“It came about through the experience of a man who was in charge of a ground school of radio instruction at an air station,” explained Captain Springer. “While he himself was practicing receiving words at the rate of thirty-five a minute, he fell asleep, but the mechanical sender which he was using continued to send messages to him. When he awoke, he claimed that he was able to catch from ten to fifteen more words a minute than he had previously done. His theory was that while he was asleep, his subconscious mind had been trained to the higher speed.”
“Must have sounded like a pipe dream when he first told that story,” put in Jimmy.
“So it did,” agreed their visitor. “But he was so earnest about it that the naval authorities entered on a series of tests and found that he was right, and now it’s a regular part of the instruction. Before turning in at night the student adjusts on his head the receivers that are used in the ordinary class. A regular watch is stood through the night by expert operators on the sending key, and throughout the night they send at high speed—about ten words in excess of the student’s ordinary capacity of receiving. It has been found that in his conscious hours on the following day the student is able to receive messages at the rate they were sent to him while asleep.”
“By jinks!” exclaimed Herb, with more energy than he usually showed, “that hits me hard. I’m going to take a hack at it myself.”
“Herb thinks he won’t have to work so hard that way,” chaffed Joe, and there was a general laugh at the lazy boy’s expense.
“I suppose you have a pretty good set yourself, since you’re so interested in it,” said the captain, addressing himself to Bob.
“Fairly good,” answered Bob modestly. “I get Cuba without any trouble, and I’ve often picked up the signals from Nauen, Germany, and Eiffel Tower, Paris.”
“Then it must be more than fairly good,” returned the visitor. “I’d like to have a look at it, if you don’t mind.”
“Only too glad,” was the reply. “It’s in the room upstairs.”
Excusing himself to Mr. and Mrs. Layton, the captain accompanied the boys to Bob’s room.