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Appleton, Victor, II

"Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung"

"Besides a regular sonarscope, I'll need at least three units
for the gear."
First, he would need an oscillator to produce the complex pulse. Next,
of course, an oscilloscope to check the pulse as it was beamed out.
Last--but highly important--a correlation calculator.
This latter unit would compare the original pulse with the returning
echoes. If an echo had a high enough "standard of acceptance"--that is,
if its quality was very near the original pulse, it would show up on the
screen in the normal way. If the echo came back blurred, or if "shadow
echoes" showed up, these would be separated and appear on the screen
colored red.
"Whew!" Tom sighed as he realized the complicated job of circuit design
that lay ahead. "This sure is going to burn some midnight oil!"
The young inventor worked all afternoon at a furious pace, breaking off
toward dinnertime to telephone his mother that he would be staying
overnight at the lab. After a hasty meal, he resumed his layout job at
the drawing board and by midnight had finished designing his quality
analyzer sonar.
Whipping off his eyeshade, Tom went into the apartment next door and
stretched out to snatch a few hours' sleep. But as usual when in the
midst of an exciting new project, he was too keyed up to rest for long.
Before daylight, Tom was back at his workbench ready to begin assembling
the units of his new sonar gear.


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