Even worse, I'm pretty sure I'd remember at least the WWII one, so it was probably a different anthology (possibly built on a theme of accidental inventions from the sound of things.) I'm not even sure what format the book was, to be honest, could have been a pocket or trade paperback or ... I forget the technical name for it, but the size between TPB and letter paper, that a lot of hardcovers are published in, but still paperback and a couple inches thick, some kind of "best F&SF short stories of the year" omnibus, that I had two or three consecutive years of around that time. Wouldn't have been a library book, school or town, because SF was practically nonexistent on the shelves of those in favor of high fantasy, spy thrillers, mysteries, and romance. (Or as my younger self thought of them, "blah, bleh, yecch, and eww" 
I still go for the last chapter first if I'm by some foul machination coerced to read a mystery novel...)
I still go for the last chapter first if I'm by some foul machination coerced to read a mystery novel...)
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‎noli esse culus
‎noli esse culus