FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65  
66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>   >|  
bell. "Introduce General Marbeau," he said to his secretary. The latter returned in a moment with a dark little man in full uniform. Then he went out again and closed the door. The little man bowed deeply to the Minister of Marine. "Be seated, General," said Delcasse. "M. Lepine, I think you already know--as who does not! This other gentleman I will not name--I will only say that he is a coadjutor whose services we value very highly. He has certain questions to ask you, which I wish you to answer as though I myself were asking them. Proceed, sir," and he nodded to Crochard. "General Marbeau is the chief of our wireless service." "What wireless stations are there in the city of Toulon, General?" Crochard began. "None, sir, except the one at the arsenal," Marbeau answered, looking at his questioner with discreet curiosity. "And in the neighbourhood?" "None nearer than Marseilles." "There are no private installations?" "The government does not permit private installations." "Yet there might be some, clandestinely built?" "That is possible." "However, you can assure me of this: if any such do exist, they are outside the law?" "Undoubtedly." "Why are private stations prohibited?" "They are prohibited because they would interfere with the government stations. You understand, sir, that wireless waves clash in the air, as it were; when they cross or intermingle, the result is a confusing chatter, until the sending and receiving instruments have been carefully tuned with each other. Even that does not always overcome it. A few private stations have been authorised strictly for scientific purposes, but there is none nearer than that at the University of Lyons." "Do you ever suffer from interference here?" "Oh, yes; the English have a very powerful station at Gibraltar and another at Malta; their battleships are all equipped with it, as are those of Italy. So are most of the passenger steamers which enter the Mediterranean. The air is often filled with messages." "Has there been any such interference during the past few days?" "Yes, a great deal of it; one instance in particular of which my operators have complained." "Ah!" said Crochard. "Will you tell us exactly what it was?" "Last Saturday," explained Marbeau, "about three in the afternoon, there came from somewhere a series of long dashes, lasting nearly half a second, and spaced about two seconds apart. This continued for perha
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65  
66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Marbeau

 

private

 

General

 

stations

 

Crochard

 

wireless

 

nearer

 

interference

 
installations
 
government

prohibited

 
chatter
 

English

 

station

 

intermingle

 
confusing
 

powerful

 
result
 

suffer

 

instruments


scientific

 
purposes
 

strictly

 
Gibraltar
 

overcome

 

authorised

 
receiving
 

University

 

carefully

 

sending


explained
 

Saturday

 
afternoon
 

series

 

seconds

 

continued

 

spaced

 

dashes

 

lasting

 

complained


passenger

 

steamers

 
Mediterranean
 
battleships
 

equipped

 

filled

 

instance

 

operators

 

messages

 

However