Three years after this breakdown and recovery, on March 13, 1895, a fire engulfed Tesla’s lab. Tesla was not present when this fire broke out—he discovered it the next morning, at which point he became inconsolable as to the destruction of his machines.
Chapter 34: Paul’s big idea that he could construct an industrial system for the law—just as Westinghouse had for manufacturing and Edison had for inventions—is very much accurate. I think it’s fair to say that Paul Cravath invented the modern law firm, in exactly the same way that Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla invented the light bulb.
However, Paul is generally credited with inventing his “Cravath system” in the early 1900s. I’ve moved this idea to 1888–90, so that it might fit within this narrative. Whether Paul was in fact inspired by Edison and Westinghouse when he had this idea is impossible to say, but seeing as he did implement these ideas after his experience with those two inventors, it seemed to me likely that he was.
Chapter 36: Agnes’s interview with The New York Times is real, though I’ve combined two Times pieces—“Agnes Huntington’s Story,” December 14, 1886, and “Paul Jones in New-York,” September 21, 1890—into one.
Chapter 37: Harold Brown’s character and backstory are largely accurate and are discussed in Jill Jonnes’s Empires of Light as well as in Tom McNichol’s AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War, Mark Essig’s Edison and the Electric Chair, and Richard Moran’s Executioner’s Current.
The timeline of Brown’s campaign to promote the electric chair has been compressed—I depict the flurry of activity over the chair as happening in early 1889, but it actually happened at the end of 1887. The description of Brown’s horrifying animal electrocutions is accurate. Brown’s dialogue in these scenes is partially verbatim, though I’ve trimmed some parts and elaborated upon others for a more conversational tone. If anything, I have probably minimized the physical horrors he committed on these poor animals. In reality, he quickly progressed from dogs to horses to—seriously—an elephant.
Chapters 38–39: Someone really did break in to Harold Brown’s office in August 1889. After the burglary, stolen letters proving a connection between Edison and Brown were leaked to The New York Sun.
Did Paul do it? Most historians feel that someone on Westinghouse’s side did. If so, it stands to reason that Paul at least knew about it and kept the secret. So while this scene is invented, Paul’s moral culpability in the events thereof is certainly plausible.
Chapter 41: What Paul refers to as the “lie” on Edison’s patent application—that is, the discrepancy between the filament specified and the filament that his company would come to use—is accurate. However, I’ve simplified the progression of Edison’s filament experiments, and whether or not this constitutes deceit rather depends on one’s perspective about the nature of invention.
Edison’s undeniable fraud about when he’d gotten the bulb to work, on the other hand, has been depicted fairly. Edison’s habit of exaggerating to the loyal press—or in this case flat-out lying to them—was a recurring theme throughout his career.
Chapter 48: The courtroom scene of Paul arguing against A/C use in a New York State execution is a dramatization of a real case. The murder is real, but I’ve moved it from March 1889 to May 1889.
Westinghouse was in fact betrayed by Charles Coffin in the manner described, a treachery that took his team by surprise. One of Westinghouse’s lawyers really did go to Buffalo to try this case in court, though it was not Paul, and Harold Brown was not present.
Chapter 49: The description of the execution of William Kemmler is accurate and comes from contemporaneous newspaper accounts, such as “Far Worse Than Hanging,” The New York Times, August 7, 1890.
Also, while the electrocution itself is described accurately, neither Paul nor Harold Brown was in fact there to witness it.
Chapters 50–52: The financial crisis that followed the Baring Brothers collapse is real, though I’ve moved it from November 1890 to September 1889. The tactics by which Paul and Westinghouse attempted to weather the crisis have been rendered accurately. That Edison and Morgan then used their considerable Wall Street muscle to drive Westinghouse further toward bankruptcy is true, though it’s hard to know exactly what backroom deals were being made during the financial crisis.
Chapter 55: All descriptions of Fisk University are accurate, as are descriptions of the Cravath family’s involvement therein. (Based on The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors 1819–1948, by Robert Swaine, and Thy Loyal Children Make Their Way: Fisk University since 1866, by Reavis Mitchell, Jr.)
All description of the work on X-rays that Tesla conducts there is based on real work that Tesla did in 1895, though not, of course, at Fisk. The specific characters of the Fisk students are invented.
Chapters 56–57: The scene of Alexander Graham Bell is imagined, though Bell’s history and personality have been rendered as accurately as possible. All of the backstory on Bell depicted here is real—if simplified—and is based on Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention, by Charlotte Gray.
In this book’s final chapters, Paul Cravath hatches and implements a multifaceted plan to win the current war. This plan involves organizing a secret coup within Edison General Electric, backed by J. P. Morgan, to depose Edison as the company’s head and replace him with Charles Coffin. Then Nikola Tesla is talked into signing away his royalties on Westinghouse’s A/C systems. The current war is ended, with Westinghouse victorious and Edison tragically excommunicated from the company he founded.
All of these events occurred. However, the timeline of events has been compressed from a few years to just a few months, and Paul has been depicted as the mastermind behind the whole thing. In reality, we don’t know what his role was.
It is unlikely that Paul was present at the swindling of Tesla. Jonnes describes Westinghouse visiting Tesla alone and delivering the arguments Paul makes in this novel. Tesla seemed, in his own writing, proud of his decision to give away the royalty. He really did believe what Westinghouse told him.
Chapter 72: Paul, Westinghouse, and Tesla did attend an event at the Niagara Falls power plant on July 19, 1896. However, I’ve combined some details of this event with a subsequent one at which only Tesla was present, in January 1897.
Edison was not at either of these ceremonies. However, Tesla had taken refuge in Edison’s West Orange laboratory after the fire at his lab. The two men had become friends. And then on Tesla’s way to Niagara Falls he actually stopped by Westinghouse’s home outside Pittsburgh. Tesla spent many hours in the warm company of both Westinghouse and Edison in those days, some of which Paul, as counsel to Westinghouse, was present to witness.
GRAHAM MOORE
Los Angeles
February 5, 2016
FOR MY GRANDFATHER, DR. CHARLIE STEINER, who first taught me to revere science on a trip to Bell Laboratories when I was nine years old. He set an example of intelligence, kindness, and decency to which I aspire every day.
WRITING THIS BOOK would simply not have been possible, much less advisable, without the essential care and guidance of:
Jennifer Joel, my literary agent and creative partner Noah Eaker, my editor and loyal adversary
Susan Kamil, my publisher and champion
Keya Vakil, my research assistant and partner in crime Tom Drumm, my manager and unwavering voice of calm
I’d like to give my deepest thanks as well to the generous friends who read (oh so many) early drafts and offered their invaluable suggestions: Ben Epstein, Susanna Fogel, Alice Boone, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, and Suzanne Joskow.