The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm

This collection of stories, published in 1933, is set in a fictional small English town called Pagwell. The central character, Professor Branestawm, is an enthusiastic inventor but there are many flaws in his genius. Many of the stories feature his housekeeper and his friend Colonel Dedshott (of the Catalpult Cavaliers). In the story “The Professor Invents a Machine”, the professor invents a time machine and travels back in time with Colonel Dedshott. They observe a battle and decide to join in: “the Professor opened his box and rained his deadly bombs on the scene below” and “by the time the machine touched the ground there was hardly a soldier or a revolutionist left.” The two men are lauded by the small revolutionary group that proves victorious in the battle but later, when Colonel Dedshott wants to review the troops, there aren't any troops: “They'd all been  blown to bits with the Professor’s bombs or catapulted with the Colonel’s catapult.”

The author, Norman Hunter (born 23 November 1899), grew up in southeast London. He left school to volunteer for war service and went to the Western Front with the London Irish Rifles. After the war, he began a career as a copywriter in the advertising sector. His second book in 1924 was a manual for advertising; his first, in 1923, was a book on conjuring. Four books of juvenile fiction were published between 1932 and 1938. From 1949 to 1970 he lived in South Africa and had no books published during that time. His return to England led to a return to writing and several further Professor Branestawm books were published, his last appearing in 1983.

In the story “Colonel Branestawm and Professor Dedshott”, the two men decide to go to a fancy dress ball as each other. When an emergency occurs, the professor, disguised as the colonel, is expected to take charge but doesn't know how to. At the end of the story, he comments:
“Thank ever so much more goodness I needn't be you any more and ride enormous great horses and order soldier sort of people about. How you do that I not only do not know but I have absolutely no desire to know. It makes me go all of a heap.”