Tom Swift and His Sky Train

By Victor Appleton (pseudonym for multiple authors) 

Copyright 1931

Goodwill Store finds: four vintage books and a neat bookend - less than $10 total!

Just what I needed – another inexpensive source of vintage books!  (Yes, that is a sarcastic comment.) 

A new Goodwill store just opened up in the neighborhood and right at the front of the store is a nice selection of books, mostly newer, but a few old.  During their recent grand opening event, my Mother and I stopped in – to get stuff we don’t need – and sure enough, I found four vintage hardcover books for just $1.74 each!  This Tom Swift book is one of those four.

 

In this volume, Tom is now a young, married adult, already quite well known for his previous inventions.  His latest work-in-progress is a sky train.  A large airplane with an engine pulls multiple smaller gliders attached by couplings.  At various points along a cross-country trip, individual gliders can be released, gliding gently down to the ground, and new gliders can be picked up, all without the lead plane landing.  Another competing company is also building a similar contraption, and Tom is determined to make it to the World Exposition in San Francisco first, winning the prize money. 

Speed and winning is not his only concern, though.  Tom wants to prove his invention is better.  The competitor’s sky train is not yet ready to drop off and pick up.  While the contest is just about who gets there first, Tom is determined to risk taking extra time to show the superiority of his sky train.

 

In researching the Tom Swift series of books, I found a few interesting facts.  According to this article on npr.org, both Steve Wozniak and Isaac Asimov have cited the fictional Tom Swift as an inspiration.  Also, the Taser, invented by Jack Cover, is an acronym for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle, one of Tom’s fictional inventions.

While I will most likely never invent something as useful and complicated as these inventors, I can still find inspiration in Tom Swift.  He doesn’t get discouraged when things don’t go his way.  Instead, he just puts his thoughts and energy into the next step.  

 

I’m going to start looking for another book in this series, Tom Swift and his Photo Telephone, written in 1914.  Photo telephone?  Will the science fiction stories of today become accepted reality one hundred years from now?  Maybe I’ll Skype my daughters ask them what they think.