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.