In other words, this cap is tuned, if I may
use the word, to a certain number of vibrations and half-vibrations; a
wireless instrument of high power, with a modifying addition which the
inventor has added, has only to be set in motion to discharge it at any
distance up to twenty-five miles. High power wireless waves recognize no
obstacle, so the explosion of a submarine mine is as easily brought
about as would be the explosion of a mine on dry land. You will readily
see its value as a protective agency for our seaports."
He replaced the spheroid on the table.
"But its chief value is not in that," he resumed. "Its chief value to
the Latin compact, gentlemen, is that the United States and England are
now concluding negotiations, unknown to each other, by which _they_ will
protect _their_ seaports by means of mines primed with this cap. The
tuning of the caps which we will use is known only to us; _the tuning of
the caps which they will use is also known to us_! The addition to the
wireless apparatus which they will use is such that they _can not_, even
by accident, explode a mine guarding our seaports; but, on the other
hand, the addition to the wireless apparatus which _we_ will use permits
of the extreme high charge which will explode their mines.
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