“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 classed 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?”
“It’s fast enough to do the trick, anyway,” agreed Bob. “Wouldn’t it be great to be in charge of a station like that?”
The others agreed that it would, and for some time they discussed this latest marvel of radio. Then their minds were drawn away by the wonderful scenery through which they were passing. The leaves still left on the trees were tinted in rich reds and browns, and as the big cars climbed to higher levels the party had some wonderful views of high hills and spreading valleys.