Product Description
"Victor Appleton" was the pseudonym used by the authors of the Tom Swift series. According to Wikipedia, "Tom Swift is the young protagonist in several series of juvenile adventure novels which began in the early twentieth century and continues to the present. Each such series stars a hero named Tom Swift who is a genius inventor and whose breakthroughs in technology (especially transport technology) drive the plots of the novels, placing them in a genre sometimes called "invention fiction" or "Edisonade". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Entertaining, but out of date . . . .
I have just read Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, and enjoyed it.The book was written in 1911, which means it is nearly 100 years old.It is surprising that it can still prove entertaining, but it shows the "notions" of its time.

The story is typical of the approx. 35 "Tom Swift Sr." books-- written from 1910 to about 1935.Tom comes up with an invention -- in this case, his electric rifle -- and has a number of adventures with it.In this book, Tom first designs the rifle and builds it.There's a sense of expectation, and there's the excitement of testing the weapon out.The new rifle fires blobs of electrons that are like tiny balls of electricity.The weapon is silent, and has a dial that can set the power from "stun" to "destruction."So far so good. We are into a good story, and enjoying ourselves.

Next, Tom decides to go to Africa, to the elephant land, as he calls it, to test the rifle out on big game. He brings along Mr. Durban, an old "shakir" and white hunter, who cut his teeth hunting elephants in Africa.This is where the notions of a century ago start to come into conflict.In the book, Tom and his friends "mow down" countless elephants for their tusks.They also circle over a herd of Cape Buffalo, firing continually, and wiping out a good part of the herd.The buffalo slaughter is justified because "the buffalo MIGHT harm nearby natives in a village."Tom's friend Mr. Damon gets in some trouble for trying to shoot rhinoceros while they are sleeping.It goes on and on.All the members of the expedition -- Tom, Mr. Damon, Ned, and Mr. Durban -- are delighted that they have Tom's airship loaded from one end to the other with ivory.At the end of the book, we are told that they sold the ivory and more than recompensed the cost of the expedition.Well, this is fine.Today, we would not be so sanguine about this type of "mowing down" of game animals.

I personally think the book was heavily influenced by Theodore Roosevelt's famous expedition to Africa to hunt big game.Roosevelt, like many hunters of his day, seemed to feel his macho was at stake in hunting, and did not want to kill just one elephant, but dozens.As for African antelope -- stack them up like cordwood.At that time, Africa was teeming with game and wilderness.We can't really apply today's environmental sensibilities to a boy's book written a century ago.

The book has a very major plot element involving the rescue of two white, American missionaries from the clutches of a savage native tribe.There are heated battles, and many exciting scenes.Tom sets the electric rifle to stun, so we do not have wholesale slaughter of people.Even so, the action chapters are well turned, and provide page-turning moments.

It is only because this book is not comfortable reading in today's world that I rate the book "three stars."It is certainly not the first Tom Swift I would purchase.Even so, with a little understanding and some accomodation to the different world-view of the author, it can still entertain. It has entertaining and enjoyable characters, rich doses of humor, some lively dialog, and enough action to please any teenager.Or any superannuated, would-be teenager such as myself.

Hope this helps you get some sense of what's in this rather typical "Tom Swift Sr" adventure.If it is not your cup of tea, remember-- there are 34 other ones without these criticisms or shortcomings. ... Read more

Product Description
Tom Swift, in his first adventure, has purchased a motorcycle and immediately sets to using his inventive genius to modify it. Anxious to test out all of his enhancements, Tom volunteers to transport his father's revolutionary turbine design plans across the country roads to Albany. Unaware of the evil corporate investors that want to steal the invention for themselves, Tom falls into their trap and finds himself up against the greatest peril of his life, so far. It will be up to Tom to not only rescue the blueprints and turbine prototype, but also bring a hired gang of thugs to justice.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Fun but a warning..,
This first of the Swift books is fun.Written in a more stayed fashion, and less jingoistic than the Red, White, and Blue 50s version, it was slightly more grounded.Parents need to be aware there is a African-American character who is portrayed in full stereotype and treated to racist comments that probablywould have been offensive to many in 1910.Obviously unacceptable today.Parents will need to consider how to handle this section if reading with kids.

