The Later Journeys - 14. (Almost) No Static At All

    
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I was so happy to have our appliances back. It was almost nothing to pull out some chicken parts, defrost them in the microwave (I invited Ben to observe) and prepare something simple yet sumptuous -- in the wood stove, where it would bake slowly. By midday, I suspect we'd all be hungry enough to accept any menu offerings. Warren had led Ben through electricity basics, resulting in a few school-level projects that delighted Ben. Warren began putting most of the tools away and replaced them with what I recognized, among other things, as a crystal radio set.

“Yeah,” said Trevor, sotto voce, “Wrapping copper wire carefully around the core is, oh, three hours of my life I’ll never get back.” I gave him a gentle elbow in the ribs to let him know his effort was appreciated and necessary to the cause.

Warren wasn’t sure if a “wireless” would even work out here in the pine boonies, and it didn’t, much. We did hear static and very faint sounds, which Ben marveled at, nonetheless. Warren brought out an old pocket transistor radio, AM only, and got one station, which he switched off as soon as he recognized the content as a newscast. Ben put out a hand, evidently wanting to hear more, but Warren held firm. “Soon” was all he said.

It took some time for Warren to veer off into an overview of battery technology. In his preparations for this, Warren had discovered that only nine years after Franklin’s death, an Italian physicist had created the first modern battery. “That history would take an entire week, all on its own,” he said, “so I’ll confine the discussion right now to the common household sizes, AA, AAA, 9-volt, C and D. And before you ask, which I know you will, I checked. The sizes used to be A for low-voltage and B for high voltage, but new devices required new sizes, so they're a little confusing now." Ben nodded his understanding.

The next thing Warren produced was an AM-FM radio with an electrical cord. “Okay,” he said, “this is where we’d have to call it just a radio, not a wireless. In principle, the signal does come over the air, but in order to hear anything of value, we use this device, which is technically a tuner-receiver, with the antenna built in, and it works best with the aid of electricity.” He had already tuned the FM dial to a classical music station, so there was less risk of Ben hearing something that would jar him. Warren explained why the music sounded so “tinny” and promised to expose Ben to an increasingly sophisticated array of devices and gradually bring him up to speed.

“That’s the basic idea, Ben. This is one of many ways the outside world can communicate with us, if we want it to. You’ll see more as we go. Radio is now considered almost primitive. Technology is evolving so fast, things are obsolete within a few years after they’re introduced. But for now, I imagine you’d like to know if we can communicate with the world, on our own initiative.” Ben nodded.

Warren’s next lesson was a demonstration of the telegraph. With a science-fair project he later told me he’d gotten from YouTube, he and Ben assembled a pair of transmitters using much of the same tools and wires he’d shown him that morning. When it was operational (proven with lights and bells that of course delighted Ben), Warren pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and tapped “Ahoy Ben” in Morse code. Samuel Morse had been born the year after Ben’s death and his dot-dash code had come about some 40 years later. Ben studied the sheet and decided to tap back “Ahoy Hop,” which he did so successfully. Warren explained to us all that he used “Ahoy” instead of “Hello” because the former was a word Ben would recognize, whereas “Hello” was not, having been coined in the days of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, far into the future from Ben’s perspective. Ben was eager to practice, so he followed this with “Ahoy Jas” and “Ahoy Trev.”

Then Warren cut in to congratulate Ben on learning the code so quickly, but also to caution him that it was unfortunately not a skill that people used regularly in the present day. Ben looked somewhat disappointed at that, and I could see he was beginning to get a taste of how quickly technology had changed and continued to do so.

He took a deep breath. “Is it not a better thing to know many skills just for the sake of knowing them, than to simply learn what is expedient and then cast it aside?”

We all agreed that he was correct in principle, and that there was really no barrier to him continuing to practice in accordance. We reminded him that we were just giving him an idea of the general climate that prevailed in this century. That seemed to make sense to Ben, though I could tell it also dismayed him.

“Speaking of new innovations,” he said, “what was the nostrum you offered me yesterday after I mentioned having a headache? It appears to have soothed the pain quickly and induced sleep as well.”

I went back to my bedroom, retrieved the bottle of Tylenol from my purse and brought it to him. He turned it over and began reading the “Drug Facts” label, but appeared not to make any sense of it. There were several barriers, the small print (only slightly magnified by his bifocals) being only one. The unfamiliar terminology was another, but even beyond that, the font in which the words were printed was utterly foreign to him. He had begun his career as a printer, when the state of that art was still in its infancy. Letters of the English alphabet, even handwritten, were vastly different from they had been in his day. I remember trying to read 18th-century recipes in their original form and being mystified at the s’s that looked like f’s and L’s that looked like t’s. There was no question that Ben was experiencing the same obstacles to understanding.

“Printing is widespread, I take it,” he said.

“You can’t imagine,” I replied. "I know printing presses still exist, but nowadays it's done mostly by comp--" I stopped myself and shook my head ruefully and held up a hand. "I'd better wait to tell you about that. Don't worry, it'll be in the next day or two, I think." The guys nodded agreement.

I knew just enough about pharmacopoeia to explain the differences between aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen and naproxen sodium, with their best-known brand names, and did my best to simplify it for him. I also explained why we had given him acetaminophen instead of aspirin, and assured him that, like electronics and communications, the technology behind modern medicine had taken staggering leaps ahead.

He pondered this and ultimately bowed his head. “It was always my understanding that the Almighty held the final decision when it came to the end of life and the relief of maladies. However, I have witnessed healing, born in the minds of men, and am hopeful that we may assist God, if he might permit it.” We promised him there was a great deal ahead for him to marvel at. We suspected he was remembering his young son Frankie, lost to smallpox, and so many others who had succumbed to diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy and typhus -- not to mention non-lethal but debilitating conditions such as his own gout, as well as arthritis, skin inflammation, indigestion and other reminders of human physical frailty.

“But we’re glad we could help you feel better,” I said, hoping to draw that conversation to a graceful close. We were about ready for the midday meal. In the afternoon, Warren would progress the discussion up to the end of the 19th century, so that we could be on the same page with regard to the telephone.

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