Kill the Night

by Terry, Mark

  “Oh my goodness!” said Ida.

  “Look there,” Tesla said, pointing down the street.

  A patrolman on foot hurried to the accident. He stopped at a utility pole on the corner and opened a box.

  “See there. City of Chicago is first city to utilize electricity for communication between police stations and patrolmen on duty. Help might take long time to arrive if this were other city.”

  As they watched, the patrolman hung up and raced over to the scene of the accident, helping a wounded bus passenger lying beside the wreck. Within a couple of moments, a wagon-load of policemen were driving up to the spot and leaping out.

  “That’s what electricity does for the city, every day.”

  Having circled part of the Exposition, they were now within sight of the Electricity Building once again.

  “I will show you my workshop. You can see how much time and effort goes into making improvements in changing lives.”

  Interlude 31

  Wednesday, March 15, 1893, 12:23 p.m.

  Electrical Exhibition,

  Chicago Columbian Exposition

  As they walked into the building, Tesla paused in his stride. None of the lights were on.

  “Something is wrong.”

  The building sat quiet. No hammers or saws. No construction noise. In a far corner, there were several men, two on ladders, and they appeared to dismantling several of the displays. Several more men were standing beneath them, watching. Tesla strode up to them angrily.

  “What is going on here?”

  Thomas Edison turned to face them triumphantly. Without another word, he turned back towards the workmen on the ladder, pointing at every electrical display within their reach, “Take them down. All of them. They all have to go.”

  “What is the meaning of this!” Tesla demanded.

  John P. Barrett, Executive of the Electrical Department, turned to Tesla. “Mr. Nikola Tesla, I’m afraid we have to shut the exhibit down. In light of this, the board is re-examining the contract with Westinghouse and will likely take different action.”

  “Why do you have to shut the exhibit down?” Ida asked.

  Edison turned at the sound of the voice and scowled.

  Mr. D.H. Burnham, Chief of Construction answered, “Because Mr. Tesla is using light bulbs manufactured by General Electric in his exhibits, and he had no authorization to do so.”

  “We bought most of them in the public warehouse months ago!” Tesla almost shouted. “Since when do we need permission to use light bulbs anyone can purchase?”

  Edison smiled again.

  John Barrett put an arm around Nikola’s shoulder and turned him away from the group. “Look, Nikola, I don’t like this any better than you do. It isn’t right and it isn’t fair. But Mr. Edison objects to you using Edison bulbs in your exhibit.” He looked over his shoulder to make sure they were just out of earshot and then, whispered, “And if he doesn’t get his way, General Electric threatened to revoke the electricity for rest of the city of Chicago!”

  John Barrett stopped and looked directly into Tesla’s eyes. “Now, most of our customers are still DC customers. Can you promise to provide them with power if GE makes good on its threat?”

  Tesla thought about it a moment, then frowned. “No, I can’t. Not overnight. Given a couple of months, I could do it, but—”

  “Then I’m sorry, Nikola. There’s nothing I can do.” Barrett turned from Nikola and motioned to several workmen and pointed them to the other side of the building. “Take them all down.”

  Ida approached Tesla. “We can’t let them do this.”

  Tesla shrugged. “I don’t know what else we can do. Mr. Edison threatened to pull the power on the entire city.”

  “Well, what if you don’t use his light bulbs?” she said louder.

  Mr. D.H. Burnham laughed at this and turned to her.

  “Madam, there are no other light bulbs.” Then he turned to Edison and the two laughed as they chatted.

  “Wait,” said Tesla. “What if I did?”

  “Did what, Nikola?” Barrett asked, turning.

  “What if I used different light bulbs?”

  “What do you mean?” Barrett waved towards the workmen on the ladders, and they paused.

  “I will build a new light bulb. And we will use them in the exhibition. Not Edison light bulbs.”

  “What’s going on? Why are they stopping?” Edison growled, as he and Burnham came over.

  “Mr. Tesla says he will use his own light bulbs in his exhibitions.”

  Edison snorted, “Impossible.”

