Tom grinned as he twirled several knobs and checked the gauges. The
slightest variation in field strength triggered an instant response from
the ball of energy. Mr. Swift tried exposing it to radio and repelatron
waves. Each time the gauges showed a sensitive reaction.
"Looks as if we're in business, Dad!" Tom said jubilantly.
Bud left soon afterward as the two Swifts buckled down to work on the
problem of perfecting an apparatus to simulate the human senses. Each
concentrated on a different line of approach.
At noon they broke off briefly for a lunch wheeled in by Chow. Then
silence settled again over the laboratory.
Tom had rigged up a jointed, clawlike mechanical arrangement with
sensitive diaphragms in its "finger tips." The diaphragms were connected
to a transistorized circuit designed to modulate the field current to
the electromagnets.
Suddenly the young inventor looked up at his father with a glow of
triumph.
"Dad, I just got a reaction to my sense-of-touch experiment!"
CHAPTER XVII
AN URGENT WARNING
Mr. Swift looked on eagerly as Tom explained and demonstrated his touch
apparatus. By moving a pantograph control, Tom was able to manipulate
the claws like a hand with fingers. Whenever they touched any material,
the brain gauges instantly registered an electrical reaction inside the
sphere.
The swing of a voltmeter needle showed how firmly the substance resisted
the claw's touch, thus indicating its hardness or softness.
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