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A mysterious man wearing modern-looking clothing has been spotted in a 1917 photograph from Canada, leading online theorists to debate whether time travel could be possible
The photograph was captured over a century ago in Canada and shows a gathering of men, women and children positioned on what appears to be a hillside.
However, sharp-eyed viewers have spotted that the image is remarkable for one very specific reason – what seems to be a figure plucked straight from the 20th century.
The photograph was unearthed in Lester Ray Peterson’s 1974 publication The Great Cape Scott Story – a chronicle of the Canadian region’s past.
What has captivated those who’ve encountered this image is just how incongruous the ‘surfer dude’, as some have dubbed him, seems to be.
He’s donning an extremely loose-fitting t-shirt and shorts, flaunting a contemporary tousled hairstyle and is plainly at variance with everyone else surrounding him.
Examining the individuals nearby more closely, the gentleman to his left seems completely bewildered by his appearance.
Moving further right, a lady also seems to be gesturing towards the alleged time traveller, prompting widespread speculation that the man was misplaced both in location and era.
Indeed, it almost appears as if he leapt directly into the frame just as the photograph was being taken.
YouTuber Jamie D. Grant was left astounded when he picked up the publication and discovered the enigmatic image.
In a YouTube clip entitled Time Travel proof found. Truth or Illusion?, he says: “Notice the group, their clothes, their hats. Even how they sit poised for a photo.
“Now look closer. His head uncovered, his hair, his shorts. The man on the left stares in disbelief.
“Has a mysterious traveller proved the impossible and journey through time? What do you think?”
The ‘surfer man’ has now been added to the list of alleged ‘time travellers’, such as the ‘time travelling hipster’ who was spotted in a 1940s photograph, sporting a fashion sense seemingly decades ahead of his contemporaries.
One viewer responded to the video, saying: “I looked through this book as a small child and noticed this picture; not only is it real; but at the time I just felt his clothes were a little ahead for being in this picture. It still gives me the chills.”
Another person said: “The guy looks like he was caught off guard in the picture.
“He definitely looks like he’s from another time period. Cool video.”
However, as some have noted, while ‘surfer man’ may seem out of place among the crowd, his attire could very well have been fashionable at the time.
A person writing on the book on GoodReads.com cited a Post Gazette article, saying: “In the comments to the article, someone mentioned that t-shirts were around then and that they made it into the common lexicon soon after that date – it appeared in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in the 1920s.
“This Article says they were worn by US Navy sailors as early as 1913.
“Considering that other guys in the picture are also wearing shorts, I’m going to say that he’s not a time traveller.
“Other than Bill and Ted, what time travellers would think that a t-shirt and shorts would be the best thing to wear when time-travelling into the past anyway?”
In both cases, physicists unanimously agree that travelling backwards through time remains impossible according to our present comprehension of the cosmos and its principles.
Professor William Hiscock, from Montana State University, explains we can journey forwards thanks to Special Relativity’s time-dilation phenomenon. Travelling in reverse, though, hits a brick wall.
The academic stated: “Time travel into the past, which is what people usually mean by time travel, is a much more uncertain proposition.
“There are many solutions to Einstein’s equations of General Relativity that allow a person to follow a timeline that would result in her (or him) encountering herself – or her grandmother – at an earlier time.
“The problem is deciding whether these solutions represent situations that could occur in the real universe, or whether they are mere mathematical oddities incompatible with known physics.”
The professor emphasised that no scientific experiment or cosmic observation has ever suggested such temporal journeys take place.
