Tom Swift And His Photo Telephone
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Victor Appleton >> Tom Swift And His Photo Telephone
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Seeing Koku near the instrument, Eradicate had switched on the
amplifier, and had called into his instrument, trying to scare the
giant. And he did startle Koku, for the loud voice, coming so
suddenly, sent the giant out of the booth on the run.
"But you must have done something else," insisted Tom. "Look here,
Rad," and the young inventor pointed to the picture on the plate.
"Mah gracious sakes!" gasped the colored man. "Why dat's Koku
hisse'f!" and he looked in awe at the likeness.
"That's what you did, Rad!"
"Me? I done dat? No, sah, Massa Tom. I neber did! No, sah!"
Eradicate spoke emphatically.
"Yes you did, Rad. You took that picture of Koku over my photo
telephone, and I want you to show me exactly what you did--what
wires and switches you touched and changed, and all that."
"Yo--yo' done say I tuck dat pishure, Massa Tom?"
"You sure did, Rad."
"Well--well, good land o' massy! An' I done dat!"
Eradicate stared in wonder at the image of the giant on the plate,
and shook his head doubtingly.
"I--I didn't know I could do it. I never knowed I had it in me!"
he murmured.
Tom and Ned laughed long and loud, and then the young inventor
said:
"Now look here, Rad. You've done me a mighty big service, though
you didn't know it, and I want to thank you. I'm sorry about your
arm, and I'll have the doctor look at it. But now I want you to
show me all the things you touched when you played that joke on
Koku. In some way you did what I haven't been able to do, You took
the picture. There's probably just one little thing I've
overlooked, and you stumbled on it by accident. Now go ahead and
show me."
Eradicate thought for a moment, and then said:
"Well, I done turned on de current, laik I seen you done, Massa
Tom."
"Yes, go on. You connected the telephone."
"Yas, sah. Den I switched on that flyer thing yo' all has rigged
up."
"You switched on the amplifier, yes. Go on."
"An'--an' den I plugged in dish year wire," and the colored man
pointed to one near the top of the booth.
"You switched on that wire, Rad! Why, great Scott, man! That's
connected to the arc light circuit--it carries over a thousand
volts. And you switched that into the telephone circuit?"
"Dat's what I done did, Massa Tom; yas, Bah!"
"What for?"
"Why, I done want t' make mah voice good an' loud t' skeer dat
rascal Koku!"
Tom stared at the colored man in amazement.
"No wonder you got a shock!" exclaimed the young inventor. "You
didn't get all the thousand volts, for part of it was shunted off;
but you got a good charge, all right. So that's what did the
business; eh? It was the combination of the two electrical
circuits that sent the photograph over the wire."
"I understand it now, Rad; but you did more than I've been able to
do. I never, in a hundred years, would have thought of switching
on that current. It never occurred to me. But you, doing it by
accident, brought out the truth. It's often that way in
discoveries. And Koku was standing in the other telephone booth,
near the plate there, when you switched in this current, Rad?"
"Yas, sah, Massa Tom. He were. An' yo' ought t' see him hop when
he heard mah voice yellin' at him. Ha! ha! ha!"
Eradicate chuckled at the thought. Then a pain in his shocked arm
made him wince. A wry look passed over his face.
"Yas, sah, Koku done jump about ten feet," he said. "An'--an' den
I jump too. Ain't no use in denyin' dat fact. I done jump when I
got dat shock!"
"All right, Rad. You may go now. I think I'm on the right track!"
exclaimed Tom. "Come on, Ned, we'll try some experiments, and
we'll see what we can do."
"No shocks though--cut out the shocks, Tom," stipulated his chum.
"Oh, sure! No shocks! Now let's bet busy and improve on
Eradicate's Angel Gabriel system."
Tom made a quick examination of the apparatus.
"I understand it, I think," he said. "Koku was near the plate in
the other booth when Rad put on the double current. There was a
light there, and in an instant his likeness was sent over the
wire, and imprinted on this plate. Now let's see what we can do.
You go to that other booth, Ned. I'll see if I can get your
picture, and send you mine. Here, take some extra selenium plates
along. You know how to connect them."
"I think so," answered Ned.
"This image is really too faint to be of much use," went on Tom,
as he looked at the one of Koku. "I think I can improve on it. But
we're on the right track."
A little later Ned stood in the other booth, while Tom arranged
the wires, and made the connections in the way accidently
discovered by Eradicate. The young inventor had put in a new
plate, carefully putting away the one with the picture of the
giant, This plate could be used again, when the film, into which
the image was imprinted, had been washed off.
