Mr. McMurtry's Bubble Hat: And Other Great Moments in American Ingenuity

America is the land of original thinkers, of great ideas -- of wacky inventors. For every Thomas Alva Edison there have been thousands of Alden L. McMurtry s, the Connecticut tinkerer who left behind his immortal design for a hat that produced streams of soap bubbles -- perfect for show-stopping chorus numbers. Or so he dreamed. Like McMurtry, the zany visionaries who patented their awesomely impractical concoctions missed hitting the jackpot (by a mile!). But they created something unique -- the ability to make us laugh. Now, reproduced directly from the records stored in the U.S. Patent Office, are the best of the worse! Illustrations.