Tesla's Time Travelers Read Online Free PDF

real timeline !”
    Minerva looked to her classmates to see if this was all some practical joke. Was this a historical “punking?” She looked around for a hidden camera in the classroom.
    “Is this a ‘punk?’” she asked. “You know, like…‘you’ve been history punked?’”
    “No, Messinger,” Bette Kromer replied. “This is real. We activate the sinkhole with Tesla’s device and go back in time. We did it last spring. TV has The History Channel. We channel history,” Bette gushed enthusiastically. “I like to call us Gang Greene!” She laughed at her own play on words. No one else laughed.
    Minerva Messinger didn’t know what to think. Were her classmates wacko? Was Mr. Greene wacko?
    “It’s real, Minerva,” Bette Kromer said.
    Bette’s use of Minerva’s given name and not her surname “Messinger” surprised her as much as anything that had already occurred. Confusion registered on her face.
    “It will all be clear to you soon, Minerva,” Greene said. He walked over to the middle of the classroom to a laptop computer and projected a 1776 map of Philadelphia onto the old roll-up movie screen that Victor Bridges had pulled down after a nod from Mr. Greene. “Today,” Mr. Greene began formally, “we will visit Philadelphia on July 2, 1776. That’s the day that John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, said would be the birthday of the new nation, as that was the day the resolution for independence was passed. Each of you has brought your IPod. I hope you have programmed the historic walking tour of Philadelphia CDs that Victor downloaded for you. And let’s synchronize on Standard Time, as Dr. Franklin’s concept of Daylight Saving Time hasn’t caught on yet. In fact, it won’t even be used until World War I.”
    Oh no, Minerva thought. In her zeal to have the perfect colonial costume, she had overlooked the CD download. She was not about to admit that. She hoped she wasn’t blushing too much.
    “It is important that you have the classic Andrew Dury map of colonial Philadelphia if we become separated,” Mr. Greene continued. “However, keep your IPods in your pockets and out of sight unless, as I said, we become separated. Okay, who can tell me the estimated population of Philadelphia according to David Mc McCullough in 1776?”
    Bette’s hand went up.
    “Yes, Bette?”
    “Thirty thousand people,” she replied.
    Minerva Messinger rolled her eyes. Bette was right, of course. She was always right. Minerva added a frown.
    “Yes, thirty thousand is correct, Bette.”
    Bette beamed.
    “Okay, students, please take a seat and buckle up. Remember, it can be a bumpy ride.”
    “It sure was a good thing the Washington Monument wasn’t completed in 1865,” Victor said. “Or our portable might have been stuck at the point.”
    Minerva was perplexed.
    Mr. Greene explained. “I’m afraid we brushed the side of the Washington Monument when we landed last spring, Minerva. It was my fault, really—the twilight threw my landing off a bit.” He used his podium as a steering wheel, he explained to Minerva.
    “I think it was Shelby Foote’s fault, Mr. Greene,” Bette said. “He was our tour guide.”
    Minerva was confused. Shelby Foote? She knew the name—a dead Civil War historian. Well, they were on the outskirts of Cassadaga, the “psychic capital of the world,” and Minerva’s mother, a true believer in the paranormal, went for a monthly reading at the Cassadaga Hotel to “channel” Minerva’s dead grandmother, but Minerva had never heard of dead historians being conjured up. This was right out of fruitcakeville, she thought. Mother would love it.
    “Now,” Mr. Greene said. “I take full responsibility.” As the students watched, Greene placed a thumb drive into a USB port on his computer and typed in coordinates for the present day National Historic Park at 39 degrees, 56 minutes and 12 seconds North Latitude and 75 degrees, 8 degrees, 2 seconds West Longitude. “I’m