"All ready, Ned," called Tom, over the wire, when he was about to
turn the switch. "Stand still, and I'll get you."
The connection was made, and Tom uttered a cry of joy. For there,
staring at him from the plate in front of him was the face of Ned.
It was somewhat reduced in size, of course, and was not extra
clear, but anyone who knew Ned could have told he was at the other
end of the wire.
"Do you get me, Tom?" called Ned, over the telephone.
"I sure do! Now see if you can get me."
Tom made other connections, and then looked at the sending plate
of his instrument, there being both a sending and receiving plate
in each booth, just as there was a receiver and a transmitter to
the telephone.
"Hurray! I see you, Tom!" cried Ned, over the wire. "Say, this is
great!"
"It isn't as good as I want it," went on Tom. "But it proves that
I'm right. The photo telephone is a fact, and now persons using
the wire can be sure of the other person they are conversing with.
I must tell dad. He wouldn't believe I could do it!"
And indeed Mr. Swift was surprised when Tom proved, by actual
demonstration, that a picture could be sent over the wire.
"Tom, I congratulate you!" declared the aged inventor. "It is good
news!"
"Yes, but we have bad news of Mr. Damon," said Tom, and he told
his father of the disappearance of the eccentric man. Mr. Swift at
once telephoned his sympathy to Mrs. Damon, and offered to do
anything he could for her.
"But Tom can help you more than I can," he said. "You can depend
on Tom."
"I know that," replied Mrs. Damon, over the wire.
And certainly Tom Swift had many things to do now. He hardly knew
at what to begin first, but now, since he was on the right road in
regard to his photo telephone, he would work at improving it.
And to this end he devoted himself, after he had sent out a
general alarm to the police of nearby towns, in regard to the
disappearance of Mr. Damon. The airship clue, he believed, as did
the police, would be a good one to work on.
For several days after this nothing of moment occurred. Mr. Damon
could not be located, and Tom's airship might still be sailing
above the clouds as far as getting any trace of it was concerned.
Meanwhile the young inventor, with the help of Ned, who was given
a leave of absence from the bank, worked hard to improve the photo
telephone.
CHAPTER XV
THE AIRSHIP CLUE
"Now Ned, we'll try again. I'm going to use a still stronger
current, and this is the most sensitive selenium plate I've turned
out yet. We'll see if we can't get a better likeness of you--one
that will be plainer."
It was Tom Swift who was speaking, and he and his chum had just
completed some hard work on the new photo telephone. Though the
apparatus did what Tom had claimed for it, still he was far from
satisfied. He could transmit over the wire the picture of a person
talking at the telephone, but the likeness was too faint to make
the apparatus commercially profitable.
"It's like the first moving pictures," said Tom. "They moved, but
that was about all they did."
"I say," remarked Ned, as he was about to take his place in the
booth where the telephone and apparatus were located, "this
double-strength electrical current you're speaking of won't shock
me; will it? I don't want what happened to Eradicate to happen to
me, Tom."
"Don't worry. Nothing will happen. The trouble with Rad was that
he didn't have the wires insulated when he turned that arc current
switch by mistake--or, rather, to play his joke. But he's all
right now."
"Yes, but I'm not going to take any chances," insisted Ned. "I
want to be insulated myself."
"I'll see to that," promised Tom. "Now get to your booth."
For the purpose of experiments Tom had strung a new line between
two of his shops, They were both within sight, and the line was
not very long; but, as I have said, Tom knew that if his apparatus
would work over a short distance, it would also be successful over
a long one, provided he could maintain the proper force of
current, which he was sure could be accomplished.
"And if they can send pictures from Monte Carlo to Paris I can do
the same," declared Tom, though his system of photo telephony was
different from sending by a telegraph system--a reproduction of a
picture on a copper plate. Tom's apparatus transmitted the
likeness of the living person.
It took some little time for the young inventor, and Ned working
with him, to fix up the new wires and switch on the current. But
at last it was complete, and Ned took his place at one telephone,
with the two sensitive plates before him. Tom did the same, and
they proceeded to talk over the wire, first making sure that the
vocal connection was perfect.
"All ready now, Ned! We'll try it," called Tom to his chum, over
the wire. "Look straight at the plate. I want to get your image
first, and then I'll send mine, if it's a success,"
Ned did as requested, and in a few minutes he could hear Tom
exclaim, joyfully:
"It's better, Ned! It's coming out real clear. I can see you
almost as plainly as if you were right in the booth with me. But
turn on your light a little stronger."
