"We'll find out in a minute," said Jim. "Everybody stand back now, and I'll plug in the transformer."
He plugged it in and in a few seconds the plate began to glow the same as the other one. "We'll give it a few more seconds," Jim said, "then we'll see if it works."
The professor fumbled around in his pockets, started to toss his pipe onto the plate, thought better of it and put it back in his pocket. Johnny, who had been watching the whole proceedings, pulled out his Boy Scout knife. "You can use this, Professor."
Professor Jordan took the knife, got up close to the plate, gave it a toss, and plunk! It flew over the plate and went straight to the ceiling! And stuck!
"Well, thank goodness, we know it's the present combination of voltage and frequency, and not a series of changes," Jim said, relieved.
"Yes, and size and shape apparently have little to do with it too," the professor answered. "Now all we have to do is find out why. That's our problem."
"And how long it lasts too," said Jim, glancing up at me. Then turning to the professor; "Sir, I've been wondering what you think of the idea that maybe these plates change the electrical charge of whatever object is placed on them, or over them."
"I had that thought too, Jim, when I found out we couldn't turn that plate off. Any ideas how we might go about grounding or dissipating the charge?"
"Or getting me down from here? I don't know if you or Jim realize it, but old Mother Nature is going to make things rather uncomfortable for me pretty soon. I've been up here for almost eight hours already, and I'm getting a bit uneasy, to say the least."
For the first time the professor's eyes crinkled a bit at the corners, and looking up at me, he chuckled, "Mr. Wilson, you've brought up a rather touchy subject, and we'll hurry as fast as we can."