Read "Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures" by Victor Appleton online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
TOM SWIFT sank wearily into a chair, facing his damaged talking-picture machine. That it was very seriously damaged was plainer to the eyes of the young inventor than to those even of his father, who was one of three persons aware of what great changes the new machine was destined to bring about. But Tom rallied and from the ruins of his invention saw mentally, rising like the fabled Phoenix from its own ashes, a new and better piece of apparatus.
"Maybe, after all," mused Tom, "this will turn out better than it looked at first sight. I already have an idea for some improvements in the new machine I'm going to start-as soon as I'm able," he added somewhat grimly.