Tom could hear, through the telephone, his chum moving about, and
then he caught a startled exclamation.
"What's the matter?" asked Tom anxiously.
"I got a shock!" cried Ned. "I thought you said you had this thing
fixed. Great Scott, Tom! It nearly yanked the arm off me! Is this
a joke?"
"No, old man. No, of course not! Something must be wrong. I didn't
mean that. Wait, I'll take a look. Say, it does seem as if
everything was going wrong with this invention. But I'm on the
right track, and soon I'll have it all right. Wait a second. I'll
be right over."
Tom found that it was only a simple displacement of a wire that
had given Ned a shock, and he soon had this remedied.
"Now we'll try again," he said. This time nothing wrong occurred,
and soon Tom saw the clearest image he had yet observed on his
telephone photo plate.
"Switch me on now, Ned," he called to his chum, and Ned reported
that he could see Tom very plainly.
"So far--so good," observed Tom, as he came from the booth. "But
there are several things I want yet to do."
"Such as what?" questioned Ned.
"Well, I want to arrange to have two kinds of pictures come over
the wire. I want it so that a person can go into a booth, call up
a friend, and then switch on the picture plate, so he can see his
friend as well as talk to him. I want this plate to be like a
mirror, so that any number of images can be made to appear on it.
In that way it can be used over and over again. In fact it will be
exactly like a mirror, or a telescope. No matter how far two
persons may be apart they can both see and talk to one another."
"That's a big contract, Tom."
"Yes, but you've seen that it can be done. Then another thing I
want to do is to have it arranged so that I can make a photograph
of a person over a wire."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning that if a certain person talks to me over the wire, I can
turn my switch, and get a picture of him here at my apparatus
connected with my telephone. To do that I'll merely need a sending
apparatus at the other end of the telephone line--not a receiving
machine."
"Could you arrange it so that the person who was talking to you
would have his picture taken whether he wanted it or not?" asked
Ned.
"Yes, it might be done," spoke Tom, thoughtfully. "I could conceal
the sending plate somewhere in the telephone booth, and arrange
the proper light, I suppose."
"That might be a good way in which to catch a criminal," went on
Ned. "Often crooks call up on the telephone, but they know they
are safe. The authorities can't see them--they can only hear them.
Now if you could get a photograph of them while they were
telephoning--"
"I see!" cried Tom, excitedly. "That's a great idea! I'll work on
that, Ned."
And, all enthusiasm, Tom began to plan new schemes with his photo
telephone.
The young inventor did not forget his promise to help Mrs. Damon.
But he could get absolutely no clue to her husband's whereabouts.
Mr. Damon had completely and mysteriously disappeared. His
fortune, too, seemed to have been swallowed up by the sharpers,
though lawyers engaged by Tom could fasten no criminal acts on Mr.
Peters, who indignantly denied that he had done anything unlawful.
If he had, he had done it in such a way that he could not be
brought to justice. The promoter was still about Shopton, as well
groomed as ever, with his rose in his buttonhole, and wearing his
silk hat. He still speeded up and down Lake Carlopa in his
powerful motor boat. But he gave Tom Swift a wide berth.
Late one night, when Tom and Ned had been working at the new photo
telephone, after all the rest of the household had retired, Tom
suddenly looked up from his drawings and exclaimed:
"What's that?"
"What's what?" inquired Ned.
"That sound? Don't you hear it? Listen!"
"It's an airship--maybe yours coming back!" cried the young
banker.
As he spoke Ned did hear, seemingly in the air above the house, a
curious, throbbing, pulsating sound.
"That's so! It is an airship motor!" exclaimed Tom. "Come on out!"
Together they rushed from the house, but, ere they reached the
yard, the sound had ceased. They looked up into the sky, but could
see nothing, though the night was light from a full moon.
"I certainly heard it," said Tom.
"So did I," asserted Ned. "But where is it now?"
They advanced toward the group of work-buildings. Something
showing white in the moonlight, before the hangar, caught Ned's
eyes.
"Look!" he exclaimed. "There's an airship, Tom!"
The two rushed over to the level landing place before the big
shed. And there, as if she had just been run out for a flight, was
the Eagle. She had come back in the night, as mysteriously as she
had been taken away.
CHAPTER XVI
SUCCESS
"Well, this gets me!" exclaimed Tom.
"It sure is strange," agreed Ned. "How did she come here?"
"She didn't come alone--that's sure," went on Tom. "Someone
brought her here, made a landing, and got away before we could get
out."
The two chums were standing near the Eagle, which had come back so
mysteriously.
