[log in to unmask] wrote:
>=20
> In trying to track down the genesis of the story of the practical joke =
Nikola
> Tesla supposedly played on Mark Twain as related in Margaret Cheney's
> _Tesla: Man Out of Time_, Prentice Hall, 1981 -- the Chauncey McGovern
> article in Pearson's magazine of May 1899 makes no mention of the incid=
ent.
> Neither do the three letters held by the Library of Congress that were =
also
> referenced.
>=20
> However, one interesting letter does appear in the May 2, 1907 New York
> Times on the editorial page.  It is unrelated to any earlier meetings b=
etween
> Twain and Tesla, but mentions a "beef contract" story written by Twain.
> Written by Tesla - it reads in part:
>=20
> "I have not been discourged by the refusal of our Government to adopt m=
y
> wireless system six years ago, when I offered it, nor by the unpleasant
> prospect of my passing through the experiences described by Mark Twain =
in
> his story of the beef contract..."
>=20
> What beef contract?   What beef contract story that may have been relat=
ed to
> Tesla?
>     =FF
> BarbThere is a short story titled "The Facts in the Great Beef Contract=
"=20
which is printed in several of his essays and short story books. =20
Somewhat lenghty to read, it is also on audio tape put out by Commuters=20
Library. Respectfully, David Glick