2026-07-02 11:00:35
The time travel concept has long been debated, with some people insisting it’s already happened but has keen kept secret by those in charge.
And an old photo from 1943 shared on social media has fuelled the conspiracy theory, after eagle-eyed viewers spotted what appeared to be a man using a mobile phone.
Stuart Humphrys was the person responsible for sharing the picture on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, when he captioned it: “”British war workers escape to the seaside – this Cornish beach was photographed in September 1943.
“(It would be lovely if one of you were able to identify which beach!)”.
The picture, which was later identified to have been taken at Towan Beach in Cornwall in September 1943, showed a host of sun lovers making the most of the sunshine on the sands.
But it was a man wearing a brown trouser suit that caused a stir, as he appeared to be deeply engrossed while looking at what looked like a mobile phone.
One person commented on the post: “Er…is it just me or is this guy checking his phone…..in the 1950s?”
To which X user Dr Kevin Purcell replied: “Good catch. It’s clearly the man in the shot is a time travelling tourist checking his mobile device.
“Finally the evidence we need that time travel is real.
“We now see things in old photos that we missed before but now we know they’re phones now that we have them.”
While a third pointed out “how much beachwear has changed”.
They added: “Jacket, tie and hat? Mind they did that when I was a kid in the 50s.”
However, responding to the comments, Humphrys insisted the man was “rolling a cigarette”.
It’s not the first time an apparent mobile phone user has been spotted in an old picture, sparking time travel rumours.
In Umberto Romano’s Mr Pynchon and the Setting of Springfield, which he painted eight decades ago, a meeting between Native Americans and English settlers in Massachusetts showed what looked like a topless man with a flip phone.
While Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed to have spotted an iPhone in Pieter de Hooch’s 347-year-old painting Man Hands a Letter to a Woman in a Hall.
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