Summary

George H. Smith The Ordeal of Colonel Johns

Johns-Hayes, "that this is some sort of time machine and you're going to transport great-great-great-great-grandfather from the past into the present?"
"No, Mrs. Hayes. This isn't a time machine in the comic book use of the term. It is just what Professor MacCulloch has called it, an historical Reintegrator. The theory upon which it is based, the MacCulloch Reaction, says that every person who ever existed, and every event which ever took place caused electrical disturbances in the space-time continuum of the universe by displacing an equal and identical group of electrons.
Source: Gutenberg

George H. Smith The Ordeal of Colonel Johns

Appleby-Simpkin took charge of the Colonel and ushered him to a seat of honor near the podium while the new President prepared to deliver her speech. Decker and the professor managed to obtain seats on either side of Johns just as Rebecca started. He managed to whisper to them, "I'm sure amazed! I'm sure amazed! All these nice old ladies feeling the same way about things as we do."
Source: Gutenberg

George H. Smith The Ordeal of Colonel Johns

The task of the Reintegrator is to reassemble those electrons. That is why Professor MacCulloch is now placing your ancestor's sword in the machine. We will use that as a base point from which our recreation will begin."
The machine was humming and small lights were beginning to play about its tubes and dials. "If our calculations are accurate, and we believe that they are," Decker said, "within a very few minutes, Colonel Johns should be standing before us as he was on a day approximately a week before his heroic action in the battle at Temple Farm."
Source: Gutenberg

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