Radio Boys Cronies | Page 2

sound conducting apparatus induced by strong
electrical currents from generators or batteries and extensive aërial or
antennas wires high in the air. Thus sound is converted into waves, and
the receiving station, as you see here, with its aërial on the roof, its
detector, its 'phone and its tuner, gets these waves and turns them again
into sound. That is the outline of the thing, which you will understand
better 'after' than 'before using.'
"The technical construction of the radio receiving set is neither difficult
nor expensive; it is described fully in several books on the subject and I
shall be glad to give any of you hints on the making and the operation
of a receiving set. The 'phone receivers and the crystal detector will
have to be purchased as well as some of the accessories, such as the
copper wire, pulleys, battery, switches, binding posts, the buzzer tester
and so forth. With proper tools and much ingenuity some of these
appliances may be home-made.
"The making of the tuner, the wiring, the aërial and the assembling are
all technicalities that may be mastered by a careful study of the subject
and the result will be a simple and inexpensive set having a limited
range. With more highly perfected appliances, as a vacuum, or audion

tube, and an aërial elevated from sixty to over a hundred feet, you may
receive radio energy thousands of miles away.
"Now, this talk we are about to hear comes to us from the broadcasting
station WUK at Wilmerding, a distance of three hundred miles, and this
outfit of mine is such as to get the words loudly and clearly enough to
be audible through a horn. The talks are in series; there have been three
on modern poets, two on the history of great railroad systems and now
this will be the first of several on great inventors, beginning with
Edison, in four parts. The next will be on Friday and I want you all to
be here. Time is up; there will be a preliminary-ah, there it is: a cornet
solo by Drake."
CHAPTER II
AN UNUSUAL LAD
Professor Gray turned to the box and began moving the metal switch
arms back and forth, thus tuning in more perfectly as indicated by the
increased and clearer sound and the absence of interference from other
broadcasting stations, noticed at first by a low buzzing. In a moment
the music came clear and sweet, the stirring tune of "America." When
the sound of the cornet ceased, there followed this announcement:
"My subject is the early life of Thomas Alva Edison."
Everyone settled down most contentedly and Gus saw Bill hug himself
in anticipatory pleasure; the lame boy had always been a staunch
admirer of the great inventor. There was no need of calling anyone's
attention to the necessity for keeping quiet. Out of the big horn, as out
of a phonograph, came the deliberate and carefully enunciated words:
"It has been said that 'the boy is father to the man.' That may be worthy
of general belief; at least evidences of it are to be found in the boyhood
of him we delight to speak of as one of the first citizens of our country
and probably the greatest scientific discoverer of all time. The boyhood
of this remarkable man was almost as remarkable as his manhood; it
was full of incidents showing the tendencies that afterward contributed

to true greatness in the chosen field of endeavor of a mind bent upon
experiment, discovery and invention.
"Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, in the year 1847. The
precise date, even to Mr. Edison, seems somewhat doubtful.
"He was a frail little chap, with an older brother and sister. But he was
active enough to have several narrow escapes from death. He wouldn't
have been a real boy if he hadn't fallen into the canal and barely
escaped drowning at least once.
"Then while he was a little bit of a fellow, climbing and prowling
around a grain elevator beside the canal, he fell into the wheat bin and
was nearly smothered to death.
"Once he held a skate strap for another boy to cut off with a big ax and
the lad sliced off the end of the fingers holding it!
"Another time the small Edison boy was investigating a bumblebee's
nest in a field close to the fence. He was so interested in watching the
bees that he didn't notice a cross old ram till it had butted in and sent
him sprawling. Although he was then 'between two fires,' the little lad
was quick-witted enough to jump up and climb the fence just in time to
escape a second attack from the ugly old beast. From a safe place he
watched the