Air Wonder Stories, July 1929 — page 53: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BEACON OF “Ves, I think you should go, as you have author- ity as a representative of the Department of Com- merce to enforce any orders for the safety of the company’s planes. But I can’t for the life of me see how this Lawson is able to throw our planes off their course. It is becoming ridiculous; only this morning a man asked for permission to install a portable television station on Sentinel Hill, to transmit close-ups of the next crash over a nation- wide chain of stations! So you men go as far as you like tonight. Anything to stop this nonsense.” Determined Action HE beacon awoke with an unwinking glare and started its continuous round of the sky as the three pilots made their way with Cavanaugh along the dim road to the gate. No light showed from the adobe house as the sky grew dark and the only sound was an even undertone coming from the air- port where a liner warmed its motors beyond the hill. The men approached the house in silence, making their way to the side door which Dr. Lawson had used. Shades were tightly drawn over the win- dows but sounds of someone moving within the building came to their ears. “T’'ll try this door,” Boyer whispered and turned the knob. It was not locked, so he pushed the door back and cautiously entered followed by his com- panions. They found themselves in a small room, with a half-opened door ahead showing a glimpse of a large well-lighted laboratory. The burly pilot again took the lead moving toward the light. “Stop!” The command came from the next room, and as Boyer paused Lawson appeared before him, “Those wires across the door mean death if you touch them, You cannot enter—go away. I am busy with important experiments.” The intruders now saw that wires had been laced back and forth across the opening. Boyer kicked the door back against the wall as the others came forward to stare into the laboratory. A long table occupied the center of the room, with benches, book cases and a heterogeneous col- lection of scientific apparatus lining the walls. Upon the central table were row on row of radio tubes, large coils, condensers, and switches, scattered “breadboard fashion,” and connected with wires to other instruments, unfamiliar in design. Dr. Lawson was bent over a meter as he slowly turned the knob of a large rheostat, paying no attention to those watching him. “Fle’s a radio nut after all,” Tillotson said in an undertone. “Ii I ever saw a ‘ham’ station, this is it.” “No, it’s more than that,’ Cavanaugh answered. “The first plane is due in a few minutes; we must find some way to break in. I think he has found some,method of bending light rays by means of this apparatus and the antenna system outside.” “T’'ll go pull the switch at the meter on the beacon tower,” Tillotson whispered. The scientist whirled from the table and sprang to a large wall switch which he closed. “I heard you, my friend and I have electrified the wire fence around the house so you cannot leave. It is your AIRPORT SEVEN ol -own fault for coming here.” The little man, grey hair disheveled, glared at them from under his shaggy brows, then deliberately turned his back and continued his work at the table. “Doctor Lawson, we must know whether this apparatus of yours is responsible for bending the rays of the beacon light.” Tommy stood as close as he dared to the wires as he addressed the man, “Yes, it is!” the scientist shouted, turning again to stare at them unwinkingly with his sparkling blue eyes. “Fly your planes somewhere else. Day and night those infernal mechanisms roar over my head, interfering with my reseatch. If your light is rendered useless, I am glad of it! I installed my laboratory here long before the air field was opened. I chose this location to be alone. If your planes are wrecked I am glad! Glad! Glad!” His voice rose to the shriek of a maniac with the last words. A sudden spasm shook his meager frame, then growing quiet he slowly shuffled toward the doorway, stopping within bare inches of the wires. “But Doctor!” Cavanaugh exclaimed, “are you trying deliberately to wreck the air liners and murder the pilots?” Lawson. Confesses | pase scientist stood regarding them with a cun- ning leer for a moment then spoke. “Are you trying to kill a moth when you light a candle? Because the fool flys into the flame is that any concern of yours? That is just what your planes are—moths, blind, foolish moths, I throw on the current from my generators, tune my apparatus to a point in resonance with the wave-length of the light from the beacon, and bend it as I will! It’s not radio—it’s magnetism. Ordinary magnetism attracts metals; the magnetism I have discovered attracts light, becatise it is of a frequency in re- sonance with the wave-length of light. That is why the sun bends the light of stars passing near it. Astronomers have discovered the parallax but they have been too blind to know that it is because the sun is discharging wave-lengths of all frequencies! One particular frequency bends the star light while all the others do not affect it. I have found that frequency and control it as I will.” The old man paused for breath, though his eyes continued to regard his audience malevolently. “But the light is not affected to the west.” “Of course not,” Lawson answered testily, “All my apparatus is on this side of the beacon—to the east.” Tommy, resolving to be agreeable in an effort to win the further confidence of the madman, asked, “how do you make the light move to either side as well as down, Doctor?” “How, you ask? How does the revolving mag- netic field in the coils of an electric motor induce a revolying pull or torque on the armature? I merely send the power through my outside wiring system from the north to the south, and the beacon’s beam is bent sharply as it passes overhead. Then I bend the light to the north merely by throwing a switch. I switch the power to other wires and bend the light down. I hear a plane approaching—I’ll do it now, I’ll drive it into the hill top!” (Continued on page 88) comnlicloooks.com