“Yes, sir; but you never saw one that did what ours does.”
“What's the difference between yours and the others?”
Bill hesitated.
“Tell him,” said Tommy, frowning.
“I don't know anything about the others except that they don't work.”
“Show it to him,” commanded Tommy.
Bill aimed a look at his partner, making clear who would be to blame if somebody else got a patent on the selfsame carburetor, and then slowly unwrapped the package. With his child before him Bill became loquacious, and he began to explain it to the professor, who listened and asked question, most of which Bill answered. Occasionally he said, “I don't know,” and then Tommy would interject, “But it works, Professor Jenkins.”
Bill could not tell how high a voltage he was using nor the kind of transformer.
“The man I bought it from said it was a six-to-one transformer. There is no marking on it.”
The professor smiled, asked more questions, and finally Bill confessed that it didn't work above nine hundred revolutions.