# What is a Tom Swift Machine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796 "2005-01-20T22:01:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![odaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e0b2c6/32.png) [@odaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/odaran)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/1 "2005-01-20T22:01:32Z")
Being a little bored, I was going through some older threads and I saw this one [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=297836](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=297836) (note it has been closed). The moderator, samclem, had posted “No one on here is gonna help you invent a Tom Swift machine…” I googled Tom Swift Machine and only saw some references to a book( or series) that I have never heard before (looks like sci-fi). I also did not find anything in the message board search, which is kind of strange because the link abve should have shown up. Oh well. My question is, what is the Tom Swift Machine the mod referenced? Please note: I have no desire to build one so I don’t need instructions on how to build one. I was just curious what the reference is about. 😃 I am poor enough as it is. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/2 "2005-01-20T22:04:49Z")
Tom Swift is the chief character in a series of books about his adventures with improbable inventions. Not really sci-fi, to my way of thinking, but sort of slanted in that direction. Ever read any Danny Dunn books? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/3 "2005-01-20T22:07:34Z")
> [@odaran](#): > > My question is, what is the Tom Swift Machine the mod referenced? > > Please note: I have no desire to build one so I don’t need instructions on how to build one. I was just curious what the reference is about. 😃 I am poor enough as it is. ☹ There is no Tom Swift machine per se. Tom Swift was a character in the books your search revealed. He was a genius who built all matter of devices. In the thread in question, the machine would be for creating additional occtane. IE, Tom Swift and his Amazing Home Refinery. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/4 "2005-01-20T22:11:08Z")
:smack: I got Tom Swift mixed up with [Peter Graves](http://www.allscifi.com/Topics/Info_27929.asp). Here’s a Tom Swift site: [http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/3712/](http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/3712/) The point of the comment was that Tom’s inventions are incredibly unlikely when they’re not absolutely impossible, but they’re always really “keen.” ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/5 "2005-01-20T22:19:47Z")
[Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster](http://www.series.net/swift/volume05.html) [Here’s a list of 33 of Tom Jr’s adventures](http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/3712/) Tom’s dad also had exciting adventures involving wild inventions. Here’s [Tom Swift (Sr.) in the Caves of Ice](http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/tomswift/ts08.htm) and [Tom Swift (Sr.) and His Electric Rifle](http://www.blackmask.com/books44c/tomelectric.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/6 "2005-01-20T22:24:07Z")
“Is this the same Tom Swift who is associated with adverbs after ‘said’?”, I asked curiously. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/7 "2005-01-20T22:31:54Z")
“ **Roches** , I once lay around for an entire camping trip trying to figure that out,” said Tom intently. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/8 "2005-01-20T22:36:14Z")
“And I finally discovered the answer!” said Tom [searchingly](http://www.fun-with-words.com/tom_swifties_history.html): > [@](#): > > The quip takes its name from Tom Swift, a boy’s adventure hero created by the prolific American writer Edward L. Stratemeyer. Under the pseudonym Victor Appleton, he published a series of books featuring the young Tom Swift. Tom Swift rarely passed a remark without a qualifying adverb as “Tom added eagerly” or “Tom said jokingly”. The play on words discussed here arose as a pastiche of this, coming to be known by the term Tom Swifty. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/9 "2005-01-20T22:39:04Z")
The name of the Taser device was cobbled together from the title _Tom Swift And his Electric Rifle._ There were at least two set of Tom Swift books that I know of. Somehow, I came to own _Tom Swift and his Submarine Boat_ and _Tom Swift and the Land of Wonders._ A list in the back of _Wonders_ lists 19 books in the Tom Swift series. Also under the Victor Appleton name, there were a _Motion Picture Chums_ series and an _Outdoor Chums_ series. That was all around the 1920s, when my dad was a boy. When I was a boy, I read several from a newer Tom Swift series, also by “Victor Appleton.” That was in the 1950s. There may have been more, I don’t know. I didn’t know about the earlier series until I was an adult. There was a similar progression of groups of Hardy Boys mysteries and Nancy Drew mysteries, with the same pen name in each generation. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/10 "2005-01-20T22:53:51Z")
