The Thinking Machine and My First Experience with the Great Logician

To prove logic solves all, the Thinking Machine, Professor Van Dusen challenges the world chess champion to a game and helps a newspaper reporter out of a sticky situation. Read by Eric Meyers.

Meet America's answer to Sherlock Holmes - Professor Augustus SFX Van Dusen. Tragically, his creator Jacque Futrelle died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

"Logic, logic, logic. Two plus two makes four, not some of the time, but all of the time." That's the unwavering belief of this crime and puzzle-solving Professor, who harnesses the power of his focused mind to think through any problem. This diminutive egghead scientist and irascible genius is known to the world as 'The Thinking Machine'.

In five stories recorded for BBC Radio 4 Extra, he sets out to prove the infallibility of logic in some extraordinary ways. Each tale features classic elements of an apparently unsolvable problem.

Born in Georgia in 1875, American author Jacques Futrelle wrote almost 50 tales featuring Professor Van Dusen, as magazine serials and published collections.

Abridged by Adrian Bean

Producer: Joanna Green

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Greenlit Productions.