I am assuming since this was turn-of-the-nineteenth century technology, possibly electric batteries (?) Or did George come up with something new?
Others have told me it is mentioned in the film, but I watched the move awhile back and there was no mention in the story of the power source, as far as I could see.
there is no mention that i can remember, also you would think there would some type of indicator tell him when he was low on power.
shareHere's what is possibly the first battery (1800).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaic_pile
But, as I recall, a featurette emphasized the crystal in the handle as some kind of force, or science-magic, behind the basic working of the TM. And, as I recall, he adjusts the crystal-knobbed handle, and the TM moves through time, forward or backward.
We don't really know if the TM was "powered", in the sense that a motor turned the big wheel, and that associated mechanisms propelled the TM through time. It may have been that the crystal did the time-travel magic, and the big wheel just turned in response to the time-travel force.
It could be argued that, since the movie did not show us a battery and motor, that they are not a part of the story, and cannot be assumed. We saw the crystal handle, and that seemed to be emphasized as the driver.
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The story is king.
I always was under the impression that the lever with the crystal on it played a huge role in the time machine's functioning and powering. But it's all a complete mystery since there's no backstory offered about the mysterious crystal.
shareThe general belief of the New Agers is that crystals channel energy from all around us. This kind of thinking seems to go back to the early 1970s. but we may be seeing it in this 1960 movie.
Was a crystal knob mentioned in the H .G. Wells book?
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The story is king.