Evening star., 1922-06-30

Mr.. Brixton." he remarked: Some
one inside this house IL spying. Is in
constant communication with per
son or persons outside. All the watch
4 men and Great Danes on the estate
} underground connection that believe
} exists. It is still early in the after
noon. l shall make hasty trip to
New York and return after dinner.
should like to watch with you In the
den this evening"
shall arrange to have you met at the
station and brought here as secretly
as l can"
He sighed. as If admitting that he
|, was no longer master of even his
own house.
j Kennedy was silent during. most OF
our return trip to New York. AS
for myself, I was deeply mired In an
baff1ed me. However. I felt that II
there was indeed some subtle, under
ground connection between some one
inside and some out outside Brixton 8
subtle method Of meeting 1t on his MS
own account. Very little was salo py
either of us on the journey up 70 tne
laboratory. or on the return to WOOD
rock. 1 realized that there was very
little excuse for a commuter not to pe
well informed. l, at least, had plenty
of time to exhaust the newspapers !
had bought. ,.
Whether or not we returned With
out being observed ! did ia, NOT PIX kh4M, 3he
basement and dark storeroom "ers
deserted, as we CAUTIOUSLY made our
way again into the corner Wnere
Craig had made his enigmatical dis
while held a pocket fiashlight
Craig was busy concealing ahotn1. -
instrument of his own in the nv mt.,e .
| storeroom. 1t seemed to be i.Ise
black disk about as big a as "aoIn, hoIas
! in one face. Carelessly he tossed !.
| into the top drawer Of the chest on- =
der some old rubbish, shut the drawer
| tight and ran a flexible wire OUT VI
the back Of I'll the ,sn chesf;e she Wire as through
some bins next the storeroom anu
then around to the passageway COW n
! to the subterranean den OF briN L,n,. .o!h.
| There Craig deposited a nttIe Daarx IN
box about the size OF an of'"''
kodak. cot with
Brixton. Neither of US SAID any
thing and Brixton was uncomm Uni
catively engaged in reaolhs a.
road report. Suddenly sort OF nut, ~,
| to.,ne singing noise seemed to NIL
"There it isl. cried Brixton, clap
ping the book shut and looking eas-
erly at Kennedy. e.,
| Gradually the sound increased IN
pitch. 1t seemed to come from the
ceiling. not from any particular part
of the room, but merely from some
where overhead There was no hai-
! lucination about it. We all nearu.
As the vibrations increased !. n;ns was
evident that nat tney erds "e
Kennedy had grasped the black oo1
the moment the sound began ana was
holding two black rubber disks 10
his cars. h..a
hacame articulate. 1t was weird, un-
canny. Suddenly a voice SAID as
| tinctiy: Let American dollars pe-
ware. They will not protect Ameri-
can daughters.
| Craig had dropped the TWO ear.
pie res and was gazing intently at
~. osram lamp in the ceiling. Was
''c Here. ie Mr.. Brixton. take these two
| receivers of the dictaphone. SAID
Kennedy. Tell me whether you can
recognize the voice.
'sWhy, it's familiar" he remarKeo
slowly. Il can't place 1t, but I've
heard it before. Where is it? "hat
Is this thing, anyhow
at is some one hidden In the store,
! room in the basement answered
|
sensitive telephone
"Rut the voice-here?" interrupted
Brixton impatiently.
! Kennedy pointed to the lnGanoes-
cent lamp in the ceiling. The IN.
candescent lamp" he said. lis not
always the mute electrical apparatus
| Il is supposed to be. Under the rigRt
conditions it can be made TO SPEAK
exactly as the famous speaking arc.
| as it was called by Prof. puooeii' ,ht VIZ
| Investigated 1t. Both the arc light
and the metal flament lamp can De
made to act as telephone receivers.
It seemed unbelievable. but Ken.
| nedy was positive. I'm the case OF
| the speaking arc or 'arcopnone, as
\ ..the fact that the electric arc is
sensitive to such small variations IN
| the current over a wide range OF IRE
ouency has suggested that dlreSt-
current arc might be used as teie-
phone receiver. All that is neces-
sary is to superimpose a microPhone
current on the main arc and the arc
reproduces sounds and speech dis
tinctly, loud enough to be heard sew
eral feet Indeed, the arc could be
used as a transmitter, t6o' 100 ,ransa II a
mitter at the other end. The things
| needed are an arc lamp, an lmped-
ance coil, or small transformer coll.
| a rheostat and source OF energy.
The alternating current Is not
adapted to reproduce speech, but the
ordinary direct current Is. OF course.
| the theory isn't half as simple as the
apparatus I have described.
He had unscrewed the Osram lamp.
The talking ceased immediately
1.-TWO Investigators named ort ana
Rideer have used a lamp like this as
La receiver" he continued. They
found that words spoken were repro
duced in the lamp. The telephone
current variations superposed on the
current passing through the lamp pro.
duced corresponding variations or
,heat in the filament, which are ra-
idiated to the glass of the bulb. caus-
ing it to expand and contract proper
tionately. and thus transmitting
vibrations to the exterior air. OF
1 course. in sixteen and thirty-two can
! dle-power lamps the glass is too thick
| and the heat variations are too
feeble"
| Who was it whose voice Brlxton
| had recognized as familiar over Ken
! nedy's hastily installed detectaphone?
| Certainly he must have been sclen-
! fist of no mean attainment. That
, did not surprise me, for realized that
from that part of Europe where THIS
| mythical red brotherhood operated
some of the most famous scientists OF
the world had sprung.
, A hasty excursion into the basement
| netted US nothing. The place was de-
serted.
We could only wait. With parting
INSTRUCTIONS to Brixton in the use of
! the detectaphone we said goodnight.
| ,...a x,at bv O wafchman and eS-