Project Gutenberg 2021-03-11 Public domain in the USA. 140 Wellman, Manly Wade 1903 1986 Field, Gans T. Giunta, John 1920 1970 Giunta Guinta, John Giunta, J. Bratton's Idea Produced from Comet December 40 Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Bratton's Idea" by Manly Wade Wellman is a short story written in the early 20th century, likely during the mid-1900s, that intertwines elements of science fiction with dark comedy. The narrative centers around an aging janitor named Old Bratton, who is obsessed with creating life through electricity. His ambitions and experiments take an unexpected turn when he acquires a ventriloquist's dummy, Tom-Tom, and infuses it with life through his mechanical inventions, leading to a series of chaotic and dangerous events in the world of show business and organized crime. In the story, Old Bratton's endeavors to animate Tom-Tom result in unintended consequences when the dummy gains a twisted form of sentience. As Tom-Tom embarks on a crime spree after Bratton's death, he wields his unwitting abilities to command a gang and orchestrate kidnappings, including that of the beautiful Shannon Cole. The tale unfolds with Ben Gascon, a ventriloquist, trying to uncover the connection between his former partner, Bratton, and Tom-Tom's sudden malevolence. As a cat-and-mouse game ensues between Gascon and the doll, the story explores themes of creation, ambition, and the darker sides of sentience, culminating in a climactic confrontation where the true nature of life and morality is sharply questioned. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 83.5 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Man-woman relationships -- Fiction Robots -- Fiction Inventions -- Fiction Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Fiction PS Text Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery Category: Humour 81686 2025-07-25T13:34:36.877982 text/html 58253 2024-10-18T11:49:49 text/html 374391 2025-07-25T13:34:39.146985 application/epub+zip 373190 2025-07-25T13:34:37.405003 application/epub+zip 95676 2025-07-25T13:34:37.094971 application/epub+zip 416565 2025-07-25T13:34:40.558976 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 409070 2025-07-25T13:34:38.908017 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 131806 2022-09-29T07:23:27.198746 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 74373 2025-07-25T13:34:36.734977 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 54572 2024-10-18T11:49:49 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 18677 2025-07-25T13:34:40.693981 application/rdf+xml 30800 2025-07-25T13:34:37.234971 image/jpeg 5380 2025-07-25T13:34:37.163966 image/jpeg 1028304 2025-07-25T13:34:36.898999 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia en.wikipedia