"O Novo Acelerador" , um conto de H. G. Wells , publicado pela primeira vez em The Strand Magazine , dezembro de 1901. O o texto está disponível, por exemplo, no Classic Reader . De Wikipedia :
"The New Accelerator" is a 1901 science fiction short story by H. G. Wells. The story addresses the invention of an elixir that accelerates all of an individual's physiological and cognitive processes by some orders of magnitude, such that although the individual perceives no change in themselves, the external world appears almost frozen into immobility and only the motion of most rapidly moving objects - such as the tip of a cracked whip - can be perceived.
The exploration of the consequences of this is incomplete; for example, the inventor and his companion find that while under the influence of the elixir they can easily singe their clothing from the heat produced by friction against the air as they walk, such is the rapidity of their motion; but this same air friction would render it impossible to breathe at a correspondingly accelerated rate, and this difficulty is ignored.