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History remembers nineteenth century inventor Nikola Tesla as a mad scientist, and he did indulge in some very peculiar experiments, most notably the directed-energy weapon, or death-ray, as the press of the time gleefully dubbed it. But the truth is that his work was of groundbreaking importance: he developed the electrical alternating current and the AC motor, and much more. The average person probably knows much more about has a better awareness of Samuel Clemens - who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn under his pen name Mark Twain, and who was known as one of the foremost satirists of his day. But perhaps they don't know that Twain was fascinated by scientific inquiry, or that the these two seemingly disparate men were great friends.
In ''Tesla & Twain'', Debbie Elliott expands this friendship into a novel that covers Tesla's competitive relationship with Thomas Edison, the hydro-electric system at Niagara Falls, and the infamous death-ray. It's an absorbing, fascinating and affectionate look at these two historical figures and it does a great job of bringing them to life.