Yeah it is a fun read. Did a lot of thinking while reading it.
Much of the stuff he dropped into 11th-21th century England was beyond the existing technology base; A Colt revolver, telegraph and so on.
But he could have brought in a matchlock. The metallurgy and machining just not there for the Colt. Same goes for the iron or copper wire for the telegraph.
I think he brought in soap though.
Twain/Clemens was writing in the late 19th century and so had no ideas about hang gliders . . .which is the sort of thing that got me thinking about this stuff. Writing at about the same time, Jules Vern didn't come up with it either, though he did shoot men to the Moon with a giant black powder canon. A bit later on, HG Wells imagined "land ironclads" but missed linked tracks. Early Tom Swift novels imagined extensive use of lighter-than-air ships.
Science fiction writers from the 30s missed nuclear power, but then the real scientists didn't ge into it either until 1940.
It is easy to innovate backwards of course. The trick is to come up with something new.
So then: What would the technology of today allow is to do that we simply haven't done yet?
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