# Whom from history do you suspect was a Time Traveler? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323 "2011-02-05T23:28:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/1 "2011-02-05T23:28:04Z")
Ok, we’ve all discussed time machines, and what you’d do if you had one, and the perils of time travel. Here’s a slight spin on the problem. As you survey the vast panorama of history as you know it, who do you think might be a time traveler, marooned in history and forced to assimilate as best he or she can, Connecticut Yankee style? I’ll start the ball rolling by nominating: [Georg Elser](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Elser), known for being a Swabian joiner, and for attempting the first item on the time travelers to-do list, killing Hitler. [Rudolf Virchow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virchow), who always struck me as being ahead of his time both politically and medically, discovering all sorts of things, the way one would were one from the future (but his rejection of Semmelweis’ and Darwin’s theories would seem to argue against this - unless it was cover). I’d also consider [Marie Curie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie), except that she appeared to have no idea of the dangers of radiation. Unless she subconsciously thought that it could be cured, the way it was in her home era. So…who ya got? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/2 "2011-02-05T23:34:39Z")
[Leonardo da Vinci](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci) gets my vote. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/3 "2011-02-05T23:50:50Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > [Leonardo da Vinci](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci) gets my vote. Make that two. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/4 "2011-02-05T23:50:57Z")
The Founding Fathers always seemed to to have done an impossibly good job anticipating future political problems. Plus, most of them were in their 20’s. Most twentysomethings don’t know shit from shit nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/5 "2011-02-06T00:28:13Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > [Leonardo da Vinci](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci) gets my vote. Mine too–the first guy I thought of. :: reading along :: > [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > The Founding Fathers always seemed to to have done an impossibly good job anticipating future political problems. Plus, most of them were in their 20’s. Most twentysomethings don’t know shit from shit nowadays. :: screech :: They were in their _twenties?_ Wow, that puts a different perspective on things. I always thought of them as being in their fifties, with greying hair, though that may be due to a garbled memory of the powdered-wig clothing styles of the late 1700s. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/6 "2011-02-06T00:32:41Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > [Leonardo da Vinci](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci) gets my vote. > [@samclem](#): > > Make that two. That was a very minor(almost throwaway) plot point in Heinlein’s _The Door Into Summer_ An assistant to the inventor of time travel tried it on himself and was never seen again and it was speculated he went back. His name was Leonard Vincent. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/7 "2011-02-06T00:44:38Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > They were in their _twenties?_ Wow, that puts a different perspective on things. I always thought of them as being in their fifties, with greying hair, though that may be due to a garbled memory of the powdered-wig clothing styles of the late 1700s. Some brief research confirms that they were a lot younger than I thought they were. A few of them were in their twenties in 1776, but, of course, eleven years later they weren’t. Here is a list of some of the major founders with their ages in 1787 and 1776. ```auto 1787 1776 John Adams 52 41 Benjamin Franklin 81 70 Alexander Hamilton 32 21 John Jay 42 31 Thomas Jefferson 44 33 James Madison 36 25 George Washington 55 44 ``` (Note: I just took their year of birth and subtracted it from 1776 and 1787. I didn’t bother to figure out how old they would be in July. Jay I noticed was born in December, and so he was only 30 at the time of the Declaration of Independence.) ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/8 "2011-02-06T00:49:04Z")
As for my own vote, I’m going with Archimedes. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/9 "2011-02-06T01:44:10Z")
Howard Hughes. He got rich with insider knowledge and then lost interest in the local culture. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/10 "2011-02-06T02:21:03Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > As for my own vote, I’m going with Archimedes. This would be my vote, too. He knew way too much to have figured out all the things he knew in just his life time. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/11 "2011-02-06T02:41:26Z")
Galileo ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/12 "2011-02-06T02:45:13Z")
Ben Franklin. Sent to do in the British Empire. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/13 "2011-02-06T02:51:53Z")
Mark Twain, perhaps? He had a quite modern take on consumer culture ([Concerning Tobacco by Mark Twain](http://www.online-literature.com/twain/1315/)) and he even WROTE a time travel novel. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/14 "2011-02-06T03:07:38Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Mark Twain, perhaps? He had a quite modern take on consumer culture ([http://www.online-literature.com/twain/1315/](http://www.online-literature.com/twain/1315/)) and he even WROTE a time travel novel. Plus disgruntled and crotchety, which would be how I’d feel if my Tardis threw a rod in the waybackwhen. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/15 "2011-02-06T03:49:07Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Ben Franklin. Sent to do in the British Empire. In which case he failed miserably; one of the primary reasons for the expansion of the British Empire was the loss of the (Non-Canadian) American Colonies. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/16 "2011-02-06T03:53:21Z")
“They haven’t aged. Einstein was right.” “Einstein was probably one of them.” ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/17 "2011-02-06T14:03:45Z")
Milo Rambaldi ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/18 "2011-02-06T15:15:29Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Mine too–the first guy I thought of. > > :: reading along :: > :: screech :: > > They were in their _twenties?_ Wow, that puts a different perspective on things. I always thought of them as being in their fifties, with greying hair, though that may be due to a garbled memory of the powdered-wig clothing styles of the late 1700s. That doesn’t surprise me in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/19 "2011-02-06T16:51:30Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Milo Rambaldi Um… I hate to break it to you, but… isn’t he fictional? ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/20 "2011-02-06T17:35:49Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Um… I hate to break it to you, but… > > isn’t he fictional? You mean \*\*Alias \*\*wasn’t a documentary? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323.md?page=2)