The first entry in a completely wacky classic series includes the original illustrations, as well as extra information on accidental inventions that changed our lives, and a few experiments for readers to try

"Once you started anything in Professor Branestawm?s house you never knew when it might finish or even if it ever would."

Poor Mrs. Flittersnoop! It's not easy being Professor Branestawm's housekeeper. People may say he's a genius, but all his inventions always make life more complicated, alarming, and extraordinary than it was before. An innocent bottle of old cough mixture turns out to be an elixir that makes all the waste paper in the bin come to life, the burglar-catcher and the pancake-maker operate just a little too efficiently, and about the spring-cleaning machine, the less said the better. You could write a book about it, but nobody would believe it.