Series Book Heaven
Famed childrens' book author and newspaper reporter Howard Garis wrote this classic volume. It captures life in rural New York state during the 1910's. The story is simple and fast paced, and contrary to popular opinion, it does not contain "tom swifties" (bad puns). In fact, it is quite well written. Also, it is not marred by the supposed antisemitism that crept into later volumes. Anyway, the later volumes that depict Jewish gangsters are no more antisemetic than The Godfather is anti-Italian. The character of "Rad" has been criticised as being racist, but, in spite of his Uncle Remus/Mark Twain type dialogue, "Rad" is loyal, hardworking, and clearly one of the good guys. In fact, he provides Tom with an important clue, without which Tom would not have been able to solve the problem. One weakness is that Tom, who is clearly middleclass, is suspicious of those with less money - but he also does not trust the wealthy and powerful. The basic theme of the story could be summarized in the letters PMA - Positive Mental Attitude. While positive thinking does not always "work" in the story, it certainly does not hurt! Tom may get discouraged, but he refuses to give up hope. This is a good lesson for all ages.

Tom Swift Adventures Are Great Reading!
Tom Swift is one of my favorite books by Victor Appleton.Tom Swift has lots of adventures in it.So, if you like adventures then get one of the Tom Swift adventure books to have some fun!(I give it five stars, but for some reason my review shows only two.)

dictated by Edward (8 y/o)

A wonderful Book!
I read this book to my 8 1/2 year old son and he could hardly stand it when we ended the chapter at night, begging me to read to him the next night.We both loved it.The vernacular lent a perfect discussion to the meaning of words and expressions and how our language has changed.Others have referenced the character "Eradicate" who is a "Darky" as being a negative.I found it just the opposite with a wonderful teaching platform as to how our world has changed.My son understands that Blacks weren't always viewed with respect and he's thankful that has changed.He also loved thinking that his grandfather who died before he was born also read these books.I highly recommend it for some good old fashioned fun. Editor reccommends 4-8 years old. I'd say 8-16 years.

History Captured.
The Tom Swift books are fun and simple reading. It's easy to see why these became so popular with the youth of the era. While I don't quite rank their plotting and general literary qualities as high as The Hardy Boy series, they are certainly well worth a look-see, even today.

This particular book interested me as a motorcycle enthusiast. It was fascinating to read about how the technology and terminology have changed in ninety-some years. The motor's rumble was called "explosions." Easing off the throttle was called "turning off some power." And the differences in speed were eye-opening. Tom was thrilled to be able to travel thirty miles in half a day. But the hilarious part was the full conversations he could have or overhear while careening toward imminent collision at such break-neck speeds. The one thing that hasn't changed a bit in all this time is the thrill and love of two-wheels in the wind. Appleton explains it in 1910 as well as anyone since.

The book is also worthwhile in that, without trying, it captures a snapshot of Americana at the turn of the century. Then-current views toward work ethic, criminals, and even minorities are revealed. Perhaps the most surprising is how the freedom, trust, and self-reliance of kids has changed. Today is certainly a different world. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead. ... Read more

Product Description
"Victor Appleton" was the pseudonym used by the authors of the Tom Swift series. According to Wikipedia, "Tom Swift is the young protagonist in several series of juvenile adventure novels which began in the early twentieth century and continues to the present. Each such series stars a hero named Tom Swift who is a genius inventor and whose breakthroughs in technology (especially transport technology) drive the plots of the novels, placing them in a genre sometimes called "invention fiction" or "Edisonade". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Poorly produced machine reprinting
The originals have been squeezed from a 210-page format to half that number of pages by spreading a small typeface across pages with no margins.Although the publisher claims that typographical errors in the original have been corrected, the copy is riddled with ludicrous typos (degree symbols for the letter "o", "&" for the letter "d", "Neil" for "Ned", etc. with an average of 1-1/2 typos per page.Clearly these were scanned by machine and run through a spell checker, untouched by human eye. The illustrations in the originals are omitted. It seemed a service to reprint the original Tom Swift series in an affordable format, but these are cheap, ugly and so carelessly made that they aren't worth the trouble. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a work of fiction. I read this book at the same time as Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope. The title was changed for the paperback edition which is what I have. The hardcover's Tom Swift and His Spectromarine Selector. For those who've never read it, and are wondering what it's about, what's written above sums it up. Tom Swift and his friends have a naval commander on board their plane, the Sky Queen, when a Swift cargo jet carrying Tom's latest invention, the Spectromarine Selector, mysteriously crashes. The commander, Tom finds out through a phone call from his chief of security, Harlan Ames, is an imposter. The real commander had never left Washington. Tom and Bud go to Fearing Island, his spaceport and research facility. They take one of his jet- marines and discover a sunken submarine. They think it's an enemy sub when they discover tools stamped with a "V" for Varada Steelworks. A company taken over by the new government of Brungaria. Tom's father calls his friends in Washington and the truth comes out that it was an American submarine that had gone down and the captain had used Varada tools and they were a souvenir from the time he'd first entered the Navy. Tom's driven off the road by someone in a black car because he's in a race with the Brungarians to see who'll control Atlantis. Another expedition is mounted. Longneck Ebber, the accomplice of the first saboteur, stows away and tries to him but he fails. Tom Swift wins another battle in the Cold War and claims Atlantis for the United States ... Read more

