Part 8 (1/2)
asked Joe.
”Sure! It's the best hotel up there. The only one, in fact; though I believe some of the natives take a few people into their homes.”
”By the way,” said Herb. ”Who's said anything to Mrs. or Mr. Layton about our joining their party? Seems incredible, but maybe they won't want us.”
”Gee!” gasped Joe. ”I never thought of that. But maybe it's so.”
”There's mother now,” announced Bob. ”Let's put it up to her.”
This they did, and her son's three friends were a.s.sured by Mrs. Layton that if their parents were willing they should go she and Mr. Layton would be glad to have them in their party.
”That's fixed then,” announced Jimmy. ”I'm off now, fellows. Next stop, Mountain Pa.s.s.”
CHAPTER VII
RADIO WONDERS
That day and the next were busy ones for the radio boys. The party was to go in two big automobiles that Mr. Layton had hired, and the boys had secured permission to take a small radio set with them. On the morning set for their departure they were ready to the last detail, and it was not long before they and their belongings were snugly packed into the two automobiles and they were all on their way to the mountain resort.
Although it was still only mid-autumn, the air had a keen edge to it, the sky was gray and overcast, and there was the indefinable feel of snow in the air. The big cars rolled crisply through long drifts of dead leaves, going at a lively pace, as it was quite a journey to the resort, with many steep grades to be encountered on the way. The boys were warmly wrapped, and the keen air only gave zest and added to their high spirits.
”These cars ought to be equipped with a radio set,” remarked Bob, a short time after they had started. ”I saw a picture the other day of a car that was rigged up that way, with an antenna from the radiator to a mast in the rear.”
”It's not a bad idea, at that,” said Joe. ”If a person were going on a long tour, he could keep in touch with the weather forecasts, and know just what to expect the next day.”
”Yes, and when he camped for lunch, he could have music while the coffee pot was boiling,” said Herb. ”Pretty soft, I'll say.”
”He'd be out of luck if the static were bad, though,” observed Jimmy.
”Oh, it won't be long before they'll get around that static nuisance,”
said Bob. ”Have you heard of the latest method of overcoming it?”
The others had not, and Bob proceeded to explain.
”At Rocky Point, Long Island, they put up twelve radio towers, each four hundred and ten feet high, in a row three miles long. Then they hitched up a couple of two hundred kilowatt alternators so that they run in synchronism. That means four hundred kilowatts on the aerial, and I guess that can plough through the worst static that ever happened.”
”Four hundred kilowatts!” exclaimed Joe. ”That's an awful lot of juice, Bob.”
”You bet it is,” agreed Bob, nodding his head. ”But it does the work.
When they tested out this system signals were received in Nauen, Germany, of almost maximum strength, in spite of bad weather conditions. You know they have a numbered scale, running from nothing to ten, which is maximum. Well, the Rocky Point signals were cla.s.sed as number nine, which means they were almost maximum strength.”
”It must have been a terrible job to synchronize those two alternators,” commented Joe.
”No doubt of it,” agreed Bob. ”This article stated that they had to experiment for months before they succeeded. Those machines turn over at somewhere around twenty-two thousand revolutions per minute, you know.”
”About three hundred and sixty-six times a second,” said Joe, after a short mental calculation. ”Nothing slow about that, is there?”