830 



Popular Science Monthly 



At nine in the morning the operator 

 began to work, assisted by the ship's 

 carpenter. Time passed, but practically 

 no progress had been made on the slippery 

 floor; then a thoughtful mate sent up a 

 bucket filled with sand. An hour had 

 elapsed before the transformer was back 

 in its case and made fast. The auxiliary 

 and accumulators were removed entirely 

 and the condenser set upright. Spare 

 plates which had been kept on the floor 

 had somehow remained whole, but the 

 acid had attacked the tinfoil and it was 

 peeling off most of them. The container 

 was cracked. 



Asbestos Paste to the Rescue 



An appeal to the engineers brought 

 some asbestos paste to the cabin, and a 

 so-called repair was effected. The result 

 of four hours' intensive work was a con- 

 denser haphazard in appearance but 

 boasting twenty-four plates. 



With an intermission here consisting 

 of space for a long-drawn breath, Mc- 

 Kenzie turned to the task of drying out 

 the rest of the equipment. The rheostats 

 had to be taken down, dried and oiled 

 with insulative oil. The starter and the 

 transformer required the same treatment. 

 Two solid hours were spent on the motor; 

 first the brushes came off and the inside 

 was oiled as well as possible; there was 

 no time to take out the armature. 



Resourcefulness Wins an Inning 



It was eight o'clock then. Eleven hours 

 of ex^iausting work lay behind the oper- 

 ator, but the race against time did not 

 allow for a stop for dinner. He tried out 

 the set. The first thing to go was the 

 generator rheostat. Patiently he re- 

 paired it. It blew again. With twenty 

 feet of iron wire wound on a pencil he 

 created a resistance. This, after a series 

 of patient experiments, performed its 

 function, although the motor ran un- 

 steadily and sparked furiously. Another 

 precious hour had been lost. 



Once again the set was started, the 

 key depressed and a radio land station 

 call flew off across the sea. "A great 

 moment," McKenzie describes it. "I 

 waited. No answer. When I tried again 

 the starter burned out in two places. 



"Once more the asbestos paste proved 

 invaluable; but the release magnet now 



refused to hold. With wire I hooked it 

 up. The motor started then; but this 

 time the field rheostat went on strike." 



More Repairs Under Difficulties 



Painstaking repairs were made, only 

 to learn that although the apparatus 

 operated, the generator rings were arcing 

 across the dividing rings while the brush 

 holders were leaking into the frame. 



"These defects were remedied," says 

 the operator, telling of his experience, 

 "and I tried again. It was now midnight. 

 I called CQ for a long time but received 

 no answer. ... I had forgotten that 

 the phones had been in acid and water 

 all the day before. 



"Although I dried out the headgear in 

 the steam oven it was as wet as ever again 

 in ten minutes. I tried cleaning the 

 phones, while warm, with gasoline. Still 

 I could hear nothing. 



"The aerial was intact. I tried the 

 tuner with the battery and found it dead. 

 At two in the morning I succeeded in dry- 

 ing it out. 



At Last a Hopeful Sign 



"I listened and caught the U.S. S. 

 Proteus. My spirits rose. I called him 

 — and away went the condenser, shot to 

 pieces ! 



"Two hours later it was rigged up 

 again, but the motor brushes were short- 

 ing through the frame. 



"I quit, and turned in for a nap." 



At six in the morning, after a scant hour 

 and a half's sleep, McKenzie turned to 

 the job again. The sea still lashed vi- 

 ciously at the vessel's side. Practically 

 all his work had gone for nothing. Every 

 seam in the wireless cabin was open, 

 the roof badly sprung and his set as wet 

 as ever. But at noon, after six hours 

 of back-breaking effort, he considered 

 everything in readiness and again tried 

 to start up. Nothing happened. All the 

 current went to ground through the 

 soaked insulation. 



With dogged persistence he turned once 

 more to the task. Hours slipped by, 

 precious ones. It was eight o'clock in 

 the evening when a nearly exhausted 

 operator concluded his long labor with 

 motor and wiring. But it was done; 

 a loyal sense of duty was rewarded — 

 this time he got his message across! 



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