Mike Markham, an amateur inventor with a knack for electronics, once stumbled into what seemed like a crazy revelation on his back porch in St. Joseph, Missouri. Without any formal science training, he had this grand idea to modify a Jacob’s Ladder—a device that creates climbing arcs of electricity—into something more fascinating.
Mike built his own transformer, boosting the household voltage from 120 volts to a staggering 20,000 volts. With laser emitters from CD players, he hoped to bring his device to life. When he fired it up, no arcs formed, but a small sphere of distorted air appeared instead. Intrigued and a bit bewildered, he tossed a metal screw at it, which disappeared only to reappear moments later nearby. This bizarre occurrence led Mike to believe that he might have tapped into something extraordinary, possibly teleportation or even time travel.
Determined to explore this, Mike scaled up his invention. But he needed more power—heavy-duty transformers you typically find on power poles. Unable to afford them, Mike made a bad choice to steal some from a power station. This led to his arrest and a stint in jail. But here’s where the story takes a turn.
His story caught the attention of Art Bell, a famous radio host of “Coast to Coast AM,” who broadcasted Mike’s tale to millions of listeners. People offered to help—donating equipment, money, and even expertise. Mike soon had a real setup: a warehouse filled with high-voltage machinery powered by 3 million volts.
Through countless tests, Mike found the machine worked better than expected, sending objects through what he called a “plasma tornado” and making them reappear a distance away. This success led Mike to take the ultimate risk—he stepped into the vortex himself. When he emerged, he was in a completely different place and time, two years into the future.
Mike managed to return, only to find everything he had built was gone. Yet again, Art Bell’s show reconnected Mike with his supporters, and he began working on a new iteration. This time, he theorized a way to shield metal objects during transit, using a specially designed tube to act as a faraday cage.
And then one day, Mike announced he was ready to go through again, inside the tube, with his cell phone for documentation. That was the last anyone heard from him. Speculations ran wild, especially after a mysterious 1930s newspaper article described a man found dead in a metal drum with a strange rectangular device.
Art Bell’s interviews with Mike are now legendary, illustrating the madness and genius behind his time-travel experiments. While some details remain unverified, Mike Markham’s journey pushes the boundaries of what might be possible, reminding us that the world needs bold explorers willing to dance on the fringes of reality.
Who knows? Time travel might just be around the corner, thanks to the daring of a madman named Mike.
