Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau’s Cast Iron Box

Origin
Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau was a Spanish writer of plays, novels and zarzuelas, or light operas. One of his most important works was El anacronópete, the first story to involve a time travel machine. It features the anacronópete, which is a large cast iron box powered by electricity and pneumatic devices. Inside it is Garcia fluid, which prevents age regression when traveling backwards in time.

The story’s main protaginists include the original inventor Sindulfo García, his friend and assistant Benjamín, don Sindulfo's niece Clarita and her lover Captain Luis, among others. Their adventures include trips to France, Spain, China and Pompeii, meeting the rulers and fruitlessly searching for the secret of immortality. When they reach the flood of Noah, Sindulfo’s collective adventures have driven him insane, where he intentionally speeds the machine up until it explodes. He later wakes up to a Jules Verne play alongside the married Clarita and Luis.

Collection
A few years before the book was published, Warehouse 12 agents received a ping from the Chinese mainland. The agents found Rimbau with a large cast iron box, which he immediately gave to them. He said the object possessed an anomalous fluid already flowing inside it, which had no effects until he started tinkering with it. His experiences with the machine’s abilities were documented by Warehouse staff into a manual and he remained on friendly but non-active terms with the organization. One of the collecting agents at the time took great interest into the artifact. Years later, that agent, known as H. G. Wells, used the knowledge of the box to create her own successful time machine device, which she published in her brother’s stories.

Effects
The box has surface rust and some major dents, which seem to heal back into their original state after time. The inside walls have a fluid sloshing inside, with samples of it extracted and in separate glass containers. It has been determined to be the engine and shield of the artifact, with any large source of energy acting as a fuel source. The box has noticeably larger interior dimensions, allowing it to fit between twenty to thirty people; however, it only changes size with the addition of more passengers.

It can move to any event in recorded time. It is unable to go beyond events in the pilot’s present as it requires a specific event, not a date, as the destination. The box will also move accordingly if the location is in a different area in the world. Before travel, all passengers must be physically exposed to the fluid inside. Otherwise, they will grow progressively younger when they travel backwards until they vanish at their birth. Also, it has been noted to cause discord, jealousy and jabs for power among the populace inside when used. Finally, damaging the internal equipment can lead to an explosion causing all those inside to vanish without trace. It is currently unknown whether they are killed in the accident or displaced in time.