THE BOY INVENTORS are young Jack Chadwick and Tom Jesson, cousins who some times work with Jack's famous inventor father and sometimes on their own to devise intesting inventions both for their own fun and often for profit. Like most chums in series from the early 1900s they get themselves into many troubles by being either naive or just plain foolish, but the day is saved in every case. Some critics argued that the series was far too similar to early Tom Swift stories. See if you agree.
The sources for the following stories come from personal scans of my five books of the six in this series and a "borrow" from The Gutenberg Project of #5.
The covers are from book scans and the Internet, and have been cleaned and fixed of cover tears, scratches and misaligned placement on scanners
(cut off edges or corners being the chief result) and the text has been replaced to make it more readable.
(1912) In their first adventure, the Boy Inventors receive a mysterious wireless message that simply reads, "X.Y.Z." Using their wits and a few of their early inventions, they set out on a search for the origin of the cryptic message. Many exciting adventures are had along the way.
This is a book written in the early 1900s so there are some words that may seem to be incorrect, but that's just the way they spelled things like "clew" (clue) and "gasolene" (gasoline) and such. It also contains some wording that is racially insensitive by today's standards but has been left intact for historical purposes.
(1912) In their second outing, the Boy Inventors agree to help a somewhat scatterbrained inventor when he runs into difficulties completing his "vanishing" self-moving gun for the Government. While the gun is barely explored, the story is filled with mystery and many plot twists and turns as the boys try to track down a group of men who have stolen the invention's plans and model.
Like the other books in this and other series, the story written in the early 1900s so there are some words that may seem to be incorrect, but that's just the way they spelled things back then.
(1912) Their third adventure begins with a run-away automobile that leads them into underwater adventures.
From the Publisher's description: "As in the previous stories of the Boy Inventors, new and interesting triumphs of mechanisms are produced which become immediately valuable, and the stage for their prowling and testings again the water.On the surface and below it, the boys have jolly and contagious fun."
(1913) This is the fourth outing for The Boy Inventors, this time in their marvelous part dirigible, part plane, part kite and part car that takes them all the way to South America.
As the Publisher originally described it in their literature: "A Boston newspaper reporter, -- a young fellow with a camera slung over his shoulders, -- wanders into this story at the very beginning. He finds himself an aerial stowaway and finally part of a South American exploring party. How this happens is an absorbing tale in itself. "
Book 5: Electric HydroAeroplane
(1914) The 5th, and previously "missing" book in the series. The Boy Inventors chance upon someone who inherited plans for an invention, and he wants them to help him build it. An electric airplane capable of landing on land or water is quite a leap forward in aviation. With it comes a new type of storage battery lighter than any ever produced.
Together, they build the Electric Monarch and fly her. This leads to several adventures, a potential German spy with an eye toward stealing the plane, and danger lurking for our heroes at just about every corner.
(1915) The 6th and final book in this series, The Boy Inventors not only work on the creation of a telephone working on the principles of wireless transmission, they also become embroiled with the dangers associated with the most powerful explosive agent of the day...Z2X.
The Publisher was obviously running out of descriptive phrases when they wrote: "The determination to adopt, adapt and improve the latest means of communication give a fresh impulse to the ambition of the Boy Inventors."
The Boy Aviators Series
This series follows the exploits of a couple boys who have a love for flying. Written in a time when that endeavor had a certain romantic connotation, the stories are filled with narratives on what is to be seen, heard and felt at an altitude that cannot have been more than a few hundred feet at most times. The author is described by the publisher as being written by, "... a famous aviation instructor and are technically correct in details." In reality the author was John Henry Goldfrap, a ghost writer of children's books as well as a legitimate journalist. He turned out perhaps 60 or more books in his short life and writing career.
All covers are recreations of, often, horribly damaged or very small originals. The main illustrations have been rescued while the rest of the cover is a basic recreation.
