“And if they can send pictures from Monte Carlo to Paris I can do the same,” declared Tom, though his system of photo telephony was different from sending by a telegraph system—­a reproduction of a picture on a copper plate.  Tom’s apparatus transmitted the likeness of the living person.

It took some little time for the young inventor, and Ned working with him, to fix up the new wires and switch on the current.  But at last it was complete, and Ned took his place at one telephone, with the two sensitive plates before him.  Tom did the same, and they proceeded to talk over the wire, first making sure that the vocal connection was perfect.

“All ready now, Ned!  We’ll try it,” called Tom to his chum, over the wire.  “Look straight at the plate.  I want to get your image first, and then I’ll send mine, if it’s a success,”

Ned did as requested, and in a few minutes he could hear Tom exclaim, joyfully: 

“It’s better, Ned!  It’s coming out real clear.  I can see you almost as plainly as if you were right in the booth with me.  But turn on your light a little stronger.”

Tom could hear, through the telephone, his chum moving about, and then he caught a startled exclamation.

“What’s the matter?” asked Tom anxiously.

“I got a shock!” cried Ned.  “I thought you said you had this thing fixed.  Great Scott, Tom!  It nearly yanked the arm off me!  Is this a joke?”

“No, old man.  No, of course not!  Something must be wrong.  I didn’t mean that.  Wait, I’ll take a look.  Say, it does seem as if everything was going wrong with this invention.  But I’m on the right track, and soon I’ll have it all right.  Wait a second.  I’ll be right over.”

Tom found that it was only a simple displacement of a wire that had given Ned a shock, and he soon had this remedied.

“Now we’ll try again,” he said.  This time nothing wrong occurred, and soon Tom saw the clearest image he had yet observed on his telephone photo plate.

“Switch me on now, Ned,” he called to his chum, and Ned reported that he could see Tom very plainly.

“So far—­so good,” observed Tom, as he came from the booth.  “But there are several things I want yet to do.”

“Such as what?” questioned Ned.

“Well, I want to arrange to have two kinds of pictures come over the wire.  I want it so that a person can go into a booth, call up a friend, and then switch on the picture plate, so he can see his friend as well as talk to him.  I want this plate to be like a mirror, so that any number of images can be made to appear on it.  In that way it can be used over and over again.  In fact it will be exactly like a mirror, or a telescope.  No matter how far two persons may be apart they can both see and talk to one another.”

“That’s a big contract, Tom.”

“Yes, but you’ve seen that it can be done.  Then another thing I want to do is to have it arranged so that I can make a photograph of a person over a wire.”