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An Experiment in Gyro-Hats
An inventor of strange devices fits a young friend who cannot stand up straight with a combination hat and compass, with comical results. Originally a magazine story.
ebook
First published January 1, 1910
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About the author
Ellis Parker Butler
234 books9 followersEllis Parker Butler was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays. His career spanned more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 23, 2018
Hahahaha… I don’t often giggle and snort while reading, but I did with this fantastical adventure. I mean the invention was funny enough, but the crazy characters and the dry pompous style were so hilarious.
Then the illustrations! They matched the character of the story so perfectly. They are all very proper and totally absurd.
The book is sci-fi, but only in that there is a crazy invention or two, but not much like what we think of as sci-fi now. I’d say it is more a comedy than an anything else.
Then the illustrations! They matched the character of the story so perfectly. They are all very proper and totally absurd.
The book is sci-fi, but only in that there is a crazy invention or two, but not much like what we think of as sci-fi now. I’d say it is more a comedy than an anything else.
June 8, 2023
A mildly amusing short tale with a speculative element, though it's there to provide comedy with its absurdity, not to be an actual speculation. A lot of the humour consists in "look at how seriously this small-minded middle-class tradesman takes himself," which is never a favourite direction for me.
The narrator is a hatter, whose daughter has fallen in love with a man who reels and staggers when he walks. They at first assume he's a drinker, even though he's never been seen to take a drink, but the hatter decides to invent a Gyro-Hat to help him walk straight anyway. It turns out that his staggering is because, as a child, he got caught on a rotating turntable that his father had invented to turn balky mules around and spun on it for hours at high speed before he was rescued; the Gyro-Hat, by going wrong, spins him in the opposite direction and "unwinds" him, curing him completely. Along the way, the hatter, testing the hat, drinks for the first time, gets roaring drunk, and wanders up a set of iron railings in his Gyro-Hat, perfectly stable.
It's silly and absurd and, as I say, mildly amusing.
The narrator is a hatter, whose daughter has fallen in love with a man who reels and staggers when he walks. They at first assume he's a drinker, even though he's never been seen to take a drink, but the hatter decides to invent a Gyro-Hat to help him walk straight anyway. It turns out that his staggering is because, as a child, he got caught on a rotating turntable that his father had invented to turn balky mules around and spun on it for hours at high speed before he was rescued; the Gyro-Hat, by going wrong, spins him in the opposite direction and "unwinds" him, curing him completely. Along the way, the hatter, testing the hat, drinks for the first time, gets roaring drunk, and wanders up a set of iron railings in his Gyro-Hat, perfectly stable.
It's silly and absurd and, as I say, mildly amusing.
August 8, 2023
My husband read this aloud to me and we were both dying laughing!
September 2, 2022
Små underlige historier skrevet i en tid, hvor radioen var nyeste opfindelse. Nogle af historier er pudsige, men de fleste er bare underlige.
April 15, 2021
Dejlig befriende humor, uden at være plat eller vulgær, om menneskers møde med teknologien. Lidt bedaget i sproget pga. historiernes alder, men historierne holder stadig.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews