NEAR DISASTER
Several days later while the radio boys were experimenting with their
big set and talking over their interesting meeting with the Forest
Service ranger, Herb displayed an immense horseshoe magnet.
"Look what he's got for luck," chortled Jimmy. "The superstitious nut!"
"Superstitious nothing!" snorted Herb. "If I'd wanted it for luck I
wouldn't have got a magnet, would I? Any old common horseshoe would have
done for luck."
"Well, what's the big idea?" asked Bob, looking up from the audion tube
he was experimenting with. "Or is there any?" he added, with a grin.
"You bet your life there is!" returned Herb. "It's got to do with that
very audion tube you're fussing with."
"Ah, go on," jeered Joe, good-naturedly. "What's a magnet got to do with
an audion tube, I'd like to know!"
"Poor old Herb," added Jimmy, with a commiserating shake of the head.
"Say, look here, all you fellows! Don't you go wasting any pity on me,"
cried Herb hotly. "If you don't look out, I won't show you my experiment
at all."
"Go on, Herb," said Bob consolingly. "I'm listening."
"Well, I'm glad there's one sensible member of this bunch!" cried Herb,
and from then on addressed himself solely to Bob. "Look here," he said.
"You can make the audion tube ever so much more sensitive to vibration
if you put this magnet near it."
"Who says so?" asked Bob, with interest.
"I do. Here, put on the headphones and listen. I'll prove it to you."
Bob obeyed and tuned in to the nearest broadcasting station where a
concert was scheduled. As soon as he signified by a nod of his head that
the connection was satisfactory Herb placed the big horseshoe magnet in
such a position that the poles of the magnet were on each side of the
tube.
Sure enough, Bob was amazed at the almost magical improvement in the
sound. It was clearer, more distinct, altogether more satisfactory. He
listened in for another moment then wonderingly took off the headphones
while Herb grinned at him in triumph.
"Well, what do you think?" asked the latter while Joe and Jimmy looked
at them curiously.
"Think?" repeated Bob, still wonderingly. "Why, there's only one thing
to think, of course. That fool horseshoe of yours, Herb, is one
wonderful improvement. I don't know how it works, but it surely is a
marvel."
Herb glanced at Jimmy and Joe in triumph.
"What did I tell you?" he said. "Perhaps now you'll believe that my idea
wasn't such a fool one after all."
"But what did it do, Bob?" asked Joe, mystified.
"It increased the sensitivity of that old audion tube, that's what it
did," replied Bob, absently, his mind already busy with inventive
thoughts. "I can't see yet just how it accomplished it, but the
connection with the station was certainly clearer and more distinct than
usual."
"But how can a magnet increase the sensitivity of a vacuum tube?" asked
Jimmy, not yet wholly convinced. "It doesn't make sense."
"Well, I don't see why not," contradicted Joe slowly. "I suppose the
improvement is due to the magnetic effect of the magnet upon the
electrons flowing from the filament to the plate. I don't exactly see
why it should be an improvement, but if it is, then there must be some
reason for it."
"I wish we could find the reason!" cried Bob excitedly. "If we could
make some improvement upon the vacuum tube----"
"Don't wake him up, he is dreaming!" cried Herb. "If you don't look out,
old boy, you'll have us all millionaires."
"Well, there are worse things," retorted Bob, taking the magnet from
Herb's hand and placing it near the tube. "This has given us something
to think about, anyway."
For a while they puzzled over the mystery, trying to find some way in
which the discovery might be made to serve a practical purpose--all
except Herb, who retired to one corner of the "lab" to fuss with some
chemicals which he fondly hoped might be used in the construction of a
battery.
So engrossed were the boys in the problem of the magnet and vacuum tube
that they forgot all about Herb and his experiments. So what happened
took them completely off their guard.
There was a sudden cry from Herb, followed closely by an explosion that
knocked them off their feet. For a moment they lay there, a bit dazed by
the shock. Then they scrambled to their feet and looked about them.
Herb, being the nearest to the explosion, had got the worst of it. His
face and hands were black and he was shaking a little from the shock. He
gazed at the boys sheepishly.
"Wh-what happened?" asked Jimmy dazedly.
"An earthquake, I guess," replied Bob, as he looked about him to see
what damage had been done.
Some doughnuts, which their namesake had recently fetched from the
store, lay scattered upon the floor, together with some rather
dilapidated-looking pieces of candy, but aside from this, nothing seemed
to have been damaged seriously.
Jimmy's followed Bob's gaze, and, finding his precious sweets upon the
floor, began gathering them up hastily, stuffing a doughnut in his mouth
to help him hurry. What mattered it to Jimmy that the floor was none too
clean?
"Say, what's the big idea, anyway," Joe demanded of the blackened Herb.
"Trying to start a Fourth of July celebration, or something?"
"I was just mixing some chemicals, and the result was a flare-up,"
explained Herb sulkily. "Now, stop rubbing it into a fellow, will you?
You might know I didn't do it on purpose."
Bob began to laugh.
"Better get in connection with some soap and water, Herb," he said.
"Just now you look like the lead for a minstrel show."
"Never mind, Herb," Joe flung after the disconsolate scientist as he
made for the door. "As long as you don't hurt anything but Jimmy's
doughnuts, we don't care. You can have as many explosions as you like."
"Humph, that's all right for you," retorted Jimmy. "But I'll have you
know I spent my last nickel for those doughnuts."
"Just the same," said Bob soberly, as they returned to the problem of
the vacuum tube, "we're mighty lucky to have come off with so little
damage. Mixing chemicals is a pretty dangerous business unless you know
just what you're doing."
"And even then it is," added Joe.