Dreamers and Deceivers by Glenn Beck Read Free Book Online Page B

very invention in conflict here. That’s how important this discovery is. My discovery. And those men and women at the institute, above all others in the world, they know who rightfully deserved it—”
    “Nevertheless,” his attorney interrupted, “de Forest claims hediscovered regeneration two years before you did. He just didn’t get around to patenting it.”
    “Balderdash! So the fox catches a rabbit, and then waits two years to eat it? De Forest files patents like Carter makes pills. Any fool could see that if he knew how to create what I created he never would have waited.”
    “And they’ll bring up the fact that you didn’t answer the allegations in the suit immediately.”
    “My father had just drowned that very month, and I had to take up the support of my family. I couldn’t be bothered with this claptrap then, and I haven’t the time or the money or the patience to be bothered with it now! I must get back to my work—”
    “Howard, please, just lower your voice and calm down. You don’t want to look nervous, or angry, or insulted to be here. We’ll present your case as we’ve laid it out. You’ll answer the questions simply and honestly, and trust me, we can wrap this thing up in another week or so.”
    But a month passed, and another, and it still wasn’t over. Then one morning, the world turned upside down.
    Woodrow Wilson had been reelected president on a solemn promise to keep the United States away from the bloody battlefields spreading across the world. But on April 2, 1917, the president had gone before Congress to request a declaration of war on Germany. Four days later, both the Senate and the House had voted to commit U.S. troops to join in the conflict.
    The Great War, they called it. The war to end them all.
    Though no one had asked him, Lee de Forest had immediately gone on record to say that he wouldn’t be supporting the effort. Why should he risk his own life, he’d asked, to defend the characterless, incohesive goulash that was the American people? He would gladly sell the military anything they needed from his inventory, however, just like any other paying customer, at the current retail price.
    For his part, Armstrong enlisted immediately into the Army Signal Corps. At the same time, he turned over the patents to all his inventions, free of charge, for the wartime benefit of the U.S. government.
    All domestic transmitters were immediately commandeered, and production of new units flew into high gear. Though the technologywas still primitive, it was clear that wireless communications would play a vital role for the Allied and Associated Powers.
    Naturally, all trivial matters such as patent lawsuits were suspended by fiat until further notice. At least that burden was lifted from Armstrong’s shoulders, if only temporarily.
    As a captain in the Signal Corps, his first base of operations was the radio labs in Paris. Advanced German aeroplanes were terrorizing the skies over Europe, and the tactical use of their own young radio technology was a major factor to be overcome. Howard Armstrong was charged with helping the United States to level this key playing field.
    First on the agenda was the improvement of wireless radio links between Allied airborne scouts and fighter aircraft and their commanders on the ground.
    •  •  •
    “Don’t go so easy!” Howard Armstrong shouted forward to the pilot. “Fly her like you’d take her into battle!”
    “You’d never catch me flying this hunk of junk into a fight!” the pilot shouted back. He put the open-cockpit Sopwith Scout into a hard bank and swooped into a descending turn. The wings flexed and the canvas-covered wooden fuselage creaked and complained, but the craft seemed to be holding together for the moment.
    This outdated model had a nickname among the aviators at the Paris base—they called it the Spinning Jenny. But, death trap or not, it was the only two-seater available for Armstrong’s tests, so the