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Mark Twain Quote

Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:24 pm
by cessna170bdriver
I decided to break off to a new topic in an attempt to avoid hijacking the carb heat control thread.
bradbrady wrote:...But being a Mark Twain folower, and Knowing what he may mean, there may be a vast dicomaty between Navigation and flight in his idea! Let me Know what you think!
brad
Brad,

I got that quote from http://www.twainquotes.com/ under "Air Travel". The full quote wouldn't fit in the allowed space of a signature:

It is a subject that is bound to stir the pulses of any man one talks seriously to about, for in this age of inventive wonders all men have come to believe that in some genius' brain sleeps the solution of the grand problem of aerial navigation--and along with that belief is the hope that that genius will reveal his miracle before they die, and likewise a dread that he will poke off somewhere and die himself before he finds out that he has such a wonder lying dormant in his brain.

Since he refers to "inventive wonders", I believe that "the solution of the grand problem of aerial navigation" refers to the invention of the "airplane", a word probably non-existent in the mid 19th century. I thought the timing of Mark Twain's remark was interesting, as Wilbur Wright was 2 years old at the time.

Miles

Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 7:32 pm
by GAHorn
Montgolfier flew balloons as early as 1740 and during Mark Twain's lifetime balloons were not uncommon. (Used heavily during the civil war.)
I believe he meant aerial navigation.... since balloons were victim of air currents.

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:18 pm
by iowa
what is the link to this quote and carb heat thread?
Samuel Clemens had many great quotes.
he also knew a lot about navigation,
especially down rivers!!
i highly recommend reading his
"Life On the Mississppi".
it is incredibibly fascinating!!
dave

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:35 pm
by cessna170bdriver
iowa wrote:what is the link to this quote and carb heat thread?
Samuel Clemens had many great quotes.
he also knew a lot about navigation,
especially down rivers!!
i highly recommend reading his
"Life On the Mississppi".
it is incredibibly fascinating!!
dave
bradbrady's quote in my first post above came from the carb heat cable thread.

Just about everything I've read from Mark Twain is fascinating!
gahorn wrote:Montgolfier flew balloons as early as 1740 and during Mark Twain's lifetime balloons were not uncommon. (Used heavily during the civil war.)
I believe he meant aerial navigation.... since balloons were victim of air currents.
Didn't airplanes solve this problem? :wink:
(BTW, The eldest Montgolfier brother was born in 1740. The brothers flew their first experimental baloon in 1782, and first manned flight in 1783. I remember the "Bicentennial of Aviation" being celebrated in 1983.)

Miles

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:26 pm
by dacker
Speaking of Mark Twain... I just finished reading Huckleberry Finn to my eiiht year old daughter. It was hard to read to her regarding the slavery aspect and the use of the N-word multiple times on almost every page. Actually, reading these words aloud was very difficult. I had to explain to her that this book was written over a hundred years ago and things were much different then. She enjoyed it quiet a bit.

At the time I was reading it I read in the paper about a teacher getting in trouble for the way she/he handled this in class with respect to the only black child in the class (it wasn't because they read it, it was rather the teacher was overzealous in trying not to offend... at least according to my understanding). Regardless, his books are good reading. I hope the PC police are never able to make his writings unpopular.

David

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:52 pm
by iowa
i enjoy most of his books.
tom sawyer is my favorite,
even tho H.F. is supposed to be his MP.
he had a very dark side.
'pen warmed up in hell' describes this,
and, of course, read
'the mysterious stranger' s.t.
hard to believe the same man wrote tom sawyer!
dave