it to
satisfy the insurance companies. The antenna is secured to it and by
means of a ground wire any electrical discharges will in a great
measure pass off through the earth."

"Mater should see that," murmured Walter mischievously to Bob.

The elder brother nodded humorously.

"The ground helps a lot in radio work," continued he. "In fact were
it not for good old Mother Earth furnishing her aid, we should have no
wireless at all. One side of our circuit passes through the ground and
the other half, which completes it, goes through the air between the
aerials of the different stations. Therefore you can readily see that
it is most important to make sure of a good earth connection. Often
city water pipes are resorted to, the contact being made by soldering
a wire to the water faucet. Down here on the Cape, however, where
there are only wells and windmills we shall have to sink some metal
plates in the ground and connect the wires with these."

"And that is all that goes outside the building?"

"Yes, sir. The lead in brings the wires into the station and they are
then connected up with the receiver. Sometimes there are separate
antennae for sending and receiving messages. Of course the big stations
always have two. But for a place this size and doing such a small
amount of business we can send and receive from the same wire. With a
tuner, which can be tuned to bring you into the same key with the
station you are listening to; a detector to catch the signal after the
persons talking have been brought into tune; and an amplifier that
intensifies or increases the sound you have your receiving outfit.
Batteries you know about without my telling you; and the head 'phones
too, which you have of course seen telephone operators wear hundreds
of times."

"Yes, I believe I should recognize one of those," laughed Mr.
Crowninshield. "So that is all there is to it, eh?"

"That is about all there is to receiving, yes."

"The sending part of the machine is more complicated, is it?"

"Yes, sir. And so is the job," smiled Bob.

"I mean to learn to transmit as well as receive," put in Dick.

His Highness grinned derisively.

"Do you indeed!" said he. "Well, there is nothing like aiming high.
But I guess for the present you'll be pretty well content if you get
so you can take down the Morse code as it comes in."

"Is it so hard?"

"That depends on how good you are at memorizing dots and dashes.
French verbs are nothing c