ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: IN THE DEEP OF TIME (1897)

IN THE DEEP OF TIME (1897) – This story was written by George Parsons Lathrop, who also wrote the libretto for Walter Damrosch’s opera version of The Scarlet Letter. Though Lathrop credited an interview with Thomas Edison for the scientific concepts in this tale, it is NOT an Edisonade. In the Deep of Time is instead one of the many 19th Century stories about “present day” characters waking up in the far future.   

In 1897, the Society of Futurity is experimenting with putting human beings into suspended animation. Our main character is Gerald Bemis, a young man who just lost his True Love and, feeling he has nothing left to live for, volunteers to be one of the Society’s human guinea pigs.

The multi-step procedure begins with Gerald being administered a drug that prepares his body for suspended animation, followed by another drug (mortimicrobium) that renders his body germ-free at all levels. Next, Bemis is placed in a glass cylinder at body temperature to “sleep” away the centuries.

In the 2190s A.D. the future administrators of the Society of Futurity remove Gerald from his glass cylinder and revive him. His body has survived suspended animation and he is introduced to 22nd Century life.

Metallic Helium has been perfected and has been used to construct antigravity space vessels that travel at nearly the speed of light. There are also flying machines for intra-atmospheric flight around the world and those machines obtain liftoff via mechanical wings.

Electrically powered bicycles and carriages abound and travel on their own designated roadways with charging stations provided every so many miles. For travel on rough terrain like in the mountains, people could drive Walking Machines.

Those vehicles sat a few people at a time and moved on tall mechanical legs at roughly 15 miles per hour. Large helium balloons built into the canopies kept the Walking Machines upright no matter the condition of the terrain.

Electric lighting, which made it virtually daytime in cities no matter the real time of day, had changed human work and sleep habits immensely. People could work a few hours, then recreate or sleep for a few more, then work some more throughout all 24 hours. 

The content of books can be transmitted directly into the human mind through a process called telephony. Medicine of the future keeps people in excellent health far into old age and charitable social organizations thrive at every level.

Fabrics and foods of all kinds have been replaced with synthetic versions. Even artificial milk exists. There are city-sized industrial complexes that can be operated by one person sitting at a keyboard.

Contact with Mars was established years ago by way of a massive iron Mars Magnetograph in Wisconsin. The regular exchange of information has now moved on to the arrival of the first Martian to physically visit Earth. The alien is named Zorlin and he stands several feet tall.

Zorlin, like all Martians, can teleport himself and possesses telepathic powers. The inhabitants of Mars are far ahead of Earth in scientific progress but are unfailingly polite in their dealings with Terrans. Their laws prevented physical journeys between our two planets until Earthlings had reached a suitable technological level.

Martians do not reproduce through sex but create their offspring through a means beyond human comprehension.

A Sun Telephone was attempted, using technology similar to the Mars Magnetograph, but no intelligible sounds had yet been received from the sun. Nothing but “strange and awful moanings.” Those results prompted Zorlin to tell his Earth hosts that in the Kurol philosophy of Mars, the sun was considered the abode of lost souls.   

Against enormous odds, the next 19th Century American to be brought out of suspended animation by the Society of Futurity is Ada Pryor, the woman who broke Gerald Bemis’ heart back in the 1890s. Though still attracted to Ada, Gerald transfers his romantic pursuit to Electra, a brilliant and beautiful woman of the 22nd Century.

Unfortunately, the ingenious and perfectly formed Electra is among the elite class called Children of the State, and as such her mating habits are controlled by the government. Electra is less than thrilled with Gerald despite his celebrity status as a man from the distant past.

Even worse, Electra’s current mate resents the attention that Bemis is paying to her and he tries to kill our main character a few times. Gerald survives the murder attempts and finds himself falling back in love with Ada, who actually returns his affections this time. 

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Gerald and Ada are granted the privilege of a vacation together on Mars – a sex-free vacation to ensure that they are actually compatible and not just in the grasp of lust. All goes well and when the couple return to Earth, they get married.

In the Deep of Time is much less concerned with social and economic issues than so many other imitations of Edward Bellamy’s 1888 work Looking Backward. We readers get touches of those subjects, but not the deep dive that Bellamy and his imitators offered.

That fact likely makes In the Deep of Time a more entertaining read for people who – unlike me – usually don’t like works of “ancient” science fiction like this.   

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