The Radio Boys First Wireless | Page 8

something magical, something which, like the lamp of Aladdin, could summon genii who would be obedient to the call.
The rooms were comfortably filled when Dr. Dale, with a genial smile, rose and took up his stand near the table.
"Now, boys," he said, "I've asked you to come here to-night so that we can talk together and get a little better idea of some of the wonders of the world we are living in. One of those wonders and perhaps the most wonderful of all is the wireless telephone," and here he laid his hand on the box beside him. "Most of you have heard of it and want to learn more about it. I'm going to try to explain it to you just as simply as I possibly can. And I'm not going to do all the talking either, for I want you to feel free to ask any questions you like. And before I do any talking worth mentioning, I'm going to give you a little idea of what the wireless telephone can do."
The boys watched him breathlessly as he handled two of the knobs at the side of the box. A moment later they heard the clear, vibrant notes of a violin playing a beautiful selection from one of the operas. The music rose and swelled in wonderful sweetness until it filled the room, with the delicious melody and held all the hearers entranced under its spell. It was evident that only the hand of a master could draw such exquisite music from the instrument.
The doctor waited until the last notes had died away, and smiled with gratification as he saw the rapt look on the faces of his visitors.
"Sounds as if it were in the next room, doesn't it?" he asked. "But that music came from Newark, New Jersey."
"Gee," whispered Jimmy to Bob, alongside whom he was sitting, "that's nearly a hundred miles from here."
"But there's no need of confining ourselves to any place as near as that," continued the doctor. "What do you say to listening in on Pittsburg? That's only a trifle of four hundred miles or so from here."
"He calls four hundred miles a trifle!" breathed Jimmy. "Pinch me, somebody. I must be dreaming."
Joe on his other side pinched him so sharply that Jimmy almost jumped from his chair.
"Lay off there," he murmured indignantly.
"S-sh," cautioned Bob, for by this time the doctor had made another adjustment.
Then into the room burst the stirring strains of the "Stars and Stripes Forever" played by a band that had a national reputation. The rhythm and dash and fire of the performance were such that the boys had all they could do to keep their seats, and, as it was, their feet half unconsciously beat time to the music.
"Hit you hard, did it?" smiled Dr. Dale, who, to tell the truth, had been keeping time himself. "Well, I don't wonder. I'd hate to see the time when music like that wouldn't shake you up. But now we'll go a few hundred miles farther and see what Detroit has to give us."
Jimmy was past speech by this time and could only look at his comrades in helpless wonder. Then the twang of a banjo sounded through the rooms and to the thrumming of the strings came a voice in rich negro dialect
"It rained all night the day I left, The next day it was dry, The sun so hot I froze to death Susanna, don't you cry."
CHAPTER IV
MYSTERIOUS FORCES
The boys broke out in roars of laughter in which the doctor joined heartily.
"You see how it is," he said, as the song came to an end. "There's hardly anything you can think of that you can't hear over the wireless telephone. It takes you anywhere you want to go in a fraction of a second. In the last few minutes, we've covered quite a section of the United States, and with a still stronger instrument we could go right out to the Pacific coast and hear the barking of the sea lions at the Golden Gate."
"Wonder if we could hear the barking of the hot dogs at Coney Island," whispered the irrepressible Herb, who would have his joke.
Bob nudged him sharply and Herb subsided.
"And you can pick out any kind of entertainment you want," the doctor went on. "The great stations from which this music was sent out have programs which are published every day, together with the exact time that the selections will be given. At a given minute you can make your adjustment and listen to a violin solo, a band concert, a political speech, a sermon, or anything else that you want. If it doesn't please you, you can shut it off at once, which is much easier and pleasanter than getting up and going out from an