traveler was often left to himself, and so he pulled out his
tiny portable television set and began to watch it. Just by
chance, some visitors happened to come by and see the little
box. They were very impressed and urged the traveler to market
his invention for putting a movie inside such a small space.
In a few days, word had spread about this mini-movie and
several scientists were convinced (after some debate) to come see
it, together with some engineers representing the movie projector
manufacturers of the nation.
They were sufficiently impressed as they watched a few scenes,
but when the traveler changed channels, their enthusiasm turned to
gaping astonishment. The traveler switched all around, showing
them twenty channels in all. Such was the amazement and even
incredulity of the engineers that they already began to suspect
some kind of trick. The scientists looked confused.
"You certainly have a lot of films stored in that little
box," one of the engineers said. "How do you get them all in there?"
"The pictures are not in the box," said the traveler. "They
are all over in the air around us. This antenna brings them in
and the set makes them visible." The engineers laughed while the
scientists sneered, the latter now sorry they had allowed themselves
to be talked into coming to hear this notorious nut.
"Come now," one of the scientists said. "Do you expect us
to believe that there are pictures floating around us in the
air--pictures we cannot see? And that twenty sets of these pictures
are all present at once, scrambled together, just waiting for that
little box to take them and sort them out? What do you take us for
anyway--a bunch of gullible greenhorn fools?"
"And besides," continued an engineer, "how do these pictures
get into the air in the first place? Where do they come from?"
"They're sent from a satellite in the sky," the traveler
said, as all heads looked up. "You can't see it, of course.
It's too high. But it's there."
"And of course you expect us to believe in something we can't
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