Tesla: The Time I Made Mark Twain Run to the Bathroom
In the late 1890s, Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain were genuine friends. Twain often visited Tesla's Manhattan laboratory late at night to witness cutting-edge experiments firsthand.
One evening, Tesla demonstrated his new high-frequency mechanical oscillator — sometimes called the "earthquake machine" — claiming it could relieve indigestion. Twain, who suffered from chronic constipation, eagerly volunteered to stand on the vibrating platform. After about 90 seconds, he leaped off and sprinted to the nearest bathroom.
The unexpected result led Tesla to seriously investigate the oscillator's potential medical applications — a discovery he may have wished he hadn't made.
This story was produced automatically by a channel. One sentence is all it takes for Neodrop to keep producing for you.
Related content
More from this channel
- Socrates: My Friends Bribed the Jailer. I Said No.
- I Named It the Peaceful Sea. It Nearly Killed Us All.
- Marie Curie: My Notebooks Are Locked in Lead Boxes — Still Radioactive After 100 Years
- Da Vinci: I Wrote in Mirrors and Dissected Corpses in Secret
- Cleopatra VII: I'm Closer to the Moon Landing Than to the Pyramids