The Golden Boys Rescued by Radio
Levi Parker Wyman
9781465658326
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
“There, that’s done. Got that condenser ready, Jack?” “I’ll have it in a jiffy, Bob. The wire’s come unsoldered and I’ve got to fix it but it won’t take but a minute.” “All right, but make it snappy. I’m on pins to know whether the thing’s going to work.” The two boys, Bob and Jack Golden, aged nineteen and eighteen respectively, had been hard at work for nearly three weeks in their laboratory in the basement of their home in Skowhegan, Maine, a small town some hundred miles north of Portland, on the Kennebec River. It was now nearly ten o’clock at night and they had been hard at work since early morning in an endeavor to bring their labors to an end before going to bed. “There, she’s fixed,” Jack declared, with a sigh of relief as he placed a small soldering iron in its place over the work bench. “Good. Now you take your set up to the bedroom and we’ll give it a try out. If it only works, it’ll be the best thing we’ve ever done, Jack boy,” and Bob threw his arms about his brother’s neck and gave him a hearty hug. “Save the pieces,” Jack laughed as he turned to the bench and picked up a small wooden case which he slipped into his coat pocket. Then from a small drawer he took a brass cylinder about seven inches long and slightly over an inch thick. Caps, which had the appearance of silver, but were composed of an alloy, the secret of which was known only to the two boys, closed the ends of the cylinder. Some three feet of fine wire was soldered to the center of each cap. From the same drawer he took a small round object closely resembling the ear piece of a head telephone. “I’ll call you in about ten minutes,” he said as he started toward the door. “That is, I’ll try to,” he added turning with his hand on the knob. As soon as his brother had closed the door Bob set to work assembling his outfit similar, in all respects, to that which Jack had taken with him. The small wooden case he put in an outside coat pocket pushing the two wires which led from it through the lining of the coat. These he quickly attached to the brass cylinder which he then slipped into his inside pocket. The little telephone receiver, which was designed to serve as a transmitter as well, he connected by two wires to the two terminals at one end of the case and slipped it into the same pocket. As he stood there there was nothing visible about him to indicate that he carried on his person their latest invention. “There, I guess there’s nothing more to do except wait,” he said aloud as he sat down in a chair. While he is waiting will be as good a time as any other to introduce the two boys to any who have not read the previous volumes of this series. Bob and Jack Golden were sons of a well-to-do manufacturer and lumberman, Mr. Richard Golden. Their home was in the little town of Skowhegan on the Kennebec River. The boys, being of an inventive turn, their father had fitted up for them, in the basement of the home, a combined workshop and laboratory. Here they spent many hours of their vacations and more than one useful invention had resulted from their labors. The most important was undoubtedly an entirely new type of storage cell. This cell, though small enough to be carried in the pocket, was yet powerful enough to run a motor boat or an automobile for a long time.
