Tesla and Twain, a shocking friendship

September 24, 2019 8:32 AM

In 1894, Nikola Tesla showed off some of his alternating current experiments and equipment to a couple famous friends (Tesla Society), as he recounted in in a pre-hearing interview with Nikola Tesla by his legal counsel in 1916. In this instance, they were Joseph Jefferson, an actor (Wikipedia), and satirist Mark Twain, who got a bit of electrotherapy to help his bowels (Science Vibe). Irish Times has a bit more on the friendship of Tesla and Twain.
posted by filthy light thief (16 comments total)

The photos of Twain in Tesla's workshop apparently come from The Century illustrated magazine (Hathi Trust scans), possibly April 1895, but I wasn't able to find the article and images.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:34 AM on September 24, 2019

satirist Mark Twain, who got a bit of electrotherapy to help his bowels

enema success!
posted by dismas at 8:55 AM on September 24, 2019 [5 favorites]

The photos of Twain in Tesla's workshop apparently come from The Century illustrated magazine (Hathi Trust scans), possibly April 1895

It is April 1895 (Volume 49, page 916 of the book rather than the scan in case the direct link doesn't work). There are some photos of Twain, and one of Jefferson, but I don't see the one in the Irish Times.
posted by scorbet at 9:16 AM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Edison and Mark Twain
posted by 3.2.3 at 9:21 AM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

They fight crime!
posted by Mogur at 9:56 AM on September 24, 2019

They visit mars with the Avatar?
posted by benzenedream at 10:04 AM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

They fight crime!

Don't give the Murdoch Mysteries people any ideas.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:38 AM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

They fight Lovecraftian monsters!
posted by Fully Completely at 10:53 AM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

They build a giant robot and battle Edison for world peace?
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:54 AM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

In 1901 Tesla received the treatment of being a magazine pulp hero defending the world against Martians. (Half-way down the link)

I wrote a blog post about Tesla and his claims about communicating with Mars (along with the claims and interests of other scientists and inventors, including Edison).

And I also wrote a novel in which Tesla acts as a Sherlock Holmes-like figure teaming with Arthur Conan Doyle.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:07 AM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Tesla and Twain: that just makes me feel happy.
posted by doctornemo at 11:34 AM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

I love this thread - thanks for all the additional links and riffs!
posted by filthy light thief at 11:43 AM on September 24, 2019

The theater awards in Chicago are named after Joseph Jefferson and are called Jeff awards for short.
posted by indianbadger1 at 1:57 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Brief reference in there to the Paige Typesetter, Twain's disaster investment, and worth a digression.
posted by ovvl at 4:01 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

> built a giant robot

That would be this one.

Gyroscopically erect!
posted by billb at 10:16 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

OTOH, Twain wasn't a big admirer of telephones, in that by-sitters could only hear one end of a call. From A Telephonic Conversation, The Atlantic, Mark Twain, June 1880:

I consider that a conversation by telephone—when you are simply sitting by and not taking any part in that conversation—is one of the solemnest curiosities of this modern life. Yesterday I was writing a deep article on a sublime philosophical subject while such a conversation was going on in the room. I notice that one can always write best when somebody is talking through a telephone close by. Well, the thing began in this way. A member of our household came in and asked me to have our house put into communication with Mr. Bagley's, downtown. I have observed, in many cities, that the gentle sex always shrink from calling up the central office themselves. I don't know why, but they do. So I touched the bell, and this talk ensued:—

Central Office. [Gruffly.] Hello!

I. Is it the Central Office?

C. O. Of course it is. What do you want ?

I. Will you switch me on to the Bagleys, please ?

C. O. All right. Just keep your ear to the telephone.

Then I heard, k-look, k-look, k'look— klook-klook-klook-look-look! then a horrible "gritting" of teeth, and finally a piping female voice: "Y-e-s? [Rising inflection.] Did you wish to speak to me?"

Without answering, I handed the telephone to the applicant, and sat down. Then followed that queerest of all the queer things in this world,—a conversation with only one end to it. You hear questions asked; you don't hear the answer. You hear invitations given; you hear no thanks in return. You have listening pauses of dead silence, followed by apparently irrelevant and unjustifiable exclamations of glad surprise, or sorrow, or dismay. You can't make head or tail of the talk, because you never hear anything that the person at the other end of the wire says.

Well, I heard the following remarkable series of observations, all from the one tongue, and all shouted,—for you can't ever persuade the gentle sex to speak gently into a telephone: [...]

Nearly 140 years later, not much has changed.
posted by cenoxo at 12:09 AM on September 26, 2019 [1 favorite]