Review of "Tom Swift and His Air Scout," by Victor Appleton

Review of

Tom Swift and His Air Scout, by Victor Appleton ISBN 1576462226

Four out of five stars

 This book in the original “Tom Swift” series is the successor of several previous books about the young inventor. Like the others, the reader must put aside some of the modern notions of character representations regarding the two black men in Tom’s employ. Furthermore, one needs to adopt the mindset of people living in the first two decades of the twentieth century. One hundred years after the fictitious events of this book, the marvels depicted here don’t seem quite as amazing.

 All that aside, this is a book that clearly provided a great deal of motivation for young people to pursue careers in science and technology. In this series, Tom is more of an engineer/machinist than a scientist, yet that is essential, for back then machining operations were largely done on-site. The concept of the mechanized assembly line was just being developed, so when people needed some machining done, they generally did it themselves.

 The main invention in this book is that of a complex muffler that will allow planes to run much quieter. The Great War is still raging in Europe with no real glimmer of a victory by the Allies. There are spies and rivals in opposition, mechanical failures and other difficulties in getting things right. There is a hint of romance, but only a hint.

 The best part of this book is that it is a look back at the structure of adventure/inventor stories for young people at the start of the twentieth century.