. So here we go… ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/12 "2009-01-02T03:08:43Z")
It’s been quite a while since I read Mark Twain’s _A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court_. I remember that the Yankee certainly did succeed at constructing a working telephone system in Camelot. Without spoiling the end of the story for those who have not yet read it, I’ll just say that while the great majority of what he did was lost, I don’t remember whether or not there might have been one or two small ways that history got changed. If something did survive, then although it is not as substantial as the other examples mentioned in this thread, it is certainly the oldest. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/13 "2009-01-02T03:34:31Z")
“[THE CHRONIC ARGONAUTS](http://arthursclassicnovels.com/arthurs/wells/nauts10.html)” by H. G. Wells had the first Time Machine I know of. It was published in 1888 one year before “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” in fact. I would have to read it again, but I thought there was some minor changes in time even in this early story. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/14 "2009-01-02T04:43:52Z")
Well the example I have is a lot earlier than that William Sale story, but Sale’ s sound great so I’m definitely looking forward to reading that. No my example is a kid’s book from 1906 by E. Nesbit called “The Story of the Amulet”. A group of kids travel to different times and places in search of an amulet (and see it in various stages from in Atlantis, Ancient Egypt, even the future). I remember at least one point where they talk about England with Julius Caesar and then later discuss how they changed things by convincing him to invade Britain. I think there was at least one other such type of thing in there, but I’m not sure. Certainly the earliest type of that occurrence I’ve ever heard… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradbury-first-to-imagine-past-altering-future/479314/15 "2009-01-02T04:47:30Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Just nobody screw up the election of President Gore in 2000, is all I ask. Oops. I mean, damnit, you should have going to say something!