The Radio Boys Trailing a Voice.

by Allen Chapman.

FOREWORD

BY JACK BINNS

Within a comparatively short time after this volume is published the human voice will be thrown across the Atlantic Ocean under conditions that will lead immediately to the establishment of permanent telephone communication with Europe by means of radio.

Under the circ.u.mstances therefore the various uses of radio which are so aptly outlined in it will give the reader an idea of the tremendous strides that have been made in the art of communicating without wires during the past few months.

Of these one of the most important, which by the way is dealt with to a large extent in the present volume, is that of running down crooks. It must not be forgotten that criminals, and those criminally intent are not slow to utilize the latest developments of the genius of man, and radio is useful to them also. However, the forces of law and order inevitably prevail, and radio therefore is going to be increasingly useful in our general police work.

Another important use, as outlined in this volume, is in the detection of forest fires, and in fact generally protecting forest areas in conjunction with aircraft. With these two means hundreds of thousands of acres can now be patrolled in a single day more efficiently than a few acres were previously covered.

Radio is an ideal boy's hobby, but it is not limited to youth.

Nevertheless it offers a wonderful scope for the unquenchable enthusiasm that always accompanies the application of youthful endeavor, and it is a fact that the majority of the wonderful inventions and improvements that have been made in radio have been produced by young men.

Since this book was written there has been produced in this country the most powerful vacuum tube in the world. In size it is small, but in output it is capable of producing 100 kilowatts of electrical power.

Three such tubes will cast the human voice across the Atlantic Ocean under any conditions, and transmit across the same vast s.p.a.ce the world's grandest music. Ten of these tubes joined in parallel at any of the giant transmitting wireless telegraph stations would send telegraph code messages practically around the world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: author's signature "Jack Binns"]

CHAPTER I

SPLINTERING GLa.s.s

"You fellows want to be sure to come round to my house to-night and listen in on the radio concert," said Bob Layton to a group of his chums, as they were walking along the main street of Clintonia one day in the early spring.

"I'll be there with bells on," replied Joe Atwood, as he kicked a piece of ice from his path. "Trust me not to overlook anything when it comes to radio. I'm getting to be more and more of a fan with every day that pa.s.ses. Mother insists that I talk of it in my sleep, but I guess she's only fooling."

"Count on yours truly too," chimed in Herb Fennington. "I got stirred up about radio a little later than the rest of you fellows, but now I'm making up for lost time. Slow but sure is my motto."

"Slow is right," chaffed Jimmy Plummer. "But what on earth are you sure of?"

"I'm sure," replied Herb, as he deftly slipped a bit of ice down Jimmy's back, "that in a minute you'll be dancing about like a howling dervish."

His prophecy was correct, for Jimmy both howled and danced as he tried vainly to extricate the icy fragment that was sliding down his spine.

His contortions were so ludicrous that the boys broke into roars of laughter.

"Great joke, isn't it?" snorted Jimmy, as he bent nearly double. "If you had a heart you'd lend a hand and get this out."

"Let's stand him on his head," suggested Joe. "That's the only thing I can think of. Then it'll slide out."

Hands were outstretched in ready compliance, but Jimmy concluded that the remedy was worse than the presence of the ice and managed to keep out of reach.

"Never mind, Jimmy," said Bob consolingly. "It'll melt pretty soon, anyhow."

"Yes, and it'll be a good thing for Jimmy to grin and bear it," added Herb brightly. "It's things like that that develop one's character."

"'It's easy enough to be pleasant, when life moves along like a song, but the man that's worth while, is the man who can smile when everything's going dead wrong,'" quoted Joe.

Jimmy, not at all comforted by these n.o.ble maxims, glared at his tormentors, and at last Bob came to his relief, and, putting his hand inside his collar, reached down his back and brought up the piece of ice, now greatly reduced in size.

"Let's have it," demanded Jimmy, as Bob was about to throw it away.

"What do you want it for?" asked Bob. "I should think you'd seen enough of it."

"On the same principle that a man likes to look at his aching tooth after the dentist has pulled it out," grinned Joe.

"Don't give it to him!" exclaimed Herb, edging away out of reach, justly fearing that he might feel the vengeance of the outraged Jimmy.

"You gave it to him first, so it's his," decided Bob, with the wisdom of a Solomon, as he handed it over to the victim.

Jimmy took it and started for Herb, but just then Mr. Preston, the princ.i.p.al of the high school, came along and Jimmy felt compelled to defer his revenge.

"How are you, boys?" said Mr. Preston, with a smile. "You seem to be having a good time."

"Jimmy is," returned Herb, and Jimmy covertly shook his fist at him.

"We're making the most of the snow and ice while it lasts."

"Well, I don't think it will last much longer," surmised Mr. Preston, as he walked along with them. "As a matter of fact, winter is 'lingering in the lap of spring' a good deal longer than usual this year."

"I suppose you had a pleasant time in Washington?" remarked Joe inquiringly, referring to a trip from which the princ.i.p.al had returned only a few days before.

"I did, indeed," was the reply. "To my mind it's the most interesting city in the country. I've been there a number of times, and yet I always leave there with regret. There's the Capitol, the n.o.blest building on this continent and to my mind the finest in the world. Then there's the Congressional Library, only second to it in beauty, and the Washington Monument soaring into the air to a height of five hundred and fifty-five feet, and the superb Lincoln Memorial, and a host of other things scarcely less wonderful.

"But the pleasantest recollection I have of the trip," he went on, "was the speech I heard the President make just before I came away. It was simply magnificent."

"It sure was," replied Bob enthusiastically. "Every word of it was worth remembering. He certainly knows how to put things."

"I suppose you read it in the newspaper the next day," said Mr. Preston, glancing at him.

"Better than that," responded Bob, with a smile. "We all heard it over the radio while he was making it."

"Indeed!" replied the princ.i.p.al. "Then you boys heard it even before I did."

"What do you mean?" asked Joe, in some bewilderment. "I understood that you were in the crowd that listened to him."

"So I was," Mr. Preston answered, in evident enjoyment of their mystification. "I sat right before him while he was speaking, not more than a hundred feet away, saw the motion of his lips as the words fell from them and noted the changing expression of his features. And yet I say again that you boys heard him before I did."

"I don't quite see," said Herb, in great perplexity. "You were only a hundred feet away and we were hundreds of miles away."

"And if you had been thousands of miles away, what I said would still be true," affirmed Mr. Preston. "No doubt there were farmers out on the Western plains who heard him before I did.