There have been four series of Tom Swift adventures. The first was started in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founded of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. He churned out hundreds, perhaps thousands, of story ideas for other writer to work into books. Many of the famous children/young adult series of the past were done by his Syndicate. The Rover Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, yes, even the Motion Picture Chums. A second series, about Tom Swift Jr., started in 1954. These would be the books that most people here would remember. I believe they were signed as by Victor Appleton II. A third series only lasted a few years, from 1981-1984. The authors never made clear whether Tom Swift III was the son of Tom Swift, Jr. or where he placed in the family. Series four lasted even less time, 1991-1993, but manged to squeeze something like 15 books, including two Hardy Boys crossovers. This Tom Swift was just borrowing the name and had nothing to do with the earlier series. They’re supposed to be incredibly bad, but that series has my favorite title of them all : _Tom Swift and the Cyborg Kickboxer_. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/11 "2005-01-21T00:46:01Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > They’re supposed to be incredibly bad, but that series has my favorite title of them all : _Tom Swift and the Cyborg Kickboxer_. So Tom Swift knows Jean Claude Van Dam? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/12 "2005-01-21T01:14:42Z")
For twenty minutes. In 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/13 "2005-01-21T02:07:47Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > Ever read any Danny Dunn books? Thank you!! For a couple of months I have been trying to remember the name of that series!!! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/14 "2005-01-21T03:41:10Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > “And I finally discovered the answer!” said Tom [searchingly](http://www.fun-with-words.com/tom_swifties_history.html): And when Stratemeyer was not using adverbs with abandon, he was mining the thesaurus for synonyms for “said,” some of them having hilarious double entendre when read today. Perhaps the classic one is an apparently totally unintentional double pun, which may perhaps be apocryphal but is nonetheless hilarious: > [@](#): > > “Wait up; I’m coming!” Tom ejaculated. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/15 "2005-01-21T03:44:53Z")
[minor hijack]Anybody know if any facsimile editions of the first two series have been published? I’d like to get my hands on a set of copies, but would rather not have to resort to the used-bookstore/checklist methodology.[/Minor hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/16 "2005-01-21T03:51:20Z")
> [@Hunter Hawk](#): > > [minor hijack]Anybody know if any facsimile editions of the first two series have been published? I’d like to get my hands on a set of copies, but would rather not have to resort to the used-bookstore/checklist methodology.[/Minor hijack] Check Grosset & Dunlap. They were the publisher for the second round (along with the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, etc. series) and I think also for the original series. I know I could get the '50s series from them in 1971-2 when I owned a bookstore, and vaguely remember being able to order reprints of the original series if I had wanted them, though I won’t vouch for the accuracy of that memory. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/17 "2005-01-21T03:52:29Z")
Just search on “tom Swift” in Amazon. All the top results are facsimile editions of the first series. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/18 "2005-01-21T03:59:07Z")
:smack: Thanks. I didn’t even think of Amazon. (I’ve gotten into the habit of buying directly from small-press publishers.) ---
**Author:** ![MightyDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@MightyDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MightyDave)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/19 "2005-01-21T05:21:03Z")
> [@Hunter Hawk](#): > > [minor hijack]Anybody know if any facsimile editions of the first two series have been published? I’d like to get my hands on a set of copies, but would rather not have to resort to the used-bookstore/checklist methodology.[/Minor hijack] If you just want the text, many or all of the original Tom Swift books are at Project Gutenberg ( [http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a](http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a) ). I guess they pre-date whatever year it was the copyright laws changed. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796/20 "2005-01-21T13:33:34Z")
So in the original series that started in 1910 (and presumably continued for some years), would Tom Swift have invented any 1920s-style death rays? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-tom-swift-machine/285796.md?page=2)