(1910) The launching of this Twentieth Century series marks the inauguration of a new era in boys' books--the "wonders of modern science" epoch. Frank and Harry Chester, the Boy Aviators, are the heroes of this exciting, red-blooded tale of adventure by air and land in the turbulent Central American republic. The two brothers with their $10,000 prize aeroplane, the "Golden Eagle", rescue a chum from death in the clutches of the Nicaraguans, discover a lost treasure valley of the ancient Toltec race, and in so doing almost lose their own lives in the Abyss of the White Serpents, and have many other exciting experiences, including being blown far out to sea in their air-skimmer in a tropical storm. It would be unfair to divulge the part that wireless plays in rescuing them from their predicament. In a brand new field of fiction for boys the Chester brothers and their aeroplane seem destined to fill a top-notch place. These books are technically correct, wholesomely thrilling and geared up to third speed
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(1910) FROM THE PUBLISHER: In this live-wire narrative of peril and adventure, laid in the Everglades of Florida, the spunky Chester Boys and their interesting chums, including Ben Stubbs, they are marooned, and encounter exciting experiences on Uncle Sam's service in a novel field. One must read this vivid, enthralling story of incident, hardship and pluck to get an idea of the almost limitless possibilities of the two greatest inventions of modern times--the aeroplane and wireless telegraphy. While gripping and holding the reader's breathless attention from the opening words to the finish, this swift-moving story is at the same time instructive and uplifting. As those readers who have already made friends with Frank and Harry Chester and their 'bunch' know, there are few difficulties, no matter how insurmountable they may seem at first blush, that these up-to-date gritty youths cannot overcome with flying colors. A clean-cut, real boys' book of high voltage. |
(1910) FROM THE PUBLISHER: On the Continent made famous by the American explorer Stanley, and ex-President Roosevelt, we find our old friends, the Chester Boys and their stalwart chums. In Africa--the Dark Continent--the author follows in exciting detail his young heroes, their voyage in the first aeroplane to fly above the mysterious forests and unexplored ranges of the mystic land. In this book, too, for the first time, we encounter Luther Barr, the old New York millionaire, who proves later such an implacable enemy of the boys. The story of his defeated schemes, of the astonishing things the boys discovered in the Mountains of the Moon, of the pathetic fate of George Desmond, the emulator of Stanley, the adventure of the Flying Men and the discovery of the Arabian Ivory cache,--this is not the place to speak. It would be spoiling the zest of an exciting tale to reveal the outcome of all these episodes here. |
(1910) FROM THE PUBLISHER: The boys set out on a hunt for gold concealed neither under the sea nor beneath the earth, but is well hidden for all that. A garrulous old sailor, who holds the key to the mystery of the Golden Galleon, plays a large part in this fascinating tale of treasure hunting in the region of the Gulf Stream and the Sagasso Sea. An aeroplane fitted with efficient pontoons--enabling her to skim the water successfully--has long been a dream of aviators. The Chester Boys seem to have solved the problem. The Sagasso, a strange drifting ocean within an ocean, holding ships of a dozen nations and a score of ages, in its relentless grip, has been the subject of many books of adventure and mystery, but in none has the secret of the ever shifting mass of treacherous currents been penetrated as it has in this story. Luther Barr, whom it seemed the boys had shaken off, is still on their trail, in this absorbing book and with a dirigible balloon, essays to beat them out in their search for the Golden Galleon
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(1910) FROM THE PUBLISHER: The Chester Boys try to win a newspaper prize for a trans-continental flight. In the Golden Eagle, the boys, accompanied by a trail-blazing party in an automobile, make the dash. But they are not alone in their aspirations. Their rivals for the rich prize at stake try in every way that they can to circumvent the lads and gain the valuable trophy and monetary award. In this they stop short at nothing, and it takes all the wits and resources of the Boy Aviators to defeat them. Among the adventures encountered in their cross-country flight, the boys fall in with a band of rollicking cow-boys--who momentarily threaten serious trouble--are attacked by Indians, strike the most remarkable town of the desert--the "dry" town of "Gow Wells,"--encounter a sandstorm which blows them into strange lands far to the south of their course, and meet with several amusing mishaps besides. |
(1910) FROM THE PUBLISHER: Besides the original characters of the heroes comes a new creation in the person of Professor Simeon Sandburr, a seeker for polar insects. The professor's adventures in his quest are the cause of much merriment, and lead once or twice to serious predicaments. In a volume so packed with incident and peril from cover to cover--relieved with laughable mishaps to the professor--it is difficult to single out any one feature; still, a recent reader of it wrote the publishers an enthusiastic letter the other day, saying: "The episodes above the Great Barrier are thrilling, the attack of the condors in Patagonia made me hold my breath, the--but what's the use? The Polar Dash, to my mind, is an even more entrancing book than Captain Lawton's previous efforts, and that's saying a good deal. The aviation features and their technical correctness are by no means the least attractive features of this up-to-date creditable volume." |
Book 7: ... Flight For a Fortune (1912) Our courageous lads set out on an adventure that ought to make them almost independently wealthy, but noting comes easy, even for such upstanding boys as these. Their newest adventure sees them reunited with Ben Stubbs--known to the as Maroon--from their early Nicaraguan adventures along with attacks by foes new and old. The ultimate thrill ride includes a flight attempt across the treacherous Atlantic Ocean, all the while on the trail of some very valuable black pearls. Please note that the story ends with a listing of a future adventure that, for whatever reason, took almost 3 years to finally come to press. |
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Book 8: ... With the Air Raiders (1915) This eighth and final adventure of the teenage aviators find themselves representing a company which has produced an advanced seaplane. The prototype was sent to France before the war broke out, and while American neutrality prevents further models from being shipped, it does allow royalties to be paid on French-built replicas. The boys are tasked with demonstrating the plane to show its value to the French government and secure a contract. With the inevitability of the sun rising in the east, German spies are desperately trying to steal or destroy the plane before this can happen! |