"Just a couple of seconds sooner and we'd have seen who brought
her here," went on Tom. "But they must have shut off the motor
some distance up, and then they volplaned down. That's why we
didn't hear them."
Ned went over and put his hand on the motor.
"Ouch!" he cried, jumping back. "It's hot!"
"Showing that she's been running up to within a few minutes ago,"
said Tom. "Well, as I said before, this sure does get me. First
these mysterious men take my airship, and then they bring her back
again, without so much as thanking me for the use of her."
"Who in the world can they be?" asked Ned.
"I haven't the least idea. But I'm going to find out, if it's at
all possible. We'll look the machine over in the morning, and see
if we can get any clues. No use in doing that now. Come on, we'll
put her back in the hangar."
"Say!" exclaimed Ned, as a sudden idea came to him. "It couldn't
be Mr. Damon who had your airship; could it, Tom?"
"I don't know. Why do you ask that?"
"Well, he might have wanted to get away from his enemies for a
while, and he might have taken your Eagle, and--"
"Mr. Damon wouldn't trail along with a crowd like the one that
took away my airship," said Tom, decidedly. "You've got another
guess coming, Ned. Mr. Damon had nothing to do with this."
"And yet the night he disappeared an airship was heard near his
house."
"That's so. Well, I give up. This is sure a mystery. We'll have a
look at it in the morning. One thing I'll do, though, I'll
telephone over to Mr. Damon's house and see if his wife has heard
any news. I've been doing that quite often of late, so she won't
think anything of it. In that way we can find out if he had
anything to do with my airship. But let's run her into the shed
first."
This was done, and Koku, the giant, was sent to sleep in the
hangar to guard against another theft. But it was not likely that
the mysterious men, once having brought the airship back, would
come for it again.
Tom called up Mrs. Damon on the telephone, but there was no news
of the missing man. He expressed his sympathy, and said he would
come and see her soon. He told Mrs. Damon not to get discouraged,
adding that he, and others, were doing all that was possible. But,
in spite of this, Mrs. Damon, naturally, did worry.
The next morning the two chums inspected the airship, so
mysteriously returned to them. Part after part they went over, and
found nothing wrong. The motor ran perfectly, and there was not so
much as a bent spoke in the landing wheels. For all that could be
told by an inspection of the craft she might never have been out
of the hangar.
"Hello, here's something!" cried Tom, as he got up from the
operator's seat, where he had taken his place to test the various
controls.
"What is it?" asked Ned.
"A button. A queer sort of a button. I never had any like that on
my clothes, and I'm sure you didn't. Look!" and Tom held out a
large, metal button of curious design.
"It must have come off the coat of one of the men who had your
airship, Tom," said his chum. "Save it. You may find that it's a
clue."
"I will. No telling what it may lead to. Well, I guess that's all
we can find."
And it was. But Tom little realized what a clue the button was
going to be. Nothing more could be learned by staring at the
returned airship, so he and Ned went back to the house.
Tom Swift had many things to do, but his chief concern was for the
photo telephone. Now that he was near the goal of success he
worked harder than ever. The idea Ned had given him of being able
to take the picture of a person at the instrument--without the
knowledge of that person--appealed strongly to Tom.
"That's going to be a valuable invention!" he declared, but little
he knew how valuable it would prove to him and to others.
It was about a week later when Tom was ready to try the new
apparatus. Meanwhile he had prepared different plates, and had
changed his wiring system. In the days that had passed nothing new
had been learned concerning the whereabouts of Mr. Damon, nor of
the men who had so mysteriously taken away Tom's airship.
All was in readiness for the trial. Tom sent Ned to the booth that
he had constructed in the airship hangar, some distance away from
the house. The other booth Tom had placed in his library, an
entirely new system of wires being used.
"Now Ned," explained Tom, "the idea is this! You go into that
booth, just as if it were a public one, and ring me up in the
regular way. Of course we haven't a central here, but that doesn't
matter. Now while I'm talking to you I want to see you. You don't
know that, of course."
"The point is to see if I can get your picture while you're
talking to me, and not let you know a thing about it."
"Think you can do it, Tom?"
"I'm going to try. We'll soon know. Go ahead."
A little later Ned was calling up his chum, as casually as he
could, under the circumstances.
"All right!" called Tom to his chum. "Start in and talk. Say
anything you like--it doesn't matter. I want to see if I can get
your picture. Is the light burning in your booth?"
"Yes, Tom."
"All right then. Go ahead."
Ned talked of the weather--of anything. Meanwhile Tom was busy.
