That’s the case with Mike Marcum , a man who tried to create a time machine in his backyard, but then mysteriously disappeared.
In early 1995, Mike “Madman” Marcum attempted to build a time machine in the backyard of his home in Stanberry, Missouri, US He began creating a device called the Jacobs Ladder.
The strange mechanism
He used a modified compact disc laser to reduce air resistance between two poles. This will produce a continuous arc. You saw an unusual result when turning on the device.
There was a heat mark, as it would appear on hot pavement, but it was circular in shape like a vortex. So he decided to throw a sheet metal screw through the vortex to see the effect and what would happen. He claims that he disappeared for about half a second and then reappeared a few meters away a second later.
At that time he was only 21 years old and a student of the electricity career. Compared to his friends, it can be said that Marcum was quite intelligent. Marcum apparently tried to build a time machine because he wanted to get future lottery winning numbers. However, it had a problem: it needed a lot of power to make it work.
After some more testing, the CD laser caught fire. He figured if he was going to rebuild the machine again, he could use bigger transformers as well.
His original plan was to buy the transformers, but they are quite expensive. He resorted to the alternative. At the local power plant there were 6 old transformers. Marcum stole six transformers weighing more than 300 pounds from a St. Joseph light and power generating station in King City, Missouri.
While testing his experiments, he caused a massive blackout on several blocks in his neighborhood. Moments later, Gentry County Sheriff Eugene Lupfer arrested him with a warrant inside his home on January 29, 1995, for stealing the transformers.
Your goal is made known
After several months in prison, Marcum was released. And then he was invited to become a guest of Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM . There, Mike told the story of the screw and his plans to build a time machine. He promised that from now on he would do it legally.
Marcum told Art that he still had the intentions of another experiment but that he has no money or spare parts. During the interview, he gave his phone number and received uninterrupted calls for 3 days. The show really helped Marcum a lot because many listeners shared ideas, financing, and spare parts needed to build his long-awaited device.
With this help and donations from his listeners, his next time machine project was more powerful and much bigger than the last.
While the original motor ran at the kilowatt rate, this time it was designed for 3 megawatts. Because he wanted to test the machine on himself.
Additionally, Marcum installed a rotating magnetic field similar to the one used by the US military in the Philadelphia Experiment . He said rotating magnetic fields are more effective and efficient.
Art Bell had Mike Marcum as a guest again a year later. Marcum claimed to be experimenting with a more sophisticated time machine. The electromagnetic vortex was large enough for a man to enter.
The interview ended with Marcum claiming to be about to generate the desired amount of voltage to run the machine. When asked what he would take with him if he ever managed to time travel, Mike said he would bring his cell phone. At the end of the show, Mike decided to give his address instead of his phone number.
During Marcum’s second and final appearance on the Bell show in 1996, he said he had 30 days to go to complete his “legal” time machine. Since then, nothing has been heard from Mike Marcum. There are many rumors about him in various forums, which theorize his possible fate.
Shortly after Marcum disappeared, a listener called the Art Bell show to talk about a strange story he had encountered. In the 1930s, police found a dead man on a California beach.
He was crushed to death in a strange metal tube, the man was unrecognizable, and a mysterious device was found near his body. The caller said the device looked like a cell phone. Was this man’s corpse Marcum himself? Impossible to determine.