GETTING A START
The idea of having their own radio outfit and being able to hear all
the wonderful things going on in the air about them so fascinated the
boys that they could talk or think of little else. Even Jimmy Plummer
became so excited that his mother declared he was actually forgetting
to eat, a statement that his father flatly refused to believe at
first, until he escorted his rotund son to the nearest scale and
discovered the astonishing fact that he had really lost two pounds.
"You see how it is, Dad," said Jimmy, mournfully. "If you don't give
me the money to get some wireless stuff I'll just pine away and die."
"It wouldn't hurt you to pine away about twenty pounds, anyway," said
his father, with a twinkle in his eye. "But I suppose if you've set
your heart on it I might as well come across now as later and save
myself from being pestered to death. How much do you suppose you'll
need to get started?"
"The other fellows are figuring that about five dollars apiece will
buy most of the things we'll need--at first, anyway," he added, with
a careful eye to the future.
"All right, here it is," said Mr. Plummer. "And I suppose the next
thing we know you'll be breaking your neck falling off the roof
while you're trying to put up aerials, or whatever it is they call
the contraptions."
"Leave that to me," said Jimmy. "And I'll bet you'll get lots of fun
out of this too, Dad, when we get it going."
"Well, maybe so," said his father. "But I don't take much stock in
the whole business. Some wonderful things happen these days, though,
and you may be able to change my mind."
"I'm sure I will," said Jimmy, with conviction. "And if you had heard
what I did at Doctor Dale's house, I'll bet you'd want a radio outfit
as much as I do."
"Well, go ahead and see what you can do, Son. If you can really get
the thing working, so much the better."
The next day Jimmy lost no time in hunting up his friends and telling
them of his good fortune. He found that the others had not been far
behind him in procuring the necessary cash. That afternoon they all
descended on the hardware store, whose proprietor had laid in a stock
of the materials that would be likely to be needed in the construction
of simple radio outfits. The hardware merchant was glad to see them,
but somewhat surprised also.
"Gosh!" he exclaimed, when he learned what the boys had come for.
"When that salesman from New York talked me into stocking up with
all that stuff, I never thought I'd get a sale for it in the next
ten years. And now here's all you youngsters coming in here after
it with money in your fists."
"Yes, and you'd better lay in a whole lot more of it, Dave," said
Bob Layton. "It won't be long before everybody in this town will be
wanting a wireless radio outfit."
"Well, I guess I've got enough in the store now to start you fellows
on your way," said Dave Slocum, the proprietor. "Now, what all do you
need?"
There followed a time of much consultation and anxious questioning
before all the enthusiastic young experimenters were satisfied that
they were getting the most useful things their limited amount of
capital would buy. Dave Slocum sold more feet of copper wire in that
one afternoon than he had in the previous five years, not to mention
insulators, resistance wire, detectors, head sets, and all the other
paraphernalia necessary to the beginner. At last all the various
purchases were tied into neat bundles, and the excited boys swarmed
out into the street.
"Let's go to my house and get started right away," proposed Bob.
"It will be quite a job to get the aerial strung, and the sooner
we do it the better it will suit me."
The others were of the same mind, and they made the distance to the
Layton home "on the jump" with Jimmy puffing valiantly in the rear
in a desperate endeavor to keep up with his more active comrades.
"Gee!" he exclaimed, staggering up the steps to the cool veranda,
"you fellows must think I'm a candidate for Marathon runner at the
next Olympic games, the way you hit it up coming here."
"I don't know about the Marathon race," said Joe, "but I do think
we could enter you in the long distance pie-eating contest, without
having any doubts of your winning away out in front of the field."
"Well, I don't want to boast, but I think I could do myself proud,"
admitted Jimmy. "I don't think I ever really got enough pie to satisfy
me yet."
"Never mind about pies now," said Herb. "The question before the house
is to get an aerial strung from Bob's house to the barn. What's the
best way to get up on the roof, Bob?"
"There's a trap door in the roof not far from the chimney," replied
Bob. "I was thinking that we could make a mast and lash it to the
chimney. That would give us one secure anchorage for the aerial,
and the other we can fasten to the roof of the barn easily enough."
"What are we going to make the mast out of?" inquired Joe.
