The Last Days of Night

Paul travels to Westinghouse to bring him up to speed with the case and to ask about Nikola Tesla, who hasn’t been seen or heard from in the three years since his heated departure from Edison’s lab. Westinghouse leaves him waiting in a hallway for over an hour, but Marguerite Westinghouse intercedes, bringing Paul to her husband. She tells him, “George likes to do this with all of the young men” (45), then explains about Westinghouse’s hearing impairment (revealing the reason for Westinghouse’s seeming aloofness and disinterest).

Paul tells Westinghouse his legal strategy: to postpone and delay as much as possible, as Edison’s patent expires in six years and “losing very slowly [is] almost as good as winning” (45). When asked about Tesla, Westinghouse produces a letter from a scientist journalist named Thomas Martin that includes detailed mechanical schematics. Tesla has sent the schematics to Martin requesting he publish them, and Martin had passed it along to Westinghouse to see if the schematics were manufacturable. Martin has agreed to publish the schematics, and Tesla will be giving a public demonstration of his designs in New York to the American Institute of Engineers. Paul will accompany Westinghouse to this event in a few weeks, where he intends to interrogate Tesla about his work with Edison.