The Terror in the Air
"The Terror in the Air" is a 1911 scientific detective story by Arthur B. Reeve featuring Professor Craig Kennedy and his journalist companion Walter Jameson. The story opens with Kennedy noting that a suspicious number of fatal aeroplane accidents have occurred at the Belmore Park aviation meet, specifically involving inventor Charles Norton's gyroscope-equipped biplanes. Two of Norton's aviators, Browne and Herrick, have already died in crashes, and newspapers are beginning to question whether Norton is a reckless experimenter sacrificing men to a flawed invention. Norton, who has staked his entire fortune on his gyroscope-stabilized biplane and is fighting a patent infringement lawsuit against a rival named Delanne, appeals to Kennedy for help. He faces financial ruin on multiple fronts: he is liable for damages to the families of the dead pilots, he risks losing the prestigious twenty-five-thousand-dollar Brooks Prize for sustained stationary flight, and he stands to lose a potential military contract if his machine continues to fail. Despite the tragedies, Norton insists his invention is sound and plans to fly himself. Kennedy and Jameson obtain press credentials and visit the wreckage of the two destroyed machines in a storage shed near the railroad station. Kennedy observes that the dynamos powering the gyroscopes in both wrecked machines share a peculiar characteristic: their wiring insulation has been completely burned away and the wires themselves have been fused together. This damage appears inconsistent with ordinary crash destruction, as the fuel tanks are intact and there is no sign of explosion. At the aviation field, Kennedy visits the military wireless telegraph station situated near the grandstand and discovers that the operator has been experiencing severe interference every time flying activity peaks. The interference is described as extraordinarily powerful, far beyond anything attributable to amateur radio enthusiasts, causing sparks strong enough to shock anyone touching nearby metal surfaces. Kennedy notices the interference corresponds precisely with the times Norton's machines have been in the air and malfunctioning. Scanning the countryside beyond the grandstand, Kennedy spots a weathered barn fitted with what appears to be a small wireless mast. A brief glint of light from a high gable window, which Jameson initially attributes to a boy playing with a mirror, is identified by Kennedy as the reflection of sunlight off a telescope lens. Suspecting the barn is the source of the interference, Kennedy sends Norton an urgent message instructing him to fly without his gyroscope dynamo for one flight. Norton does so successfully and lands safely. When Norton attempts a second flight with the gyroscope restored, the dynamo is again destroyed in the air and Norton crashes, though he survives with only minor injuries. In his semiconscious state he mutters about sparks, confirming Kennedy's suspicions. Kennedy works through the night to construct a protective shield of sheet lead for the dynamo and battery. He also obtains an ondometer, an instrument for detecting and locating the direction of Hertzian wireless waves. The following day, with Norton recovered and insisting on flying again despite his bandaged head, Kennedy uses the ondometer on the grandstand roof to confirm that whenever Norton is airborne, the instrument's needle swings to point directly at the suspicious barn, not at the legitimate military wireless station. Kennedy coordinates with Pinkerton detectives and leads a raid on the barn. Inside they find a man identified as Dr. K. Lamar operating apparatus generating enormous high-frequency electrical oscillations in the manner theorized and demonstrated by Nikola Tesla. Such currents, Kennedy explains, can pass harmlessly through a human body yet melt metal conductors, and when focused by a powerful transmitter and directed at an aeroplane's small electrical dynamo, are capable of fusing its wiring and destroying the gyroscope mid-flight, causing the pilot to lose automatic stabilization and crash. The man is unmasked as Delanne himself, Norton's patent rival, who had been systematically murdering Norton's pilots and destroying his machines in order to ruin him financially and eliminate competition. Norton, notified that the shield Kennedy installed allowed him to complete the first flight safely and that the second unshielded flight confirmed the attack by destroying another dynamo, confronts Delanne with contempt before turning him over to the law. The story concludes with Norton being awarded the Brooks Prize for his record-breaking stationary flight, vindicating both his invention and Kennedy's investigation.
By Arthur B. Reeve · First published 1914 · Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery, Detective Fiction