The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-08-19
CHAPTER I
The Black Box

q college town of the Middle West, was
in full swing, when there sounded a
faint click from what appeared to be
an overgrown portable camera on the
lap of one of two young men seated
in the right hand proscenium box of
the theater, and instantly the bowling
of the violins, the 'cellos and the bass,
the lingering Of the brass and wood
wind, the tapping Of the padded sticks
on the kettle-drums became merely so
-Nany soundless gestures in a panto-
mime All was dead silence.
The two young men in the box who
seemed to have precipitated this ex-
traordinary state of affairs were both
about Of an age. both Carthage born
and reared, and both graduates of the
local college. But with these basic
particulars the similarities paused
abruptly Owen Lands, the one with
the queer black box on his knees, was
slenderly built, with thin, eager face
and dark hair and eyes-the eyes Of
a dreamer and enthusiast. His COM
panion, Walter Markham, was the
young-man-about-to Of a small city;
well-dressed, well-fed, yet not without
a glimmer of penetrative shrewdness
in his eyes to prove his right to claim
kinship with his hard-headed banker
father.
For an interval measurable in Sec
onds the soundless pantomime con-
tinued; then, suddenly, and as if there
had been no gap of silence, the various
instruments burst into full voice. A
wave of half bewilderment swept over
the house, followed quickly by en-
thusiastic applause, the audience evil
IDENTIFY taking the pantomimic inter-
ruption for skillful bit of stage bust
ness on the part Of the orchestra.
wonderful" Markham exclaimed,
under cover of the resumed music. "As
you said, Owen, it has to be seen to be
believed. Why didn't you keep it up
a bit longer?"
Lands shook his head. II didn't
dare to let it go on. In two seconds
more there would have been a panic.
figured that for just about so long
Schomberg's men would go on bowling
and lingering automatically-as they
did. But when realization came,
there'd be chaos. I meant to antici-
pate that moment, and did; couldn't
let it go over the brink. you know"
"Black magic!" Markham comment
ed. as this what you've been working
on all these months that you've been
holed up in your laboratory den?"
you've said it."
swell, now you've got it, what's the
answer? l mean, how does it do it?"
"As I've told you, 1t Is simple enough
in principle. By radio We transmit
sound and make 1t do our bidding. My
problem was to find circuit which,
instead of simplifying the received
sounds would itself operate to neutral
lie them. Once my basic circuit was
developed, all it asked for was a
pretty long series of experiments"
snow you've found the answer to
your problem, what are you going to
do with it?"
"Come around to my shop with me
after the play and I'll talk it out with
you," Lands said, adding "Most in
ventors and discoveries are short on
practical sense-common sense-and
I'm no exception. Maybe you can
supply what I'm lacking in that re-
spect."
Two hours later the two young men
were seated in Landis' workshop lab
oratory. On the walk from the theater
Lands had tried to explain, as I'M
technically as he could, the successive
steps taken in the development of his
astonishing invention.
''What you've been saying is mostly
Greek to me-" Markham offered "Just
the same, can surround the fact ac-
complished, all right-having had the
practical demonstration. But now the
question arises, what have you got?
Can it be put to any useful use?"
Possibilities" Lands Gueried.
~They are almost unlimited. The
trouble is that they are bad as we'll
as good"
"Shoot," said the son Of small-city
wealth, I'm listening"
"The circuit, or whatever you choose
to call 1t, will operate at a distance
don't know just yet how far-and 1t
will pass either through or around
distractions. Turn a switch, and you
can sleep in silence as profound as
that of mountain top, so far as
noises are concerned"
"Huh! sounds a good bit like Alice
in Wonderland. But what else? II
you stop the racket for yourself, you
stop it for everybody else. as well,
don't you?"
Sat short distances, as tonight in
the theater yes. Take, for example, a
steam whistle mile away; in the i'm
mediate neighborhood of the whistle
the sound Is normal, or nearly so; a
listener within a radius of, say, a
quarter of a mile would scarcely de-
tect any muting of the blast, though
1t is really muted at its source. Be-
yond this inner circle the sound 6imin-
ishes quite rapidly until at about half
a mile it has vanished completely"
"In your demonstration tonight you