Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera: when the book opens, Tom is developing a noiseless airship. James Period, the owner of a movie studio wants Tom to travel around the world making movies of strange and exotic places. Period intends to attract large crowds to watch the movies in theaters, thereby making a good deal of money. At first, Tom says no, but eventually agrees to the deal. Now, however, he has to build a new movie camera that can run on batteries, from a hand-crank dynamo or by hand, and must operate completely automatically. When done, he and his buddies take off on non-stop action and adventure.
Victor Appleton was a pen name used by at least eight authors who wrote for Edward Stratemeyer. Of the 38 titles in the first Tom Swift series, Howard Garis (April 25, 1873 November 6, 1962) wrote the first thirty-five, while Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (December 12, 1892 March 27, 1982), daughter of Edward Stratemeyer, wrote the remaining three.