But Tom might have been far more confident, for the following day when the test was made it worked much better than their most sanguine expectations had led them to think possible. To be sure, their experiments came to an abrupt ending right in the midst of the test, for the sending set on Tom’s suit leaked and, with a feeble buzz and sputter, his words trailed off to nothingness.
But when, upon reaching the surface, Rawlins reported that he had heard everything Tom had said and Frank and Henry in the shop had also heard him, the boys knew that their plans and the principles of the outfit were all right and that only the question of making the set absolutely watertight remained to be solved.
“I don’t see why it should not be inside the suit,“ declared Rawlins, as the boys were discussing the matter and were at a loss to know how to accomplish their aims. “You say these wireless waves go through everything and we get them through the suit in the receiving set so why shouldn’t they go out through everything just as well. Look here, I was thinking over this last night and here’s my idea.”
As the boys gathered about, the diver rapidly sketched his plan of a new suit in which the sending set could be placed within a receptacle full of compressed air.
“I believe that would work,” cried Tom when he grasped Rawlins’ scheme. “I don’t see why compressed air should affect the outfit any and it’s easy enough to make watertight fittings where the wires come out and there’s no tuning to do, We can always use a special wave length and if several men were talking under water each one could have his own wave length. Yes. I’ll bet you’ve solved the puzzle, Mr. Rawlins.”
Keen on the new plan the boys started a new set, or rather two new sets, for they wished to make a
test to determine if two men under water could converse, while Rawlins busied himself on the special suits and air pockets to be used.
“We’ll have to balance the weight of the set against the increased buoyancy of this compressed air,” he remarked as he worked. “But I see where that’s an advantage. One of your troubles has been the weight of batteries and by this air caisson arrangement weight won’t cut any figure under water.”
“But suppose the air pocket springs a leak?” queried Frank. “We’d be just as badly off as before.”
“Well, I don’t calculate to have it leak,” replied Rawlins, “but if you make the sets as near watertight as you can, they’d still go on working for some time before they got soaked. And if I can’t make a little caisson that’ll hold a hundred pounds of air for ten or twelve hours I’ll give up diving and drive a taxi.”