“Captain equipped us some time back,” he said. “All posts or forts, as we call them sometimes, have wireless now.”
“Good for you, Frank. I see what you’re driving at now,” said Mr. Hampton. “You—”
Frank nodded.
“Yes, sir. I thought if we helped Mr. MacDonald capture Lupo and his gang, we could call his Post by wireless and have them send men to help him take his prisoners in.”
CHAPTER IX.—A CALL TO THE FORT.
“Now,” said Jack, “is the time that I wish I had my 20-kilowatt radio tube that I have been working on so long.”
Mr. Hampton, Bob and Frank nodded sympathetically. An enthusiast on radio, Jack had developed a number of new appliances. The latest of these was not yet completed. He had worked on it in the laboratories at Yale during the Winter and Spring. The lateness of his return to his classes, however, inasmuch as he did not arrive at college until after Christmas, due to the delay occasioned by his adventures in South America in search of “The Enchanted City of the Incas,” compelled him to devote most his time to catching up in his studies. He did not, therefore, have as much time to devote to laboratory experiments as he desired. As a consequence, the 20-kilowatt tube had not yet been perfected, when time came for him to depart for Alaska with his father.
Jack’s 20-kilowatt tube, when completed, would be the most powerful in the world, and he expected, moreover, to construct others of greater kilo-wattage. A 75-kilowatt tube had been produced in England, it is true, but it had not been found practicable. Jack’s tube was to be steel-jacketed and equipped with a water-cooling device, due to the heat produced when in operation. His big dream was that this tube, when used as an amplifier in conjunction with an alternator, would make trans-atlantic telephonic communication as common as cabling or wireless telegraphing.
“If I only had one of my 20-kilowatt tubes now,” he mourned, “we would be able to talk not only with Mr. MacDonald’s Post but with Dawson or even Nome.”
“Well, Jack,” said Frank, “it’s too bad. Just the same, let’s get busy. For, with our 50-watt oscillator tube set we will be able to communicate by telegraph up to 500 miles. And, as the Post is only 400 miles away, we can reach it easily.”