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"You remember that idea I mentioned to Danny about molding all the transducers into a single continuous plastic sheet?" As Arv nodded, Tom went on, "Let's try it, using Tomasite as the plastic." Tom picked up a pencil and quickly sketched out the production steps.
The idea certainly seemed feasible. Suppose the submarine used a great many "microphones" or receiving transducers to pick up the sonar pulses beamed out by another craft trying to detect it? These impulses could then be passed on and sent out by speakers on the opposite side of the sub, and relayed along on their underwater path of travel.
A jetmarine was hoisted into drydock and the work crew swarmed over it, rigging the transducers. Would his experiment succeed? Tom wondered. Hopefully, he set to work assembling the electronic control unit. Bud helped the men on the hull for a while, then descended through the hatch to see how Tom was progressing.
"You're right, Danny. If this experiment works out, though, I think I can lick that problem on future installations." The young inventor explained that he hoped to find a way to mold the transducers into a continuous plastic sheet. This could be applied to the hull of a submarine in a single operation. "But this time we'll have to do it the hard way," Tom added with an apologetic grin.
At lunchtime, over a bowl of chili and crackers, Tom recalled another problem. "We'll need an undetectable sub to test my analyzer," he mused. "That means a repeat job of rigging all those transducers. Whew! I'd better get busy on that plastic sheathing." As soon as he had eaten, Tom phoned Arv Hanson, who arrived at the lab in a few moments.
The mikes would be receiving transducers and the speakers would be transmitting transducers. "The leads from them," Tom ended, "will be centralized in a single electronic control unit inside the ship. I'll handle that part of it." "Great idea, Tom!" Arv Hanson said admiringly. "But what a job it'll be rigging those transducers," put in one of the technicians. Tom nodded wryly.
Tom said to himself. "I'd better start with a skin-diving suit made of that molded plastic Arv is turning out." After having some of the Tomasite sheathing, with its embedding transducers, sent over from the plastics department, Tom cut out a suit from a pattern and welded the seams electronically. He had just finished wiring the control unit when Chow wheeled in a lunch cart.
In less than two hours they were ready to submerge again. Zimby Cox joined the crew. Bud suggested taking along hydrolungs in case of any need for tinkering with the transducers or amplifying equipment. This time, the jetmarine scored perfectly on the test, successfully eluding all the Sea Hound's efforts to detect it.
By machine-spacing the transmitting and the receiving transducers as closely together as possible, with minimum clearance, the plastic coating could do an even better job of absorbing sonar pings than the hand-rigged model. "And the leads from all the transducers can be combined into a single flat tape," Tom ended. "That'll make it simple to hook up with the electronic control unit inside."
"It's mostly a job of adapting the sonarphone arrangement from our Fat Man suits in miniature." A tiny mike, Tom explained, would be installed on the inside of each face mask, with its output feeding to a sonar transducer on the exterior. The receiving transducers would feed from amplifiers to earphones.
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