  “Can’t be done,” said Mr. Burnham.

  “Why not?” asked Ida.

  “He would have to have a new bulb invented in time to replace all of the light bulbs in the entire hall.” Mr. Burnham shook his head. “Tomorrow, I am going before the board and telling them that the exhibit contract will have to be granted to Mr. Edison by forfeit.”

  Edison smirked. “What? Are you going to have a new bulb by then, Tesla?”

  Tesla nodded. “I will.”

  “That is stupid and underhanded, Mr. Burnham.” Ida scowled. “You could give Mr. Tesla more time. It will take weeks to dismantle this entire exhibit hall and replace it with Mr. Edison’s displays.”

  Mr. Burnham’s face burned with anger at Ida, and he turned to Tesla. “You have until eight o’clock tomorrow morning, Mr. Tesla, to present a new light bulb.”

  “And it can’t be a copy of mine. I’ll tie you up in litigation.” Edison pointed his finger at Tesla.

  Then Edison and Burnham laughed and walked away together, and Mr. Barrett walked to Ida and Tesla.

  “Well, I can buy you time until the morning, Mr. Tesla. I don’t really expect you to be able to do anything about it of course. I really am sorry.” He turned to the workmen and waved them off. “Come back tomorrow!”

  The workmen climbed down and carried away their ladders, and Ida and Tesla stood together, saying nothing.

  Finally, Ida asked, “What now?”

  Tesla shrugged. “Now, I invent new light bulb.”

  Interlude 32

  Wednesday, March 15, 1893, 3:36 p.m.

  The Castle, Chicago

  Mr. Pitezel showed up at the Castle with his three children, Alice, Nellie and Howard, hoping to surprise his wife with a picnic. They entered the Sixty-Third Street door, and the children immediately ran for the office.

  “Momma!” they shouted with glee. Mr. Benjamin Pitezel stood in the foyer a moment as the children ran into the office, expecting his wife to emerge any moment. Several moments went by, then the oldest, Alice, came out frowning.

  “Momma’s not there.”

  “Alice?” Mr. Pitezel called out. Upstairs came the audible clap of a door shutting. All three children had come out of the office and were standing in front of their father.

  He kneeled down and grinned. “Why don’t you go into the drugstore and get yourself some candy, okay? Whatever you want. Two pieces each.”

  The kids gasped with joy as he placed coins into each child’s hand.

  Mr. Pitezel held up two fingers. “Just two. Deal?”

  The children nodded and ran down the hallway and into the back leading to the drugstore. Once they were out of eyesight, Mr.Pitezel’s gaze returned to the second floor, and his eyes blazed with anger and betrayal.

  Slowly, deliberately, he made his way up the side staircase, never taking his eyes from the second floor hallway, waiting for his wife to appear.

  On the second floor, he stopped and listened. He heard creaking floorboards clearly from the left and stepped forward.

  “Alice?” he called out, “Alice, come out please. You’re not downstairs in the office. The kids are here. Please come out.”

  Another bump, this time clearly from inside the room. He tried the doorknob and threw the door open.

  His face changed from angry expectation to confusion, when he saw no one there. Then he heard water running and moved t
owards the bathroom.

  H.H. Holmes appeared behind Mr. Pitezel, a small towel in his hand.

  Mr. Pitezel approached the bathroom door and opened it slowly. “Alice?” he called again.

  H.H. came up behind him and put the towel over Mr. Pitezel’s face while grappling with him. The two men struggled for a minute. The chloroform took effect, and as Mr. Pitezel’s knees buckled, H.H. released the towel.

  Mr. Pitezel felt drowsy and confused. He moved towards the bathtub and his hands went out, searching for a handhold to assist him in sit down. Mr. Pitezel’s last coherent observation came as someone shoved him into a half-full bathtub with his clothes on.

  He landed in the liquid and writhed and screamed as the sulfuric acid melted his skin off almost immediately. The chloroform had incapacitated him enough that he only struggled briefly before the acid melted his throat and face, and only a gurgling hiss could be heard as his body continued to twitch.

