[SPOILER] Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*

[pinkribbonscars]

My understanding of the story was that Mandus had come up with the idea for the machine a long time before going to Mexico. But the bankers would not lend him money to finance it. So when he read his uncles letters (Alexander?, Daniel?) he went to Mexico thinking he could find one of those orbs there and use that to build the machine. If he found one I don't know. But something happened to him there.

Have I misinterpreted it completely?

He must have found something in Mexico, because it gave him the visions of the 20th century. I think it was an Orb, or similar artifact.