|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 33
"Yes, but be as careful as you can. How is the silent motor
coming on?"
"Pretty good. I've had a lot of failures, and the thing isn't
so easy as I at first imagined it would be. Noise is a funny
thing, and I'm just beginning to understand some of the laws of
acoustics we learned at high school. But I think I'm on the right
track with the muffler and the cutting down of the noise of the
explosions in the cylinders. I'm working both ends, you see--
making a motor that doesn't cause as much racket as those now in
use, and also providing means to take care of the noise that is
made. It isn't possible to make a completely silent motor of an
explosive gas type. The only thing that can be done is to kill
the noise after it is made."
"What about the propeller blades?"
"Oh, they aren't giving me any trouble. The noise they make
can't be heard a hundred feet in the air, but I am also working
on improvements to the blades. Take it altogether, I'll have an
almost silent aeroplane if my plans come out all right."
"Have you said anything to the government yet?"
"No; I want to have it pretty well perfected before I do.
Besides, I don't want any publicity about it until I'm ready. If
these Universal people are after me I'll fool 'em."
"That's right, Tom! Well, I must go. Another week of this
Liberty Bond campaign!"
"I suppose you'll be glad when it's over."
"Well, I don't know," said Ned slowly. "It's part of my small
contribution to Uncle Sam. I'm not like you--I can't invent
things."
"But you have an awful smooth line of talk, Ned!" laughed his
chum. "I believe you could sell chloride of sodium to some of the
fishes in the Great Salt Lake--that is if it has fishes."
"I don't know that it has, Tom. And, anyhow, I'm not posing as
a salt salesman," and Ned grinned. "But I must really go. Our
bank hasn't reached its quota in the sale of Liberty Bonds yet,
and it's up to me to see that it doesn't fall down."
"Go to it, Ned! And I'll get busy on my silent motor."
"Getting busy" was Tom Swift's favorite occupation, and when he
was working on a new idea, as was the case now, he was seldom
idle, night or day.
"I have hardly seen you for two weeks," Mary Nestor wrote him
one day. "Aren't you ever coming to see me any more, or take me
for a ride?"
"Yes," Tom wrote back. "I'll be over soon. And perhaps on the
next ride we take I won't have to shout at you through a speaking
tube because the motor makes so much noise."
From this it may be gathered that Tom was on the verge of
success. While not altogether satisfied with his progress, the
young inventor felt that he was on the right track. There were
certain changes that needed to be made in the apparatus he was
building--certain refinements that must be added, and when this
should be done Tom was pretty certain that he would have what
would prove to be a very quiet aeroplane, if not an absolutely
silent one.
The young inventor was engaged one day with some of the last
details of the experiment. The new motor, with the silencer and
the changed cylinders, had been attached to one of Tom's speedy
aeroplanes, and he was making some intricate calculations in
relation to a new cylinder block, to be used when he started to
make a completely new machine of the improved type.
Tom had set down on paper some computations regarding the
cross-section of one of the cylinders, and was working out the
amount of stress to which he could subject a shoulder strut, when
a shadow was cast across the drawing board he had propped up in
his lap.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|