  Interlude 33

  Wednesday, March 15, 1893, 11:23 p.m.

  Electrical Exhibition,

  Chicago Columbian Exposition

  Tesla’s workshop contained a myriad of devices and equipment scattered on tables. Ida slept on a nearby couch. When she opened her eyes sleepily, she looked at Nikola. “Are you going to work all night? What about sleep? A bed?”

  “No time to sleep. I don’t return to my room in evenings. I stay.” He looked around the room at the variety of electrical luminescent displays. “I stay around lights and inventions.”

  Ida shook her head. “You are a strange man.” She rose and came to stand next to Tesla as he worked. “How are you going to create a light bulb overnight?”

  “Anything is possible,” he said, turning to her. “Edison set his mind to creating light from heat. He needed the proper combination of elements, filaments, and vacuum to do it. He has said he came up with nine hundred ways not to make a light bulb before he did it.”

  “So what does that mean? You’re going to have to make nine hundred experiments before you find another?”

  “No. It means, he had decided he wanted to make light from heat. He decided to do it that way and he eventually did it. I don’t have to do that. I just have to create light. It doesn’t have to be from heat.”

  “So how else can you create light?”

  “I don’t know. I usually seek some form of inspiration at this point. I walk the countryside. I immerse myself in nature. But I don’t have the time for that now.”

  Ida yawned sleepily. “Well, I am sure you will think of something, Genius.”

  “Yes, but what is it? What else besides heat could create that kind of effect?”

  Ida rubbed her eyes. “I will stay with you until you figure it out.”

  “Maybe—”

  Ida leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, turned and laid back down on the couch.

  Tesla had frozen. His hand moved steadily up to touch his cheek where she had kissed him. “Maybe a chemical reaction.”

  

  “Wake up! Wake up! We’ve got to hurry. Got to go!”

  Ida’s eyes snapped open. The moon still sat full in the sky through the window. Tesla, wearing a long white lab coat, scooped wires and tubes with one hand into a box.

  “What’s going on?” Ida asked.

  Tesla turned, and she saw that he wore nothing under his lab coat but a pair of long johns that ran from shoulder to feet. Ida covered her mouth with her hands.

  “On? I’ll tell you what’s going on!” He raised his arms outstretched above him, the box clattering to the floor. “Pictures! Information! Energy!”

  Interlude 34

  Thursday, March 16, 1893, 9:03 a.m.

  Electrical Exhibition,

  Chicago Columbus Exposition

  The group of men stopped at the south entrance of the Electricity Building. Mr. Barrett pulled the stopwatch from his pocket. “Now in all fairness, gentlemen, we have more than an hour before the board meeting. We agreed to give Mr. Tesla as much time as possible. I am not going to deny him that. If he requires time to perform a test and make a case, I am going to give it to him.”

  Thomas Edison looked at Mr. Burnham, and the two men exchanged exasperated glances. Nevertheless, both nodded before Mr. Barrett opened the entrance and they went inside, followed by a half a dozen workmen.

  Beneath an open skylight on one side of the vast building which covered fifty thousand square feet of open space, Nikola Tesla stood in the midst of a vast array of wires and globes which glowed with blue light. Even more spectacular were the waves of electricity which bounced in and around Tesla, and between the bulbs themselves.

  The metal panel before him moved slowly from side to side. On the other side of the building, a second machine of equal size slowly rotated in sync with Tesla’s machine. Simon and Grgor were both pushing this machine, however, exhibiting some level of effort and exhaustion.

  Mr. Barrett, Mr. Burnham, and Mr. Edison slowly approached the incredible sight, getting as close as they dared to Tesla and the amazing electric spectacle. Then at once the dancing lights stopped.

  Tesla stepped out from the center of the machine, noticed the three men, and smiled. “You may close aperture now!” he shouted up into the rafters.

  The three men looked up to see Ida balanced high on a metal walkway, yanking on a rope that brought down a counter lever and closed the skylight door with a thump.

