In the table below I present my best guess at the months during which each Tom Swift Sr. story took place. This is mainly based on the durations of the stories, which I have worked out by adding up all the indications of time passing, and the season in which the story takes place. There are also statements in some stories about how much time has passed since the previous story, and in a few cases a story explicitly names a month.
Needless to say, there is a certain amount of interpretation and guesswork required to assign specific months to each story -- in all cases I have tried to minimize the number of years involved in the series. I would be most grateful for feedback, either pointing out errors or confirming my conclusions. Send email to holte@cs.ualberta.ca
| YEAR | MONTHS | TITLE |
| Year 1. | April-May | "MotorCycle" |
| June-July | "Motor Boat" | |
| September-October | "Airship" | |
| Year 2. | July-September | "Submarine Boat" |
| Year 3. | May-September | "Electric Runabout" |
| Year 4. | April-June | "Wireless Message" |
| July-August | "Diamond Makers" | |
| November-February | "Caves of Ice" | |
| Year 5. | June-September | "Sky Racer" |
| Year 6. | May-September | "Electric Rifle" |
| Year 7. | April-August | "City of Gold" |
| Year 8. | April-October | "Air Glider" |
| Year 9. | April-October | "In Captivity" |
| Year 10. | February-August | "Wizard Camera" |
| Year 11. | May-June | "Searchlight" |
| Year 12. | March-November | "Giant Cannon" |
| Year 13. | June-July | "Photo Telephone" |
| July-September | "Aerial Warship" | |
| September-February | "Big Tunnel" | |
| Year 14. | June-September | "Land of Wonders" |
| Year 15. | March-May | "War Tank" |
| May-July | "Air Scout" | |
| August-November | "Undersea Search" | |
| Year 16. | April-July | "Fire Fighters" |
| November-May | "Electric Locomotive" | |
| Year 17. | August-October | "Flying Boat" |
| Year 18. | May-August | "Oil Gusher" |
| August-September | "Chest of Secrets" | |
| Year 19. | June-October | "Airline Express" |
| Year 20. | June-August | "Circling the Globe" |
| Year 21. | April-June | "Talking Pictures" |
| July-August | "House on Wheels" | |
| Year 22. | April-July | "Big Dirigible" |
| Year 23. | April-June | "Sky Train" |
| July-September | "Giant Magnet" | |
| Year 24. | April-June | "Television Detector" |
| July-September | "Ocean Airport" | |
| September-January | "Planet Stone" | |
| Year 25. | (no stories - see below) | |
| Year 26. | June-July | "Giant Telescope" |
| August | "Magnetic Silencer" |
I left Year 25 blank, skipping from stories in year 24 to year 26. There are two bits of evidence for this. In "Giant Telescope" (p.72) Mr. Damon reminisces about "Planet Stone", saying "those were the days" - a phrase that it is much more applicable to events 17 months prior than 5 months. And in "Magnetic Silencer" (pp.176-178) Ned refers to a vacation out West "last summer" - it is very unlikely he is referring to the summer of Year 24 because that summer is jam-packed with adventures (one would have to assert that Tom left for a vacation in the middle of "Ocean Airport").