"Couldn't you make a big one of those contraptions and put
it on an aeroplane?"
"I doubt it," said Tom, shaking his head. "Of course it's the
same principle as that in an auto muffler, or on a motor boat--a
series of baffle plates arranged within a hollow cylinder. But
all such devices cut down power, and I don't want to do that.
However, I'm going to solve the problem or--bust!"
And Tom came near "busting," Ned remarked later, when he and
his friend talked over the progress of the invention.
Two weeks had passed since the start of his evolution of his
new idea, and following the visiting of the representatives of
the Universal Flying Machine Company. Since then neither Gale nor
Ware had communicated with Tom.
"But I must be on the watch against them," thought the young
inventor. "I'm pretty sure Gale heard me mention what I was going
to try to invent, and he may get ahead of me, and put a silent
motor on the market first. Not that I'm afraid of being done out
of any profits, but I simply don't want to be beaten."
The details of Tom's invention cannot be gone into, but,
roughly, it was based on the principle of not only a muffler but
also of producing less noise when the charges of gasoline
exploded in the cylinders.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90