  Tesla grasped Mr. Burnham’s hand and shook it fiercely. “Gentlemen, it’s amazing. It’s fantastic. It changes everything!” Tesla rushed over to a desk. He turned on the shaded lamp and scribbled on some loose papers.

  “Oh, Mr. Edison, how good of you to come,” Ida called out from the catwalk as she climbed down the ladder to the building floor.

  “Miss, that is a terribly dangerous place. Don’t move!” Mr. Barrett motioned to several workmen and waved them hurriedly to go help her down.

  They ran up beside the ladder, but Ida paused halfway. “I thank you very much, sir, but I am more than capable.” She looked to the workmen. “Don’t touch,” she said. Two of the men who had approached the ladder stopped and held back. She descended unassisted.

  Mr. Barrett brought his attention back to Tesla sitting at the desk scribbling madly. “Nikola, it’s almost time.”

  Without looking up, Tesla said, “Yes, it is!” He shot up from his chair and ran to the second machine.

  As Ida came to stand near the three men, Tesla furiously worked at several large bolt latches which held the machines two halves in place. Finally, the last bolt moved aside and with a snap, the halves separated. Apparently on some kind of rollers, Tesla wheeled one half aside to reveal a massive mechanical aperture with a rounded point on the end of its thin arm.

  Tesla wheeled the second half around to reveal a life-sized photographic plate—a visage of Nikola Tesla etched onto it, right down to the ribbing in his socks and his distinguishing ears.

  “Gentlemen, observe future.”

  Mr. Burnham spoke up first. “What are we looking at?”

  Tesla beamed. “Is brush discharge! When I realized it reacted to smallest effects, even my presence effected change, I realized those effects could be measured. But wireless. It had to be wireless.” He held up a wagging finger. “I don’t know why it had to be wireless!” Shaking his head, Tesla turned back toward his desk and ran to it, opening another notebook. A single lamp glowed on his desk.

  “What the hell does this have to do with anything?” Edison exclaimed.

  Mr. Barrett stepped forward and leaned over. “Nikola?”

  Tesla didn’t respond.

  “Nikola!”

  Tesla looked up, his eyes wide. He threw his hands up, causing Mr. Barrett to jump back.

  “It’s frictionless! Without inertia!” Tesla cried out.

  Mr. Burnham stepped forward. “Mr. Tesla, what in the name of the good Lord Almighty are you talking about?” Then pointing to the image Tesla had created. “What is tha
t?”

  Tesla laughed. “That? Is first successful telegraphy transmission of image. No wires. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from place to place.”

  Tesla stood up, his eyes drifting upward in exaltation. “We could transmit matter. We must liberate thought from its limitations imposed by space and time, and yet keep its characteristics. This will be possible in next decade!”

  After a moment of silence, Edison laughed out loud. “I told you the man is a lunatic! Do you seriously want your exhibit in the hands of this man?”

  Mr. Barrett stepped forward, but Ida spoke up.

  “Nikola, they’re asking you about the light bulb.”

  Tesla looked at her. “Yes, of course. Bulb is key! When I constructed bulb with no lead-in wires, I noticed something amazing about brush discharge.”

  Mr. Barrett broke in, “Yes, Nikola, that is all well and good, but we are here about the bulb you promised. Do you have it?”

  “Do I have it? Of course I have!” Nikola waved his arms in demonstration. ”When I have wireless bulb, discharge moves in close proximity! It moves to opposite edge of globe. When I circle bulb, brush moves in direct contrast to my presence. It is beam of light!”

  “Where is it?” Mr. Burnham shouted, exasperated.

  Ida tried to conceal a smile with one hand.

  “Oh,” Tesla said and reached over. The lamp on the makeshift desk turned out to be nothing more than a bent piece of copper that had been covered with a white cloth. It curved at the base to provide stability and hooked around an oblong glass tubing which glowed brightly.

  Nikola slid the bulb out from the aperture. It stayed on, and he held it out to Mr. Barrett. “This is fluorescent bulb. Not based on heat to generate light, so very little energy is lost. In fact, only costs twenty-five percent of power to run this light bulb than filament.”