The Try-Out Day Arrives
It did not need Ned Newton's story of what he had overheard at the bank
to prove that an attempt had been made to blow to pieces Tom Swift's
electric locomotive before even it had been tested.
An examination of the water-soaked package in the open yard of the
shops of the Swift Construction Company, proved that there was enough
explosive in the bomb to blow the shed itself to pieces. But the
stopping of the clockwork attachment of course made the bomb harmless.
"The main thing to be explained," Tom said, when he and his father and
Ned discussed the particulars of the affair, "is not who did it, or
what it was done for. Those are comparatively easy questions to answer."
"Yes," agreed Ned. "O'Malley did it, or caused it to be done; and it
was an attempt to balk Mr. Bartholomew and the H, & P. A. rather than
a direct attack upon the Swift Construction Company."
"I am afraid, however," remarked Mr. Swift, "that Tom has aroused the
personal antagonism of this spy from the West. We must not overlook
that."
"I don't," replied the young inventor. "O'Malley has it in for me. No
doubt of that. But he could not be sure that I would be hurt by the
explosion he arranged for."
"True," said his father.
"The attempt was against my invention. And O'Malley was doubtless urged
to destroy the locomotive that I am building because my success will
aid Mr. Bartholomew and his railroad."
"Quite agreed," said Ned. "But--"
"But the important question," interrupted Tom, "is this: How did the
bomb get into the interior of the electric locomotive? That is the
first and most important problem. Its having been done once warns us
that it can be done again until our system of guarding the works is
changed."
"We have five watchmen on the job at night, and the gates are never
opened in the daytime to anybody for any purpose without a pass,"
declared Ned. "I don't see how that fellow got in here with the time
bomb."
"Exactly. It shows that there is a fault in our system somewhere," said
Tom grimly. "We cannot surround the place at night with an armed guard.
It would cost too much. Even Koku cannot be everywhere. And I have
reason to know that he was wandering about the stockade last night as
usual."
"The fellow was pretty sharp to slip by," Ned observed.
"The stockade is no mean barrier, especially with the rows of barbed
wire at the top," said Mr. Swift.
"Barbed wire! That's it!" exclaimed Tom. It was just here that Mr.
Damon's idea for guarding his prize buff Orpingtons came into play in
Tom's scheme of things. "Barbed wire doesn't seem to keep out spies,"
he added slowly. "But believe me, something else will!"
For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay.
Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work
stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade.
He was sure that the man who had set the time bomb in place had got
into the enclosure over the fence. If he tried the same trick again he
was very apt to have the surprise of his life!
Each night when the shops closed and the watchmen went on duty, a
current of electricity was turned into those copper wires entwined with
the barbed wire entanglement at the top of the stockade that would
certainly double up any marauder who sought to get over the top.
However, no further attempt was made against Tom's peace of mind and
against his invention during the immediate weeks that followed. The
young inventor was so closely engaged in his work that he scarcely left
the house or the confines of the shops. Even Mary Nestor saw very
little of him.
But Mary realized fully that at such a time as this Tom must give all
his thought and energy to the task in hand. She was proud of Tom's
ability and took a deep interest in his inventions.
"I want to see the test when you try the locomotive, Tom," she told
him, when she came to the shops the first time to look at the monster
locomotive. "What a wonderful thing it is!"
"Its wonder is yet to be proved," rejoined the young inventor. "I
believe I've got the right idea; but nothing is sure as yet."
In addition to his mechanical contrivances inside the locomotive, Tom
had to arrange for an increased supply of electric power to drive the
huge machine around the track that was being built inside the stockade.
A regular station had to be built for receiving the electricity in a
100,000-volt alternating current and delivering it to the locomotive in
a 3,000-volt direct current. Therefore, this station had two functions
to perform--reducing the voltage and changing the current from
alternating to direct.
The reduction of the voltage was accomplished as follows: The
100,000-volt alternating current was received through an oil switch and
was conveyed to a high-tension current distributor made up of three
lines of copper tubing, thus forming the source of power for this
station.
From the current distributor the current was conducted through other
oil switches to the transformers--entering at 100,000 volts and
emerging at 2,300 volts. Then the current was conducted from the
transformers through switches to the motor-generator sets and became
the power employed to operate them.
The motor generator consisted of one alternating current motor driving
two direct current generators. The motor Tom established in his station
was of the 60-cycle synchronous type, which means that the current
changes sixty times each second.
There were two sets, each generating a 1,500 or 2,000 volt direct
current; and the two generators being permanently connected, delivered
a combined direct current of 3,000 volts--as high a direct voltage
current, Tom knew, as had ever been adopted for railroad work. The
current voltage for ordinary street railway work is 550 volts.
"I could run even this big machine," Tom explained to Ned Newton, "with
a much lighter current. But out there on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos
line the transforming stations deliver this high voltage to the
locomotives. I want to test mine under similar conditions."
"This is going to be an expensive test, Tom," said Ned, grumbling a
little. "The cost-sheets are running high."
"We are aiming at a big target," returned the inventor. "You've got to
bait with something bigger than sprats to catch a whale, Ned."
"Humph! Suppose you don't catch the whale after all?"
"Don't lose hope," returned Tom, calmly. "I am going after this whale
right, believe me! This is one of the biggest contracts--if not the
very biggest--we ever tackled."
"It looks as if the expense account would run the highest," admitted
the financial manager.
"All right. Maybe that is so. But I'll spend the last cent I've got to
perfect this patent. I am going to beat the Jandels if it is humanly
possible to do so."
"I can only hope you will, Tom. Why, this track and the overhead
trolley equipment is going to cost a small fortune. I had no idea when
you signed that contract with Mr. Bartholomew that so much money would
have to be spent in merely the experimental stage of the thing."
Ned Newton possessed traits of caution that could not be gainsaid. That
was one thing that made him such a successful financial manager for the
Swift Company. He watched expenditures as closely now as he had when
the business was upon a much more limited footing.
The rails laid along the inside of the stockade made a two-mile track,
as well ballasted as any regular railroad right of way. In addition the
overhead equipment was costly.
To eliminate any possibility of the trolley wire breaking, a strong
steel cable, called a catenary, was slung just above the trolley wire.
To this catenary the trolley wire was suspended by hangers at short
intervals.
These cables were strung from brackets so that a single row of poles
could be used, save at the curves, at which cross-span construction was
used. The trolley wire itself was of the 4/0 size, and was the largest
diameter copper wire ever employed for railroad purposes.
Several weeks had now passed since the great locomotive had been
assembled in the erection shed and the cab of the locomotive completed.
It really was a monster machine, and any stranger coming into the place
and seeing it for the first time must have marveled at the grim power
suggested by the mere bulk of the structure.
When the day of the first test arrived Tom allowed only his most
intimate friends to be present. Mary Nestor accompanied Mr. Swift into
the shops at the time appointed, and she was as excited over the
outcome of the test as Tom himself.
Ned Newton and the mechanical force of the shops knocked off work to
become spectators at the exhibition. The only other outsider was Mr.
Damon.
"Bless my alternating current!" cried the eccentric gentleman. "I
would not miss this for the world. If you tried to shut me out, Tom,
I'd climb over the stockade to get in."
"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that you'd get a
worse shock than any chicken thief will get that tries to steal your
buff Orpingtons."