A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Technology and Modernization Quotes

This passage starts a lengthy description of the technological means used to restore the holy fountain. Twain wants the readers to understand what he's doing, even if Hank keeps the Arthurians in the dark.

Hank is confronting the phony magician here. He's using technology to cheat, since he used the telegraph to figure out where the king was, but he's also using technology to set the terms of the competition. The loser will literally be ridden out of the valley on a rail… you know, the train kind.

Technology here serves an epic, heroic purpose—Launcelot saving Hank and the king—but also pokes fun at it, since the vision of armored knights on bicycles is pretty silly.