Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle

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Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle

Author	Victor Appleton
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Tom Swift
Genre(s)	Young adult novel Adventure novel
Publisher	Grosset & Dunlap
Publication date	1910
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	200+ pp
ISBN	NA
Followed by	Tom Swift and His Motor Boat

Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle, or, Fun and Adventure on the Road, is Volume 1 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.

[edit] Plot summary

Tom Swift, in his first adventure, has purchased a motorcycle and immediately sets to using his inventive genius to modify it. Anxious to test out all of his enhancements, Tom volunteers to transport his father's revolutionary turbine design plans across the country roads to Albany. Unaware of the evil corporate investors that want to steal the invention for themselves, Tom falls into their trap and finds himself up against the greatest peril of his life, so far. It will be up to Tom to not only rescue the blueprints and turbine prototype, but also bring a hired gang of thugs to justice.

[edit] Inventions & Innovation

Tom purchased a very expensive motorcycle from a nearby town. The model year would have been 1909 or 1910. Tom tweaked the sprocket ratios, spark levers and overall performance of his machine by 15%, as well as increasing its range.

Barton Swift, Tom's father, was working on a new turbine design, which would increase performance of motors. Turbines are used all over the world today in the same way. About the same time Barton Swift was working on this design, Nikola Tesla was working to patent his own model - the bladeless turbine, which may have been the basis for Barton's work.