Books with title Tom Swift And His Electric Runabout

"Tom Swift And His Electric Runabout", or, "The Speediest Car on the Road", is Volume 5 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap. Tom Swift enters an upcoming race with his specially designed prototype electric race car. But as he makes the final preparations and adjustments, days before the race, he discovers a plot that would bankrupt not only his family, but also everyone else that relies on the local bank (which is the target of a nefarious bank run scheme). Tom must solve the mystery and stop the criminals behind the plot before he will test himself on a 500 mile race against some of the best cars and skilled drivers in the United States.

Tom Swift and his Electric Runabout takes us back to gentler times when the bad guys weren't really that bad, didn't carry Uzis, and being an inventor like Thomas Edison was the dream of many young boys. In this book our hero creates an electric automobile with a top speed of over 100 mi./h, saves the bank, gives the bully two black eyes, wins the prize for the fastest automobile in a 500 mile race, only stopping once to recharge his batteries. Without a NASCAR pit crew, it only took Tom 25 min. The narrator, John W Michaels reads this thrill a minute treasure of yesteryear, tongue-in-cheek, a true melodrama. Reading from the original text, there are some portions of the book that are unfortunately not politically correct, and the publisher apologizes for this.

Tom is daydreaming of African Safaris while test-firing his new Electric Rifle. It works too well and toasts a hole in his neighbor’s dining room wall, prompting an outraged visit from the toastee-in-question. A quick application of cash settles ruffled feathers, and some unspecified safety features are added to the weapon, to prevent a recurrence of the accident. As luck would have it, a famous African Safari Master is in town, shopping for a new big game rifle. He hooks up with Tom and a new custom-built airship, the Black Hawk, is designed & constructed. Tom, Ned, Mr. Damon and the hunter, Mr. Durban, are off to the Dark Continent via steamship, in search of ivory and adventure. Danger encroaches at every turn, and Tom gets to use his new weapon to slay an amazing variety of beasts that swim, crawl, and stampede around him. Needless to say, the rifle is effective on smaller but no less dangerous creatures, too, and does fearful duty when the group is attacked by savage tribesmen. You can probably guess the outcome, but you’ll have to read the story to be sure.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Tom Swift is the main character of five series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention and technology. First published in 1910, the series total more than 100 volumes. The character was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging firm. Tom's adventures have been written by various ghostwriters, beginning with Howard Garis. Most of the books are credited to the collective pseudonym "Victor Appleton". The 33 volumes of the second series use the pseudonym Victor Appleton II for the author. For this series, and some of the later series, the main character is "Tom Swift, Jr." New titles have been published as recently as 2007. Most of the various series emphasized Tom's inventions. The books generally describe the effects of science and technology as wholly beneficial, and the role of the inventor in society as admirable and heroic. Translated into many languages, the books have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Tom Swift has also been the subject of a board game and a television series. Several famous people, including Steve Wozniak and Isaac Asimov, have cited "Tom Swift" as an inspiration. Several inventions, including the Taser, have been inspired allegedly by Swift's fictional inventions. "TASER" is said to be an acronym for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle."

Tom Swift enters an upcoming race with his specially-designed prototype electric race car. But as he makes the final preparations and adjustments, days before the race, he discovers a plot that would bankrupt not only his family, but also everyone else that relies on the local bank (which is the target of a nefarious bank run scheme). Tom must solve the mystery and stop the criminals behind the plot before he will test himself on a 500-mile race against some of the best cars and skilled drivers in the United States.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

The Stratemeyer syndicate used the pseudonym Victor Appleton when writing several series for boys including Tom Swift. Edward Stratemeyer did the original outlines for the series, which was published between 1910 and 1941. Tom Swift was a genius inventor. He specialized in technology especially related to transportation. Later the series was followed by the Tom Swift Jr. series. Tom and Ned Newton are reviewing financial records when a fire breaks out at the fireworks factory in town. They rescue Josephus Baxter, who is in the factory developing a new dye. During the havoc caused by the fire Mr. Baxter loses the formula, but he is positive that the owners of the factory have stolen it.

While Tom Swift is working on his latest new invention, the electric rifle, he meets an African safari master whose stories of elephant hunting sends the group off to deepest, darkest Africa. Hunting for ivory is the least of their worries, as they find out some old friends are being held hostage by the fearsome tribes of the red pygmies. Swift builds two major inventions in this volume. The first is a replacement airship, known as The Black Hawk. This new airship is to replace The Red Cloud, which was destroyed during his adventures in Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice. This airship is of the same general construction as The Red Cloud, but is smaller and more maneuverable. Of foremost notice is Swift's invention of the electric rifle, a gun which fires bolts of electricity. The electric rifle can be calibrated to different levels of range, intensity and lethality; it can shoot through solid walls without leaving a hole, and is powerful enough to kill a rampaging whale, as in their steamer trek to Africa. With the electric rifle, Tom and friends bring down elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffalo, and save their lives several times in pitched battle with the red pygmies. It also can discharge a globe of light that was described as being able to maintain itself, like ball lightning, making hunting at night much safer in the dark of Africa. In appearance, the rifle looked very much like contemporary conventional rifles.