I have a time machine and I want to travel backwards about 50 years and make a lot of money by inves

I have a time machine and I want to travel backwards about 50 years and make a lot of money by investing in stock, buying property and betting on events that I already know the result of. With the effects of inflation I reckon that a reasonably attainable sum of money in 2002 (say ?10000) will be a small fortune in 1952 and allow me to make investments which will make me a multi-millionaire. The problem is - how do I transfer this money, today's currency will not be accepted and other accepted methods of transferring wealth (eg gold, diamonds) are inflation proof and will be worth only a relative sum in 1952. Anyone coming up with a workable answer will get a share of the profits.

Peter Evans, Walton on Thames UK

• Having acquired a time machine, why would you actually need to travel back in time to make yourself rich, when you could just make millions by flogging the rights to the ground-breaking technology that you now have in your posession?

  Guy, London

• Have you not seen the film "The Man Who Fell to Earth"? The most valuable commodity - always has been, always will be - is information. Just take back with you details of some scientific breakthroughs that revolutionised the world say 45 years ago, giving you a five year head start over the real inventor.

  Edward, Cheltenham UK

• You would not need a large sum of money to get started, given the potentially massive rate of return on your outlay (particularly on betting). Get some cash in 1952 by getting a temporary job, or selling something you take with you, then start betting with it. You will soon make your first £10,000, but the bookies might get a bit suspicious!

  Glyn Price, Purley

• Buy a microchip in 2002. Sell the technology in 1952 for obscene amounts of money. Repeat with concepts like graphic displays (sell to Xerox), laser printers (Hewlett Packard) etc.

  Rob Lines, Worcester UK

• According to the logic assumed by some of the previous answers, if you patent the machine in 2002, someone could pay the comission for the rights, build the machine, and go back in time and register the patent before you did.

  Arron, Southampton UK

• It doesn't matter that gold is inflation proof as it is the increase in the value of the shares that is important, not the gold. As long as you are careful and buy say 10% of a fledgling firm that you know is going to be huge, you will still own 10% 50 years later.

  Daniel, Brighton UK

• Yes... you may only be able to travel back to where time travel was possible, but if you were able to build the time machine in the first place, assuming the laws of physics or whatever that made time travel possible had always been there, merely undiscovered, time travel would always have been possible, merely undiscovered, and thus no hindrance to travel. For example, the fact that gravity was not defined pre Newton did not mean that prior to that time people spontaneously floated off into space!

  timmy h, Exeter UK

• Further to Stewarts answer...wouldn't it be simpler to go forward to next Saturday evening, jot down the winning lottery numbers, come back and buy a ticket or two ?

  Paul McElroy, Sunbury UK

• Instead of buying 1952 notes today, buy 1952 notes in with 1953 with 1953 notes you bought in 1954, with 1954 notes you bought in 1955, etc. Since in any year Notes from the previous year will be common you will lose no money to sales mark-up at a shop, and the inflation will work in reverse as intended. Now for the very gready, if you were to invest the money in 1952 in some way, and then repeat a few times, it would not take long before you had all the money (alternatively you could just go back further and further).

  Andrew, Calgary Canada