"There's a nice piece of four by four lumber out in the barn," replied
Bob. "I was thinking that we could leave it square at the bottom and
plane it off round at the top, so as to look better. I don't see why
that won't fill the bill all right."
"Sounds all right," said Herb, and, with Bob leading, all four
boys piled out to the big barn back of the house. Bob produced his
scantling and hunted up a big plane. Then the boys set to with a
will, and in a short time had the rough timber nicely smoothed off,
with a slight taper toward the top. Then they screwed in a large
hook, bought for the purpose, and after providing themselves with
a generous length of rope, repaired to the roof of the house.
As Bob had told them, there was a large scuttle leading from the
attic onto the roof, and one after another they clambered out through
this. The roof sloped gently at this point, and while they found
it necessary to be careful, they had little difficulty in reaching
the chimney. Before erecting the mast they fastened one end of
the aerial over the hook in it. The aerial consisted of a single,
number fourteen, hard drawn copper wire, insulated at each end by an
earthenware insulator having two hooks embedded in it. One of these
hooks went over the hook in the mast, while the other had the end of
the wire attached to it. A similar insulator was provided at the other
end of the wire, thus preventing its becoming grounded to the house
or barn.
Having hooked up one end of their aerial, the boys erected the mast
against the chimney, and lashed it firmly in position with the rope
they had brought up.
"There!" exclaimed Bob, when everything was fixed to his liking, "that
mast looks as though it might stay put a while. Now let's rig up one
on the barn, and we'll have the first part of our job done, anyway."
Clambering back to the scuttle, the boys dropped through to the attic
floor and hurried downstairs. It was beginning to get dark, and as
they wanted to get the aerial up while daylight lasted, everything
went with a rush. Poor Jimmy thought more than once of his father's
prophecy that he would lose weight in such strenuous activities, but
he was as anxious to receive the first radio signals as any of the
others, so he followed the headlong pace the others set without
a murmur.
Of course there was no convenient chimney on the barn to act as a
support for the mast, but they finally rigged up a mast at one end of
the barn, nailing it securely to the siding boards. Then they drew the
copper wire through the hook in the insulator until there was just a
little slack, cut off the wire, and wound it securely. Then they all
gazed with pride at their handiwork, and had the comfortable feeling
that comes of work well done.
"Hooray!" shouted Jimmy. "That's what I call a good job, and it
didn't take us such a long time, either."
"Yes, but that's only the beginning," said Joe. "I only wish we had
more time to-night. I feel as though I'd like to keep right on now
and not stop until we're actually receiving."
"You'd be pretty hungry if you tried to do it," remarked Jimmy. "To
hear you talk, you'd think making a receiving set was about as hard
as taking a run around the block."
"It isn't much harder than for you to take a run around the block,"
laughed Herb. "You were puffing like a steam engine while we were
coming up from the store this afternoon. If you don't cut down on
the eats, Doughnuts, you'll have to get around in a wheel chair.
You won't even be able to walk, let alone run."
"There you go," complained Jimmy, in an aggrieved tone. "Just because
I'm not as skinny as you fellows, you think that I eat more than you
do. Nobody could eat more than you do, Herb, and live to tell the
story."
"I don't have to tell any stories along that line," retorted Herb,
with a laugh. "My friends do that for me."
"I'll bet they do," grumbled Jimmy. "I get some result out of what
I eat, anyway, and that's more than you can say."
"Oh, I can say it, all right, but probably nobody would believe me,"
admitted Herb.
"Right you are, Herb, old boy!"
"When you two fellows are all through arguing, maybe we can go up and
hook on our leading-in wire to the aerial," said Joe, impatiently.
"We ought to get that much done before dark, anyway."
"I don't know about that, Joe," objected Bob. "It's almost dark now,
and we could do it better and easier in the daylight. What do you
say if you all come around after supper and we'll dope out a wiring
diagram and maybe make a start on building the tuning coil."
Joe reluctantly consented to this, and the four companions separated
for the time being, after promising to return to Bob's house that
evening. And true to their promise, the boys had all returned to
the Layton home by eight o'clock that evening, full of enthusiasm
for the task that lay before them. Mr. Layton was mildly interested
in the radiophone project, but after a few questions he retired to
the library with the evening paper, leaving the boys to their own
devices.