The Clock that Went Backward

Gertrude frequently related her family history, dating back to her great-great-grandmother who migrated from Leiden to Plymouth Colony with "a Puritan refugee" in 1632.

Gertrude owned a Dutch clock, crafted by Jan Lipperdam in 1572, which had been stopped at a quarter past three for as long as the boys could remember.

She claimed the clock had not worked since it had been struck by lightning, and resisted all efforts by the boys to confirm the extent of the damage or attempt repairs.

If not for this defender, Van Stopp argues, Spain would have crushed the Dutch Revolt, and the "birth of religious liberty and self-government by the people" could have been delayed.

As a storm gathers, Van Stopp winds the clock, disregarding the boys' warnings about Gertrude's death.

The townspeople, near starvation and despairing that a relief fleet will not arrive in time, are debating whether to accept an offer of amnesty from Francisco de Valdez.

This short story for boys was published anonymously in the New York newspaper The Sun on September 18, 1881,[5] and not thereafter collected or publicised.

[6][7] Since then, "The Clock That Went Backward" has been regarded as the first known instance of using a mechanical device for time travel[2][8]: 55 [9] and the first story using a temporal paradox as a central premise.

Given its publication history in an American daily newspaper, it is very unlikely that the British writers H. G. Wells and Lewis Carroll, or the Spanish Enrique Gaspar, knew of the story before they wrote their works which used devices or machines to time-travel.