“When I press this key,” he said, “an electrical spark is sent up into the antenna, the big wire that you see suspended from the mast over the station, and is flung out into space.”
“Travels pretty fast, doesn’t it?” asked Larry, to whom all this was new.
“Rather,” laughed Mr. Harvey. “It can go seven and a half times around the world while you are striking a match.”
“What!” exclaimed Larry incredulously. “Why, the circle of the earth is about twenty-five thousand miles.”
“Exactly,” smiled Harvey. “And that spark travels at the rate of one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second.”
“You’re sure you don’t mean feet instead of miles?” suggested Tim dubiously.
“It’s miles all right,” laughed Harvey. “Electricity 39 travels at the same rate as the light that comes to us from the sun and stars.”
“What becomes of this electrical impulse after it gets started on that quick trip?” asked Larry. “How does the fellow on the other end get what you’re trying to tell him.”
“That fellow or that station has another antenna waiting to receive my message,” replied Harvey. “The signal keeps on going through the ether until it strikes that other antenna. Then it climbs along it until it reaches the receiving set and registers the same kind of dot or dash as the one I made at this end. It’s like the pitcher and catcher of a baseball battery. One pitches the ball and the other receives the same ball. At one instant it’s in the pitcher’s hand and the next it has traveled the space between the two and is resting in the catcher’s hand. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?”
“Sounds simple when you put it that way,” laughed Larry. “But I have a hunch that it isn’t as simple as it sounds.”