32
Jack Heaton
After delivering the message to the Captain I returned with alacrity to the window of the wireless room. The operator loosened up but I didn’t tell him I was one of those fellows too. I had learned at first hand that professional operators hadn’t any use for wireless kids and that the only way to be friends with one was to be as dumb as a clam as far as wireless was concerned.
This scheme worked out fine for after some talk he asked me of his own accord if I’d like to take a look at the apparatus. He opened the door and told me to “come right in” although on a card tacked on the wall in plain sight was printed this legend:
Service Regulations for Operators.
(1) The instrument room is strictly private. No strangers are allowed on the premises without a signed permit from the Managing Director.
And this was followed by a dozen or more other rules and regulations.
When I got inside the room the operator, whose name was Bathwick, began pointing out