About Tom Swift, Jr. - Boys’ series of 33 well-written, imaginative science adventure books published from 1954 through 1971. These followed the earlier 1910-41 40-volume Tom Swift series, but are NOT revisions/condensations of the earlier series. They are entirely new plots with new characters, but feature some of the family and friends of the earlier series. So the admired and groundbreaking new inventions of the Jr. series are from a much later era, inspired by the space flight advances then in the works, and in the news of the day. #14 in the series. Grosset and Dunlap. Copyright 1959. Rear cover lists to Hardy Boys Mystery of the Chinese Junk (1960). Front flap summarizes the book in hand. Rear flap and pre-text title list both list to the next title, Spectromarine Selector, so this is a very early reprint of #14. Very good+ condition. Blue/white space lab endpapers. No writing/markings, no tracking. Lovely dust jacket has minor edgewear, a small imperfection over the letter "F" in at the supratitle at the very top of the front cover, hardly noticeable. Protected in mylar covering. In this one, Tom develops two neat inventions. The first, the retroscope, an intricate device using radiation and a camera built on television principals that electronically bombards old, worn items (as for archaeological use) to produce, after several steps, a picture of what it looked like before the wear of cosmic rays defaced these items. Whew. And a "paraplane," a small jet aircraft with a helium-filled dirigible bag to allow it to float without power when needed. TS14