The Last Days of Night

Paul visits Tesla the following night at his lab in a dilapidated building. When he opens the door, he finds it pitch black inside the lab. Suddenly, lightning-like tendrils of electricity surround him, emitted from a huge electrical device in the center of the room:

[T]he maniacal tentacles of energy were somehow avoiding [Paul]. They avoided the scattered desks around the room, and they avoided the tall Serbian in a black suit who sat calmly in a wooden chair mere feet from the glass shaft. Nikola Tesla’s hands rested comfortably in his lap as all around him the air sizzled with energy (126).

The device is a resonant transformer, Tesla explains. It is a coil producing a rapidly alternating current of high voltage and low amperage. Although a dramatic spectacle, it’s safe and could be useful in many capacities for power, Tesla contends.

Tesla’s lab is spotless and completely void of other people. Paul notes: “This was Tesla’s own private world, and he would keep it free from the impurities and irritations that marred his experiences outside it. He was alone, finally, with his wonders” (127).

Tesla shows Paul another beautiful and mysterious light device called a Crookes tube. It utilizes Cathode rays which fire particles of a negative charge from one lead to another.