The Young Wireless Operator—as a Fire Patrol: Or, the Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol

It's 1920, and radio is magic. Charley Russell, a high school senior in Pennsylvania, has built his own wireless set in his workshop, dreaming of messages from distant places. But the future demands choices: his father's factory needs him, and practical concerns press in on boyhood adventures. When Charley and his friend Lew head into the mountains for a camping trip, they seek escape from those expectations, trading the hum of telegraph keys for the silence of pine forests. Then the fire comes. What begins as a lark becomes a test of courage and resourcefulness, and Charley discovers that his fascination with wireless might serve a purpose larger than any boy's private dreams. This is early juvenile adventure at its most earnest: a story about finding where your talents meet the world's needs, wrapped in the raw excitement of a technology that was still astonishing in 1920. For readers who love vintage adventure tales and stories about kids who build things and solve problems.