The time machine prop was designed by MGM art director Bill Ferrari and built by Wah Chang. Recognized today as an iconic film property, Ferrari's machine suggested a sled made up of a large clockwork rotating disk. The disk rotated at various speeds to indicate movement through time, evoking both a spinning clock and a solar disk. In a meta-concept touch, a brass plate on the time machine's instrument display panel identifies its inventor as "H. George Wells", though the Time Traveler is identified only as "George" in dialogue. In Wells' original story, the protagonist is referred to only as the "Time Traveler".