Product Description
In this sequel to Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout, Tom Swift is invited by another inventor to help him with his airship. However, when they take off, and find themselves in the grip of a storm, their little jaunt turns downright dangerous. Can Tom Swift save the day? Perhaps, especially with his knowledge of that new technology - wireless telegraphy!

This book is listed as being written by "Victor Appleton", but that is really a pseudonym. In truth, the Tom Swift books were the fruit of the collaboration of Howard R. Garis (1873-1962), author of the Uncle Wiggily books, and Edward T. Stratemeyer (1862-1930), author of the Bomba the Jungle Boy books and the Hardy Boys mysteries. Yep, that's quite a team.

This is muscular fiction such as boys used to grow up on, filled with adventure, danger and bravery. Tom Swift himself is clean-cut, reverent and respectful, and the sort of boy that every parent in the country wished they could have. My one complaint is that the character of Eradicate Sampson is back, and is (at least in the original 1911 edition) just as much of a demeaning stereotype of African-Americans as before. Yes, I do realize that you can't expect modern thinking from people of yesteryear, but it was very disappointing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Old time muscular fiction for boys
In this sequel to Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout, Tom Swift is invited by another inventor to help him with his airship. However, when they take off, and find themselves in the grip of a storm, their little jaunt turns downright dangerous. Can Tom Swift save the day? Perhaps, especially with his knowledge of that new technology - wireless telegraphy!

This book is listed as being written by "Victor Appleton", but that is really a pseudonym. In truth, the Tom Swift books were the fruit of the collaboration of Howard R. Garis (1873-1962), author of the Uncle Wiggily books, and Edward T. Stratemeyer (1862-1930), author of the Bomba the Jungle Boy books and the Hardy Boys mysteries. Yep, that's quite a team.

This is muscular fiction such as boys used to grow up on, filled with adventure, danger and bravery. Tom Swift himself is clean-cut, reverent and respectful, and the sort of boy that every parent in the country wished they could have. My one complaint is that the character of Eradicate Sampson is back, and is (at least in the original 1911 edition) just as much of a demeaning stereotype of African-Americans as before. Yes, I do realize that you can't expect modern thinking from people of yesteryear, but it was very disappointing.

But, that said, this was an interesting story that I highly enjoyed. ... Read more

Product Description
The Tom Swift series, and other children's books from the early twentieth century, will probably not enthrall today's technologically sophisticated youngsters. But the Swift books convey a sense of what technology was and how middle-American society operated a hundred years ago. In Tom Swift's day, families were expected to inhabit houses surrounded by lawns and gardens and to have barns in which to house a horse or two, or in Tom Swift's case, to carry out exciting engineering projects. The lack of light-speed amenities such as the Internet, cell phones, jet aircraft, and the like produced stories that proceed at a leisurely pace that may induce in today's reader a sense of relaxed nostalgia more than a sense of high adventure.

The Swift series ostensibly deals with a youngster of great technical talent, who turns out a new engineering marvel every few months. But the books are notable for their total lack of technical detail. Indeed, the reader has to work diligently even to get an idea what the various ingenious devices might look like. In the case of the great searchlight, we have no idea how large it is or the principle of its operation. Apparently, some fortuitous misconnection of wiring had produced a new kind of electric current that enabled an otherwise ordinary light source to produce extremely bright rays. The resulting searchlight is then deployed to apprehend some smugglers by being conveyed along the Canadian border in one of Tom's "aeroplanes." This is a craft that operates either as a sort of conventional plane or as a dirigible, depending on what the avionic situation calls for. How the thing is switched between depending on airfoils and propellers for its locomotion and relying on a gas bag is not gone into. In fact, it's hard to imagine the two modes of operation functioning efficiently in the same vehicle. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is one of a series of books about Tom Swift, Sr., the father of Tom Swift, Jr. This book is the 17th book in the series, following "Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon" and preceding "Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship." This book's complete title is "Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone; or, The Picture That Saved a Fortune." The book was originally published in 1914.

