SWEETS OF VICTORY
Bob set one of the sliders about at the middle of the tuning coil,
and set the other--the one connected to the leading-in wire--about
opposite. Then he adjusted the sharp pointed wire on the detector
until the point was just touching the crystal. Still there was no
sound in the ear phones, and the boys looked at one another in bitter
disappointment. Bob moved the antenna slider slowly along the tuning
coil, and suddenly, faint, but very clear, the boys heard the opening
chords of an overture played by a famous orchestra nearly a hundred
miles away! Sweet and resonant the distant music rose and fell,
growing in tone and volume as Bob manipulated the contacts along the
coil. The boys sat spellbound listening to this miracle, to this soul
stirring music that seemed as though it must surely be coming from
some other world. Hardly breathing, they listened until the last
blended chords whispered away into space, and then looked at each
other like people just awakened from a dream.
Bob was the first to speak.
"I think we can call our set a success, fellows," he said, with
a quiet smile.
"Bob, that was simply wonderful!" cried Joe, jumping up and pacing
about the room in his excitement. "Why, we can sit here and hear
that orchestra just as well as though we were in the same hall with
it. It seems like a fairy tale."
"So it is," said Bob. "Only this is a fairy tale that came true.
I wish Jimmy had been here to listen in with us."
"He's here now, anyway," said a familiar voice, and Jimmy burst
into the room, puffing and blowing. "Does it work, fellows? Tell
me about it."
"I should say it did work!" replied Joe. "We just heard a wonderful
selection played by a big orchestra. It must be the Newark
broadcasting station, as they had promised a concert for this
afternoon."
"I missed it, then, didn't I?" said Jimmy, with a downcast face.
"Yes, but they'll play something else pretty soon," said Herb. "Plug
in with your ear phones, and maybe you'll hear something to cheer
you up."
"It will take quite a good deal," said Jimmy, "after hoofing it all
the way to my house and back on the double quick. I'll bet that trip
took ten pounds off me, if it took an ounce."
"That won't hurt you any," said Joe, with a total lack of sympathy
for his friend's trials. "Hurry up and plug in here, so that we'll
be ready for the next number on the program."
"Oh, all right, all right," said Jimmy, adjusting his phones. "If
I'm not ready, just tell 'em to wait."
The absurdity of this idea raised a laugh, which was suddenly
cut short as the first notes of a rousing march came ringing into
the earphones. Every note was true and distinct as before, with
practically no interference, and when the last note had died away
the boys rose and as though actuated by one impulse, executed an
impromptu war dance.
When they had quieted down somewhat, Bob rushed downstairs and
brought his mother up to hear her first radio concert. She was
rather incredulous at first, but when the first notes of a violin
solo reached her ears, her expression suddenly changed, and when
the selection was over she was almost as enthusiastic as the boys
themselves.
"That was simply wonderful!" she exclaimed. "I never imagined you
would be able to hear anything half as distinctly as that."
"I'll bet you never thought you'd hear anything over our home-made
set, now did you?" accused Bob.
Mrs. Layton looked a trifle guilty. "I never thought you'd get it
working so soon nor so perfectly," she confessed. "But now that you
have, I certainly congratulate you."
They all listened for some time for something else to come in over
the aerial, but apparently the concert was over, for they could hear
nothing but a confused murmur, with here and there some fragment of
a sentence coming out clear above the general confusion. This was
probably due to the sending being so distant as to be almost beyond
their range. Just before supper time they heard a message from a ship
at sea, and Joe, Herb, and Jimmy could hardly tear themselves away
to go home to supper. They finally got started, however, promising
to return as soon as they could after supper, so as to be in time
for the evening concert.
After they had gone, Bob called up Doctor Dale, and told him of the
successful outcome of their experiment. The minister was delighted.
"That's great work!" he exclaimed heartily. "So the set works well,
does it?"
"Yes, sir, it certainly does," said Bob. "Of course it's not as good
as yours, and we can't tune out interference very well. But it does
all that I hoped it would, and more. I wish you could get around to
hear it when you get a chance."
"I tell you what I'll do," said the doctor. "I have an expert radio
man visiting me here this evening. How would it be if I dropped
around some time during the evening, and brought him with me?"
"Fine!" exclaimed Bob, delighted at the prospect of talking with
an experienced radio man. "We'll all be looking for you, sir."
Bob was delighted over the doctor's promise, and told his friends
about it as soon as they arrived that evening. They were all
equally pleased.
"He can tell us just what we need to know," commented Joe. "You can
dig a lot of stuff out of books, but lots of times just the question
you want answered doesn't seem to be in them."
The boys had just raised the Newark station, end were listening to
the first number on the program, a soprano solo, when the minister
and his friend arrived. He introduced the stranger as Mr. Brandon,
and the latter immediately made himself at home.
"I hear you fellows got your set working first crack out of the box,"
he said, as they were going upstairs. "You're luckier than I was with
my first one, because I had a lot of trouble before I got my first
signal through. I fooled around a long time before I found out what
the trouble was, too."
"What was it?" asked Bob.
"I finally found that the water pipes were insulated from the street
pipes, as they are in some houses, so that I really didn't have any
ground at all, even though my ground wire was connected with a pipe
in the bathroom. I might have been looking for the trouble yet if a
friend of mine hadn't given me a tip what to look for."
