The idea of a device which could control telepathic communication (which on
the whole people were more inclined to believe in before telephones and
radio) was around. Twain might have been familiar with this case from the
early 19th century. https://www.theairloom.org/mindcontrol.php  There are
some inaccuracies in this treatment which is based on the assumption that
the machine James Mathews imagined, which contemporaries dismissed as the
delusions of a madman, actually existed. Thew similarity with more modern
perceptions of mind control by space aliens is striking.

Martha Sherwood

On Sat, Dec 14, 2019 at 7:29 AM Alan Kitty <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> It is my understandings that Tesla introduced the idea of the cell phone
> to Twain at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. Mental telegraphy was Twain’s
> interpretation of our innate mental connection with others, also known as
> Extra-sensory Perception. To paraphrase, Mental Telegraphy is in play
> “when, during a conversation about someone neither of you have seen or
> heard from in years, that person walks in the door.”
>
> AK
>
> Alan Kitty, Executive Director
> Mark Twain Education Society
>
> “Laughter can shatter the most colossal humbug; blow it to rags and atoms
> with a single blast.”
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Dec 14, 2019, at 9:17 AM, Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > In Twain's August 16, 1898 letter to Howells from Austria, it could be
> construed that he is forevisioning the smart phone and texting (although
> calling the future technology "mental telegraphy" and "mesmerizer-button").
> > If you do not have that letter handy, I have recorded it and posted it
> on YouTube (https://youtu.be/mLDxJuVOVy4) and on my facebook page (
> https://www.facebook.com/AdventuresOfMarkTwain/).
> >
> > - B. Clay Shannon
>