Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/190

 By a simple enough law of mechanics which I needn't go into here, these two electro-magnetic forces are made to unite, not unlike a fireman's water screen made by the interjection of two hose streams. The Hertzian waves are projected in a single vertical plane, capable of being instantly alternated by the Bobine device, and because of the fact that this apparatus can transmit messages a hundred miles without their waves being perceptible to intervening operators, it has been called the Whisperer."

"Exactly—the Whisperer!" said Andelman.

"It gives an admiral a chance for absolutely secret communication between his different units," pursued Kestner. "It also puts a stop to the danger of 'jamming,' which helped the Germans out in their South Pacific fight with the British, as it did the Russians when they had the Austrians shut up in Przemysl. But it does still more than this. It makes possible the determination by triangulation of the position of any foreign operator whose messages have been intercepted. This means it can decipher the position, and also the speed, of any hostile ship, or, for that matter, any hostile squadron, once its sending-zone has been invaded. And what that