Page:Barr--Stranleighs millions.djvu/228

216 these particles of air could be broken up, as it were, or smashed together, and the electrical impulse started in this turmoil, the current of electricity would run along, not one wire of ether, but all the others that impinge on this broken up section of the atmosphere, and so we would overleap, as it were, the curvature of the earth, and thus send the message where we liked. Do you understand?"

"Good heavens! Marlow, don't waste time trying to make me understand. I'm willing to take your word for it. You can invent a dozen systems of wireless telegraphy before you'll get the particulars of one of them through my thick skull. Did you succeed in smashing up the air?"

"No, but I accomplished my purpose in another way. I withdrew the particles of air, thus leaving the room full of pure ether, and I found that this answered the purpose intended."

"Do you propose to sell out to Marconi, or to form a separate company?"

"That is a future question. You see, I haven't been able to test the invention over a large space. It works all right in a restricted area, but of course its usefulness will be shown if a message can be sent across the Atlantic without the necessity for those high towers."

"I see. Well, what you want is a room in New York, and another in London fitted up with your machinery. I suppose you've fixed an installation here, so I suggest that you get on one of the fastest