Paul’s partners and his father, Erastus, reprimand him for allowing Edison to outsmart him. After initially accepting, Tesla finds the environment not to his liking and soon quits, disappearing. They recruit Tesla to work for Westinghouse on a new light bulb that doesn’t infringe on Edison’s patent.

Westinghouse and Paul attend a demonstration by Tesla, where he reveals an A/C system device. Fessenden points them to Nikola Tesla, a Serbian scientist who also worked for Edison and left bitter. He and his partners recruit Reginald Fessenden, a former employee of Edison’s, to work for Westinghouse and share information about Edison. He studies the laws governing patents religiously, and secretly hires assistants to work on the case, paying them from his own pocket and with embezzled funds from his client’s account. A recommendation from his uncle to Westinghouse gives him the opportunity to work on this enormous lawsuit. Paul’s privilege has enabled much of his early-career success. He has already turned down a merger with Westinghouse. He bribes and influences newspapers, and the powerful financier, J.P. Therefore, according to Paul, Edison’s light bulb was not complete when he filed the patent.Įdison, the novel’s antagonist, is ruthless, manipulative, and well-connected. Paul claims Edison filed his patent application before he decided on the lightbulb’s filament materials. Huge contracts are at stake regarding the future of A/C or D/C technology.Įdison is suing Westinghouse for patent violation, and Paul is countersuing.

Westinghouse has created a bulb that uses the more efficient and powerful alternating current (A/C), making it possible to light entire cities. Edison is suing George Westinghouse, Paul’s client, over the patent for the light bulb.Īlthough Edison has invented a light bulb that uses a direct current (D/C) system, the technology is inefficient because a power source must always be near. Later that evening, Paul meets with Thomas Edison. The young law prodigy, Paul Cravath, witnesses a workman accidentally electrified to death above a busy street. It is 1888 on the island of Manhattan, and electric light is a brand-new miracle of science.

The last days of night by graham moore