Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Radio -- Fiction; Science fiction; Spiritualism -- Fiction; Wills -- Fiction
“Can you see this opening?”
We all replied that we could not, and crowded around him. As we drew
close to it a small hole about the diameter of a lead pencil became
visible by concentration on the spot touched by the knife. Unless we had
been deliberately searching for it, it is probable that it would have
gone entirely unnoticed, due to its location on one of the dark spots in
the pattern of the paper itself.
“This,” said the doctor, “is one of Hegel’s eyes.” He lightly tapped
inside the hole with the point of his knife and we heard it click
against some hard substance. Then he cut a square of paper and
plastering from around it, disclosing a black box which bore a close
resemblance to a small camera with a tiny lens in front. Taking a small
screwdriver from his pocket, he removed the front of the box, the back
of which was covered with row on row of small, circular affairs which he
described as photoelectric cells.
“Each cell,” he said, “responds, according to the strength of light or
shade which strikes it through the lens, with a different wave length.
These various wave lengths are combined and transmitted from a common
antenna. At the receiving station, the process is reversed, and this
image is built up on ground glass by various vibrating light beams. For
a thorough description of this process, which I will not go into here, I
refer you to the book, ‘Radio for All.’ There are four ‘eyes’ like this
one in this room alone. Every other room in this house is as thoroughly
equipped.
“And now for the ears.”
He examined the wall until he found another hole, into which he thrust
the knife blade. Then he removed another square of wall paper and
plaster, revealing one of those instruments with which we were all
familiar--the microphone.
“As this instrument needs no explanation,” he said, “I will now show you
how our friend Hegel managed to lock, unlock, open and close doors from
a distance of eight miles.”
He walked to the door and opened it.
“This door,” he said, “shows no signs of having been tampered with in
any way, yet I am convinced that there are at least two electric wires
connecting it with the current which Hegel tapped somewhere in front of
the meter--I have not yet discovered where.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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