By this time they had reached Bob's room, and Dr. Dale and Mr. Brandon
inspected the boys' outfit with great interest.
"Pretty good for beginners, isn't it, Brandon?" said the minister
at length, when they had gone over the thing at length and Bob had
explained the way they had made the different units.
"I should say so," acquiesced the expert. "They've made up one of
the neatest amateur jobs I've seen in a long time. Let's see how it
sounds."
He and the doctor donned head phones, and Mr. Brandon manipulated the
tuning coil and the crystal detector with a deftness that spoke of
long experience. He showed the boys how they might get even clearer
and louder tones than any they had yet obtained by adjusting the
detector until the best possible contact was obtained with the
crystal.
"You could hear better with a more elaborate set, of course," he said,
"but you get mighty good results with what you've got. Of course,
you're range is limited to less than two hundred miles with this set,
and your tuning range is limited, too. But you've made a fine start,
and with this as a foundation you can go on adding equipment, if you
like, until you have a first class receiving station."
"Yes, and after we get a little more experience, we want to try our
hand at sending, too," said Joe.
"Well, that's a more complicated undertaking," said Mr. Brandon.
"But there's no reason why you shouldn't, if you are willing to
go to the trouble to learn the international code and take an
examination. You have to be able to receive ten words a minute,
you know, to get a license."
"I suppose you're an expert both sending and receiving," said Bob.
"I ought to know something about it by this time," said Mr. Brandon.
"Uncle Sam has me working for him now as radio inspector, so I'm
supposed to know something about it."
"Mr. Brandon was with the aviation radio branch of the service during
the war," explained Dr. Dale, "and he has seen radio telephony develop
from almost nothing to what it is to-day."
"Yes, it was the war that speeded up the growth of radio," said Mr.
Brandon. "It revolutionized war in the air, and made it possible to
control the movements of airplanes in a way that had never, been
dreamed of before."
"You must have had some mighty interesting and exciting work,"
ventured Herb.
"All of that," admitted Dr. Dale's friend, with a smile. "Once our
whole station was wrecked by a bomb dropped on it from an enemy plane.
Luckily, we all had time to duck out before the bomb landed, but there
wasn't anything left of our fine station but a big hole in the ground
and bits of apparatus scattered around over the landscape. There were
very few dull moments in that life."
"It doesn't sound very dull," said Bob, laughing.
"I can assure you it wasn't," said the radio expert. "But in the case
I was telling you about, our airmen brought down the fellow who had
dropped the bomb, which made us feel a little better."
"There's some interesting stuff coming in now," said Dr. Dale, who
had been listening in at the receiving set. "They're sending out news
bulletins now, and I'd advise you to listen for a bit. It's away
ahead of reading a newspaper, I assure you."
"Besides being easier on the eyes," grinned Mr. Brandon. "Let's hear
what it's all about."
Sitting at ease, they heard many important news items of the day
recorded. There was a little interference from an amateur sender,
but they finally managed to eliminate this almost entirely by
manipulation of the tuning coil.
"I know that fellow," said Brandon. "I was inspecting his outfit
just a few days ago. He's got a pretty good amateur set, too. He's
located in Cooperstown, not twenty miles from here."
"My, you must know every station in this part of the country!"
exclaimed Joe, surprised.
"It's my business to know them all," said Brandon. "And if anybody
takes a chance and tries to send without a license, it's up to me
to locate him and tell him what's what."
"It must be hard to locate them, isn't it?" asked Jimmy.
"Sometimes it is," returned the radio inspector. "I'm tracing down
a couple now, and hope to land them within a few days."
The little company had some further interesting talk, and then, as
it was getting rather late, Dr. Dale and his friend rose to go.
"I'm glad to have met all you fellows," said the radio expert,
shaking hands all around. "If there's anything I can do to help
you along at any time, Dr. Dale can tell you where to find me,
and I'll be glad to be of service."
The boys thanked their visitor heartily, and promised to avail
themselves of his offer in case they found that they needed help.
Then Bob saw the visitors to the door, and returned to his friends.
"We're mighty lucky to have met a man like that, who knows this game
from start to finish," said Joe. "I'd give a lot to know what he does
about it."
"You never will know as much," said Jimmy. "Mr. Brandon is a smart
man."
"Meaning that I'm not, I suppose?" said Joe. "Well, there's no need
of my being smart as long as you're around with your keen young mind."
"It's nice of you to say so," said Jimmy, choosing to ignore the
sarcasm in Joe's tone. "I never expected to hear you admit it,
though."
"I'll have to get you two Indians a pair of boxing gloves, and let
you settle your arguments that way, pretty soon," came from Bob.
"Nothing doing," said Jimmy. "Boxing is too much like work, and it's
time to go home, anyway," and he rose to look for his hat. "Anybody
coming my way?"
"Well, if there were any more messages coming in, I'd ask Bob to let
me stay all night," said Joe. "But as it is, I suppose I might as well
go, too. Coming, Herb?"
"Yes, I suppose I'll have to."
"Not at all," put in Jimmy. "I'm sure Mrs. Layton would just love
to have you two fellows planted on her for a life time."
"Nothing doing!" declared Bob, laughing.
In a few moments three tuneful whistlers were making their way
homeward, with hearts elated at the success of their first venture
into the wide field of radio telephony.