Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone or the Picture That Saved a Fortune

Tom Swift Sr. #17

by Victor Appleton

Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone is a novel about the adventures of Tom Swift, a young inventor who builds a revolutionary new device - a photo telephone that can transmit images over long distances. Tom's invention draws the attention of wealthy investors, who want to use the photo telephone for their own purposes. But when Tom discovers that they have dishonest intentions, he sets out to stop them, using his resourcefulness and ingenuity to outwit his opponents. With the help of his friends, Tom battles to protect his invention and ensure that it is used for the good of all.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Victor Appleton was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its successors, most famous for being associated with the Tom Swift series of books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...

The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941.
In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift

Reviews

[Whitney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's the cover of the version I received! It was a sort of novelty gift from a used book store.


What a trip into mass-market boys' adventure books, created in 1914. Yes, 1914!!! This was during the years when young lads said, "Now, see here!" And they had to pardon their slang when they said "Nothing doing" instead of No.

Young Tom Swift is a highly successful inventor who lives with his father. Swift has a best friend named Ned, who is a banker, and he has a neighbor who is also an inventor, named Mr. Damon.

Throughout the chapters in this book, Tom and Ned are constantly referred to as "chums" as they experiment with Tom's latest invention and as they take breaks from their work and go on outings via motorboat or biplane or airship. They encounter an enemy who antagonizes poor Mr. Damon, who always "blesses" things. "Bless my buttons! Bless my watch chain!" Boy howdy.

But here's the real kicker. Tom invents a photo telephone that takes pictures and transmits them over a wire and wow, the quotes from the story just speak for themselves.

" If a certain person talks to me over the wire, I can turn my switch, and get a picture of him here at my apparatus connected with my telephone. To do that I'll merely need a sending apparatus at the other end of the telephone line . . ."

"Could you arrange it so the person who was talking to you would have his picture taken whether he wanted it or not?" asked Ned.

Wow, what a brilliant way to capture un-American activities, Mr. Narc! Yes, let's make this possible. What a smashing idea these two chums have concocted. Makes me want to caper about and perform boyish "stunts." Just like in the book. See here:


Tom Swift has dozens of adventures available in the public domain. Y'all are welcome to go look for 'em. But readers need a strong stomach or acute tunnel vision to get through the appearances of Tom's personal servant, a black man oddly named Eradicate who says shit like "massa" and shocks himself on Tom's invention because he doesn't understand how electricity works. He's depicted as being on the same social level of a half-wit "giant" named Koku, who likes to smash things. Those types of characters are a hurtful addition to an otherwise amusing franchise. The author of this book pandered to a bunch of narcs workin for the "man," stepping all over those without power or education. Booo, I say!

I mean, yeah, Tom and his "chum" caught the bad guy who had bad intentions, but the story perpetuates the stupid stereotype that wealthy caucasian fellas always save the day, gee whiz. Bleh.

I'm gonna stay away from the rest of this series. Gonna go see if Walmart sells those new-fangled photo telephones. Gonna find out if Skype has a privacy agreement . . .

[David Hibberd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the Tom Swift Sr. books as a child and again when I got my Kindle in 2010. They are an easy read and enjoyable. It is interesting to see how writing has changed since these books were written.

[Rex Libris]

In this installment Our Hero makes a telephone that can also transmit a picture of the person on the other end of the phone line.

As it happens, the antagonist steals the fortune of Tom's friend, Mr. Damon. No one can figure out who the antagonist is since he calls from pay phones. Tom hides his invention in the all of the phone booths in the area the antagonist works from, and discovers who it is. This discovery leads to the apprehension fothe bad guy and the restoration of Mr. Damon's wealth.

[Tiffany Tinkham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good old classic young readers book about a young inventor that invents this awesome inventions and then goes on these wild and crazy adventures, sometimes getting into trouble in the process.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone, called a talking telegraph at the time. In May 1999, the first commercial camera phone, the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, was released in Japan. In between those events, Tom Swift invented a photo telephone, albeit in a book of fiction published in 1914.

Tom’s first attempt at his photo telephone failed. Several attempts failed. That is understandable. Even attorney Perry Mason once lost a case on that TV show of the same name. In the opening scene of the episode, his client was pronounced guilty. Of course, Perry then prepared, filed, and won an appeal before the closing credits. Tom Swift is also known for eventual success.

In this book, Tom’s friend Wakefield Damon has been tricked into risking his fortune with a slick con artist named Shallock Peters. Before Tom learns about this, he runs into Mr. Peters, or rather Peters’ boat runs into Tom’s boat on Lake Carlopa. From the beginning, Shallock Peters is presented as an arrogant, pretentious, obnoxious, bullying man. Of all the villains seen in the Tom Swift books up to this point, he is the one the reader is most likely to hate. Then, Mr. Damon disappears and Mrs. Damon is extorted. Before he finds out about the Damons’ troubles, Tom starts work on a photo telephone which, from the beginning of the book, his father says will never work. And it does not work for chapter after chapter until there is a fortunate accident. Eventually, Tom realizes that his new invention will not only be a commercial success, it will also help save the Damons. Note that the subtitle of the book is “The Picture That Saved A Fortune.”

As with the preceding book about the giant cannon, there are a lot of technical details in this book. Also as with that earlier book, I am not knowledgable enough to say if it is at all feasible. However, I like the scientific/engineering aspect. When Scotty tells us that the transporter has Heisenberg compensators, we don't care if it is true. We are just glad that the transporter gets Kirk and Spock or Picard and Data to where they need to go. But the technical detail adds to the story. Once again, Mary Nestor is absent. I hope that she returns to the Tom Swift series soon.

This is a good entry in the Tom Swift series.

[Jennifer Booth]

As always!

I love Tom swift for years. This one is a keeper! Plenty of action and the use of the airship was bully😀!

[Geoffrey Greeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Steve Jobs didn't invent the camera phone/iPhone...Fun story written in 1914