Fun old books... The Mad Scientists' Club by B. Brinley

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K'Tesh

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Anybody else read these books? The Mad Scientists' Club, and The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists Club?

In the latter one there's a chapter about how the club tries to help out during a drought by building and launching rockets armed with small explosive charges and a payload of Silver iodide (cloud seeding).

My old copy turned up the other day, and I'm re-reading it just for fun.

All the Best!
Jim
 
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oks growing up. I bought them for my son last fall from amazon. My favorite was always the midget sub, especially the auction. Sorry about the split response. Stupid pad.
 
I still have a couple of hoaxes I'd love to pull à la Mad Scientists' Club.... :wink:
 
Is this the book where in one of the stories the kids use a parachute flare to help find a downed pilot and in another story someone makes fake dinosaur tracks from a "hatched" egg? If so I loved that book as a kid but could never remember the title!

Stuart
 
Is this the book where in one of the stories the kids use a parachute flare to help find a downed pilot and in another story someone makes fake dinosaur tracks from a "hatched" egg? If so I loved that book as a kid but could never remember the title!

Stuart

Maybe in the first book, certainly not the 2nd. Only just learned about the other two.

[EDIT] In the first book

In "The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake", Dinky Poore makes up a story about seeing a sea monster in order to explain being late for dinner. His fellow club members decide to build a sea monster. Hi-jinks ensue.

In "Night Rescue" the boys make clever use of simple scientific principles in order to rescue a downed Air Force pilot.

In "The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls" the boys liven up Mammoth Falls' Founder's Day celebration with a flying man.

In "The Big Egg" the boys try to hatch a fossil dinosaur egg

In "The Secret of the Old Cannon" the boys use a combination of cutting edge science (for 1963) and simple basics to solve an unsolved bank robbery (and embarrass a couple of sneaks trying to take credit for their work).

In "The Great Gas Bag Race" the boys come up with a truly brilliant concept for winning a balloon race.

In "The Voice in the Chimney" the boys hilariously haunt a house.


Looks like you've remembered the right book Stuart
 
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Then there's the Great Brain series from John D. Fitzgerald.


  1. The Great Brain (1967)
  2. More Adventures of the Great Brain (1969)
  3. Me and My Little Brain (1971)
  4. The Great Brain At The Academy (1972)
  5. The Great Brain Reforms (1973)
  6. The Return of the Great Brain (1974)
  7. The Great Brain Does It Again (1976)
  8. The Great Brain Is Back (Published in 1995 from loose notes after the author's death)
 
Is this the book where in one of the stories the kids use a parachute flare to help find a downed pilot and in another story someone makes fake dinosaur tracks from a "hatched" egg? If so I loved that book as a kid but could never remember the title!

Stuart

Yes.
 
I remember reading the Mad Scientist club for sure, and probably the second one as well. MANY years ago... :sigh: :sigh:

Adrian
 
In a similar vein, I really enjoyed the "There's Adventure in ....." series for older children and pre teens from 1958 by Julian May. (Yes the well known later author) The first one I read was "There's Adventure in Rockets" and it probably served to get me as intensely interested in rocketry as I was in aircraft. There was one on jet aircraft, one on atomic energy and more on other science and engineering topic. Nine total.

I bet a lot of the older regulars in here read that one and the others in the series.

I reread it a few years back and it was still fun!

List of the books: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_May
 
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yep. I remember those, esp. the rocket launching chapter. I seem to remember their efforts were so successful it rained for three days straight. I never threw out my copies but I'm sure my mom did. I'm gonna have to see if I can find copies for my son.
 
I've been trying to remember the title, or at least the names of charactors in a series of books I read about '69 or '70. A boy's parents are divorced and he goes to stay with his father each summer in a small town. He meets a local girl and they have adventures. I rember that there was a story about painting flowers on turtles, which escape and freighten the local ladies tea club. Another time they see someone drilling a water well and try it themselves, but hit an old underground oil storage tank.

NOT Encyclopedia Brown
NOT Big Brain
Not Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew

any ideas? google, Amazon, and B&N searches yielded bothing so far.
 
I've been trying to remember the title, or at least the names of charactors in a series of books I read about '69 or '70. A boy's parents are divorced and he goes to stay with his father each summer in a small town. He meets a local girl and they have adventures. I rember that there was a story about painting flowers on turtles, which escape and freighten the local ladies tea club. Another time they see someone drilling a water well and try it themselves, but hit an old underground oil storage tank.

NOT Encyclopedia Brown
NOT Big Brain
Not Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew

any ideas? google, Amazon, and B&N searches yielded bothing so far.

Try "Homer Price" (or perhaps the sequel) by Robert McCloskey
 
I loved those books as a kid. I bought the collection a couple years ago in hopes that my 2 young nephews would enjoy them as much as I did. Alas, they are more enthusiastic about sports than about reading.
 
I think I found it! I believe it was the "Henry Reed" series of books. His parents were diplomats, and sent Henry to live with his aunt and uncle in a small town for the summer. I read these over 45 years ago, so some of the exact details were fuzzy. The books got good reviews on Amazon. I recommend them for youngsters (preteen).
 
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