I wish to identify a book that I owned many years ago and have since
lost.  The book had full-color drawings on every page of creative,
original, and fantastic (unrealistic/imaginary) inventions of machines
and other nick-nacks chiefly designed to cheat, decieve, and otherwise
cause mischeff, both small- and large-scale.  For example, I remember
a drawing of a device that can be used to decieve others into thinking
you're bathing, or an elaborate underground complex designed to
manipulate a game of soccer above-ground to your liking, or a machine
that lures people to it with a sandwich, only to flip them upside-down
and shake change from their pockets, or a special pencil that you take
into an exam, the shavings of which have the answers on them, or a
vast machine that rolls down a street making many kinds of mischeff at
the same time.  It was an amusing book that (I'm pretty sure) was
hardcover, and (I'm pretty sure) came out of the U.K.  It was most
likely published sometime after 1970, and definately before 1989.

Hello.

It sounds like you're describing "Outlawed Inventions" (also known as
"Rodney Rootle's Grown-Up Grappler and Other Treasures from The Museum
of Outlawed Inventions") by Chris Winn and Jeremy Beadle.
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=232625442&searchurl=y%3D0%26tn%3Doutlawed%2Binventions%26x%3D0

Consistent with your description, the book was originally published in
1982 in the United Kingdom.

Various U.S. and U.K. editions are currently on sale at Abebooks.com:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=232625442&searchurl=y%3D0%26tn%3Doutlawed%2Binventions%26x%3D0

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search strategy:
library of congress catalog, inventions humor

I hope "Outlawed Inventions" is the book that you had in mind. If not,
please let me know via the "request clarification" feature, and we'll
go back to the drawing board. Thanks.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 23 Nov 2005 00:36 PST

That second link should have been:

Various U.S. and U.K. editions are currently on sale at Abebooks.com:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&y=0&tn=outlawed+inventions&x=0

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 23 Nov 2005 00:46 PST

I should have also mentioned that New York Times review from 1983
mentions the  machine that rolls down a street making mischief.


"Then there's the Automatic Pesterwheel, which rolls along suburban
streets armed with ''bonking rods'' to knock down chimneys, hoses to
''suck up stuff from drains'' and ''squirt it out again on people's
doorsteps,'' ''milkbottle scatterers'' and ''hydraulic lamp-post
tweakers.''
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E4DD1239F933A15750C0A965948260
http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?srchst=nyt&srcht=a&srchot=a&daterange=period&cre=The+New+York+Times&sort=newest&year1=1981&mon1=01&day1=01&year2=2005&mon2=11&day2=23&query=pesterwheel&field=body

Thank you, Juggler-Ga...that was just what I was looking for!  Great job.