Concealed in the booth occupied by Ned was a sending plate. It
could not be seen unless one knew just where to look for it. In
Tom's booth was a receiving plate.
The experiment did not take long. Presently Tom called to Ned that
he need stay there no longer.
"Come on to the house," invited the young inventor, "and we'll
develope this plate." For in this system it was necessary to
develope the receiving plate, as is done with an ordinary
photographic one. Tom wanted a permanent record.
Eagerly the chums in the dark room looked down into the tray
containing the plate and the developing solution.
"Something's coming out!" cried Ned, eagerly.
"Yes! And it's you!" exclaimed Tom. "See, Ned, I got your picture
over the telephone. Success! I've struck it! This is the best
yet!"
At that moment, as the picture came out more and more plainly,
someone knocked on the door of the dark room.
"Who is it?" asked Tom.
"Gen'man t' see you," said Eradicate. "He say he come from Mistah
Peters!"
"Mr. Peters--that rascally promoter!" whispered Tom to his chum.
"What does this mean?"
CHAPTER XVII
THE MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE
Tom Swift and his chum looked at one another strangely for a
moment in the dim, red light of the dark room. Then the young
inventor spoke:
"I'm not going to see him. Tell him so, Rad!"
"Hold on a second," suggested Ned. "Maybe you had better see him,
Tom. It may have something to with Mr. Damon's lost fortune."
"That's so! I didn't think of that. And I may get a clue to his
disappearance, though I don't imagine Peters had anything to do
with that. Wait, Rad. Tell the gentleman I'll see him. Did he give
any name, Rad?"
"Yas, sah. Him done say him Mistah Boylan."
"The same man who called to see me once before, trying to get me
to do some business with Peters," murmured Tom. "Very well, I'll
see him as soon as this picture is fixed. Tell him to wait, Rad."
A little later Tom went to where his caller awaited in the
library. This time there were no plans to be looked at, the young
inventor having made a practice of keeping all his valuable papers
locked in a safe.
"You go into the next room, Ned," Tom had said to his chum. "Leave
the door open, so you can hear what is said."
"Why, do you think there'll be trouble? Maybe we'd better have
Koku on hand to--"
"Oh, no, nothing like that," laughed Tom. "I just want you to
listen to what's said so, if need be, you can be a witness later.
I don't know what their game is, but I don't trust Peters and his
crowd. They may want to get control of some of my patents, and
they may try some underhanded work. If they do I want to be in a
position to stop them."
"All right," agreed Ned, and he took his place.
But Mr. Boylan's errand was not at all sensational, it would seem.
He bowed to Tom, perhaps a little distantly, for they had not
parted the best of friends on a former occasion.
"I suppose you are surprised to see me," began Mr. Boylan.
"Well, I am, to tell the truth," Tom said, calmly.
"I am here at the request of my employer, Mr. Peters," went on the
caller. "He says he is forming a new and very powerful company to
exploit airships, and he wants to know whether you would not
reconsider your determination not to let him do some business for
you."
"No, I'm afraid I don't care to go into anything like that," said
Tom.
"It would be a good thing for you," proceeded Mr. Boylan, eagerly.
"Mr. Peters is able to command large capital, and if you would
permit the use of your airships--or one of them--as a model, and
would supervise the construction of others, we could confidently
expect large sales. Thus you would profit, and I am frank to admit
that the company, and Mr. Peters, also, would make money. Mr.
Peters is perfectly free to confess that he is in business to make
money, but he is also willing to let others share with him. Come
now, what do you say?"
"I am sorry, but I shall have to say the same thing I said
before," replied Tom. "Nothing doing!"
Mr. Boylan glanced rather angrily at the young inventor, and then,
with a shrug of his shoulders, remarked:
"Well, you have the say, of course. But I would like to remind you
that this is going to be a very large airship company, and if your
inventions are not exploited some others will be. And Mr. Peters
also desired me to say that this is the last offer he would make
you."
"Tell him," said Tom, "that I am much obliged, but that I have no
business that I can entrust to him. If he wishes to make some
other type of airship, that is his affair. Good-day."
As Mr. Boylan was going out Tom noticed a button dangling from the
back of his caller's coat. It hung by a thread, being one of the
pair usually sewed on the back of a cutaway garment.
"I think you had better take off that button before it falls,"
suggested Tom. "You may lose it, and perhaps it would be hard to
match."
"That's so. Thank you!" said Mr. Boylan. He tried to reach around
and get it, but he was too stout to turn easily, especially as the
coat was tight-fitting.
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