Mark Twain - Love of Science and Technology

Love of Science and Technology

Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla, and the two spent much time together in Tesla's laboratory.

Twain patented three inventions, including an "Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments" (to replace suspenders) and a history trivia game. Most commercially successful was a self-pasting scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages only needed to be moistened before use.

His book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court features a time traveler from the contemporary US, using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. This type of storyline would later become a common feature of a science fiction sub-genre, alternate history.

In 1909, Thomas Edison visited Twain at his home in Redding, Connecticut and filmed him. Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Pauper (1909), a two-reel short film.

Read more about this topic:  Mark Twain

Famous quotes containing the words love of, love, science and/or technology:

    Jealousy is not so much the love of another as the love of ourselves.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    There is no love sincerer than the love of food.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.
    —J.B.S. (John Burdon Sanderson)

    Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.
    Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)