Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle, or, Fun and Adventure on the Road, is Volume 1 in the original Tom Swift

Tom Swift

Tom Swift is the name of the central character in five series of books, first appearing in 1910, totaling over 100 volumes, of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention and technology. The character was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of...

 novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap

Grosset & Dunlap

Grosset & Dunlap is a United States book publisher founded in 1898.The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of the British publishing conglomerate, Pearson PLC through its American subsidiary Penguin Group....

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Plot summary

Tom Swift, in his first adventure, has purchased a motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

 and immediately gets busy modifying it. Eager to test his enhancements, Tom volunteers to transport his father's revolutionary turbine

Turbine (disambiguation)

A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow.Turbine may also refer to:-In software:*Turbine, Inc., a software company*Apache Turbine, a rapid development web application framework-Ships:...

 design plans across the country roads to Albany

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

. Unaware of the evil corporate investors who want to steal the invention for themselves, Tom falls into their trap and finds himself facing the greatest peril of his young life. It is up to Tom not only to retrieve the blueprint

Blueprint

A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan....

s and turbine prototype

Prototype

A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...

, but also to bring a gang of hired thugs to justice.

Inventions & innovation

• Tom purchased a very expensive motorcycle from his new friend, Mr. Damon. The model year would have been 1909 or 1910. Tom tweaked the sprocket
  Sprocket
  A sprocket or sprocket-wheel is a profiled wheel with teeth, cogs, or even sprockets that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. The name 'sprocket' applies generally to any wheel upon which are radial projections that engage a chain passing over it...
  
   ratio
  Ratio
  In mathematics, a ratio is a relationship between two numbers of the same kind , usually expressed as "a to b" or a:b, sometimes expressed arithmetically as a dimensionless quotient of the two which explicitly indicates how many times the first number contains the second In mathematics, a ratio is...
  
  s, 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
  Nikola Tesla
  Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
  
  was working to patent his own model - the bladeless turbine, which may have been the basis for Barton's work.