"—and the men in the white coats. How's your patching job?"
"Fine. How's your power-supply job?"
"Good enough," said Barney. "This eighty-four cycles is not going to be a sine wave at two hundred volts; the power stage of the BFO overloads just enough to bring in a bit of second harmonic."
"A beat-frequency-oscillator was never made to run at that level," complained Jim Baler. "At least, not this one. She'll tick on a bit of second, I think."
"Are we ready for the great experiment?"
"Yup, and I still wish I knew what the thing was for. Go ahead, Barney. Crack the big switch!"
Altas held up a restraining hand as Than grasped the main power switch. "Wait," he said. "Does one stand in his sky flier and leave the ground at full velocity? Or does one start an internal combustion engine at full speed?"
"No," said the youngster. "We usually take it slowly."
"And like the others, we must tune our tube. And that we cannot do under full power. Advance your power lever one-tenth step and we'll adjust the deflection anodes."