All this work took some time, and it was nearly dark when they had made all their connections, including the ground connection to a water pipe.
On one corner of Bob's big table they had inserted a small knife-blade switch in the leading-in wire, so that the set could be disconnected from the aerial when not in use, or during storms so as to guard against lightning.
When all was finished the boys viewed the result of so many hours of hard work and planning with mingled feelings of delight at its business-like appearance and apprehension that, after all, it might not work.
"Gee, I'm almost afraid to try it," said Bob. "But we've got to find out what rotten radio constructors we are some time, so here goes," and he produced his set of head phones. So did Joe and Herb, but Jimmy was struck with a sudden unpleasant thought.
"Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "I've gone and left my set home. I'll get it and come back as soon as I can," and he dived precipitately out of the room.
"He didn't need to be in such a hurry," laughed Bob. "We could have taken turns with ours."
"Well, let's connect up, anyway, and see if we can hear anything," said Joe. "There's no use waiting until Jimmy gets back. It won't take him a long while, and likely enough he'll be back before we raise any signals, anyway."
"Well, pull up your chairs, and we'll plug in," said Bob, adjusting the ear phones over his head.
"I saw in this morning's paper that the Newark broadcasting station was going to send out an orchestra concert this afternoon, and if our set is any good we ought to hear part of it."
They all adjusted their ear phones and then drew up chairs and inserted the plugs in the spring sockets designed for their reception. They had connected four pairs of these sockets in parallel, so that all four head sets could be used at once.