“Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.”- Mark Twain

Many people know Mark Twain as just simply an author. However, Mark Twain was much more than that and can easily be seen as one of the greatest innivators. The most important aspect to understand about Mark Twain as an inventor is that he really had a passion and enthusiasm for inventions. He was fascinated by someone creating something that not only helped themselves, but helped the community around them. Sure, Twain made some money from these inventions but in reality, Twain lost a lot more money than people may suspect. Twain would also finance a lot of other inventor’s inventions that he felt was going to make a lot of money, but these investments always failed and because of that, Twain lost a lot of money. One invention where he lost a lot of money in was the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter, which failed because of its complexity and imprecision. Over time, even with his income from the books he wrote, Twain eventually went bankrupt and had to go on a lecturing/reading tour that traveled all across the world in order to make his money back. As Twain dealt with all of these inventions that didn’t end up working out and the bankruptcy, Twain soon became depressed. Because of this depression, Twains later writing soon became much more dark. According to his testimony he was the first private user of the telephone,"the first person in the world to apply the type machine to literature" in typewriting the manuscript of Tom Sawyer, the first person to use phonographic dictation to compose a novel, one of the

first people to use a fountain pen, and the first private citizen to install a telharmonium—a sort of juke box—in his home.

Not only did he invent some of the most useful inventions of our time but he showed that he was truly enthusiastic about what he was inventing. On December 19, 1871, Twain received his first patent for his invention of the “Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments.” This strap of course would be used for tightening of the shirts around the waist and replaced suspenders. Relating to today, this invention is somewhat of a modern bra used by women. Soon after this invention, Mark Twain received another patent for his invention of a self-pasting scrapbook. Then in 1885, Twain invented a history trivia game. But when looking at Twains self-pasting scrapbook, history shows that this was one of his most lucrative inventions. After making roughly around $200,000 in his other books, this invention alone made Twain nearly $50,000 alone.

The link below shows a few of Mark Twains inventions:

http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/mtatplay/inventions/scrapbook.html

http://classiclit.about.com/od/marktwainfaqs/f/faq_mtwain_inve.htm

http://connecticuthistory.org/samuel-l-clemens-receives-scrap-book-patent-who-knew/