In this book Tom Swift is working to invent a telephone that will transmit an image of the person on the other end of the call. The science involved is imaginative, but fictitious. While Tom is working on his telephone someone steals one of his airplanes. Mysteriously, the plane is later returned. However, his friend Mr. Damon is missing. We learn that Mr. Damon has entrusted most of his fortune to a "promoter," which we would recognize as a scam artist. The promoter wants to get his hands on Mr. Damon's property, but Mr. Damon wisely put his property in Mrs. Damon's name. The promoter even makes an effort to take some of Tom's inventions but Tom is too smart for the sleazy promoter. Good for you Tom!

Someone phones Mrs. Damon and tells her that she must sign the deeds and hand them over if she ever wants to see Mr. Damon again. Let us think for a moment. Tom Swift has been working on a gadget that makes a picture of a telephone caller, and someone is calling for a ransom. Do these two facts suggest something? Oh, yeah. How about putting Tom's gadgets into various phone booths to try and get a picture of the caller?

There are a number of other mysterious elements and plot delays thrown in to try and keep the suspense level high. Tom's plane is stolen again. Where could Mr. Damon possibly be? There are other suspicious characters lurking about who may want to steal Tom's photo telephone. The excitement is unbelievable!

Howard Garis wrote this story before World War I. The concept of a telephone that relays the picture of a sender was remarkable at that time. There are many details that Mr. Garis failed to consider, the biggest being the technology it takes to safely and economically send a picture from one place to another, but having the idea is very foresighted. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Early Picture Phone
This book is one of a series of books about Tom Swift, Sr., the father of Tom Swift, Jr.This book is the 17th book in the series, following "Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon" and preceding "Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship."This book's complete title is "Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone; or, The Picture That Saved a Fortune."The book was originally published in 1914.

In this book Tom Swift is working to invent a telephone that will transmit an image of the person on the other end of the call.The science involved is imaginative, but fictitious.While Tom is working on his telephone someone steals one of his airplanes.Mysteriously, the plane is later returned.However, his friend Mr. Damon is missing.We learn that Mr. Damon has entrusted most of his fortune to a "promoter," which we would recognize as a scam artist.The promoter wants to get his hands on Mr. Damon's property, but Mr. Damon wisely put his property in Mrs. Damon's name.The promoter even makes an effort to take some of Tom's inventions but Tom is too smart for the sleazy promoter.Good for you Tom!

Someone phones Mrs. Damon and tells her that she must sign the deeds and hand them over if she ever wants to see Mr. Damon again.Let us think for a moment.Tom Swift has been working on a gadget that makes a picture of a telephone caller, and someone is calling for a ransom.Do these two facts suggest something?Oh, yeah.How about putting Tom's gadgets into various phone booths to try and get a picture of the caller?

There are a number of other mysterious elements and plot delays thrown in to try and keep the suspense level high.Tom's plane is stolen again.Where could Mr. Damon possibly be?There are other suspicious characters lurking about who may want to steal Tom's photo telephone.The excitement is unbelievable!

Howard Garis wrote this story before World War I.The concept of a telephone that relays the picture of a sender was remarkable at that time.There are many details that Mr. Garis failed to consider, the biggest being the technology it takes to safely and economically send a picture from one place to another, but having the idea is very foresighted.

This story is a bit slower than other Tom Swift, Sr., stories from this era.The story is interesting and there was enough mystery to keep me reading, somewhat overcoming the lack of action.If you are looking for a Tom Swift, Sr., story to see if you would like the series, then I recommend you look at one of the other books in the series.

I give readers a warning regarding stereotypes in this book. This era was nearly a century away from us and many races were routinely represented stereotypically in that era. Such is the case with Eradicate Sampson, who Howard Garis depicted as quite intelligent and helpful, but in a demeaning way.Koku, a giant that Tom supposedly picked up in Patagonia, also manages to receive comments that show bias.If you can overcome the dated story and the portrayal of some characters, I think fans of Tom Swift, Jr. and those looking for a quaint mystery from the era before World War I will find this book an interesting read.
... Read more