CiDR Acquires Temporal Device, Valuable Research Tool

Artist Rich DDT in front of the WWII-era temporal
device called Project Time Machine.

SAN FRANCISCO - CiDR is now in collaboration with artist Rich DDT, who acquired, partially refurbished and has been operating a WWII-era temporal device that was known as Project Time Machine. CiDR adjunct researcher Justyn Myers encountered DDT and the device at a party on Saturday in the SOMA district of San Francisco. DDT, who is an artist and musical performer, was using the device to capture "sound from the future" and says he has been doing so since the summer of 2008.

"I was having a conversation with a friend about how we could play music that was so fresh it hadn't even been produced yet," DDT said, "We decided the only way we could do that is if we had a time machine. I didn't expect to actually find one."

DDT purchased the damaged device, which was being sold as scrap material, from a government surplus website during the economic downturn of 2008, and partially refurbished it. 

"It was in terrible shape when I got it," DDT said, "Apparently it was badly damaged during early tests and then the whole project was mothballed."

According to a few remaining government documents, development of the device began in early 1940 at the University of California Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley, which would later become Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The device was apparently being developed as a type of weapon that would change the outcome of WWII. 

According to the documents, Project Time Machine works by charging a rare Horologium crystal with energy from a plasma vortex reactor on the top of the device. The unique properties of the crystal cause a rift in space-time inside of a sealed chamber. The Allied scientists were experimenting with sending radio signals through temporal rifts to disrupt Axis communication at key points in the timeline.

"The radio circuits are what interested me the most," DDT said, "I was more interested in receiving radio signals than transmitting them though."

The allied scientists at the Berkeley lab were able to create a rift in space-time with the device, but were unable to effectively transmit radio signals. After the device was badly damaged during a test, the project was mothballed in favor of the already successful Manhattan Project.

"In the same way that rockets were designed as a weapon and then later used for space exploration,  I think this device will have great scientific value," Myers said, "I'm excited to see what we can learn from it."

CiDR engineers and scientists will begin working with DDT and the temporal device in the coming months.