Seldom would I report on such a superb historical novel by starting at the end. But here, I shall. In the 'Author's Notes', Moore says "..the bulk of the events depicted in this book did happen and every major character did exist." "The book is a Gordian knot of verifiable truth, educated supposition, dramatic rendering, and total guesswork.The central story is the birth of electricity, and the battle royale between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison for control of the light bulb. Very interestingly, the story is told from the vantage point of young Paul Cravath, Westinghouse's lawyer. The author claims that the lack of a Cravath biography was a motivation for the writing of the book. He cites a lengthy bibliography of historical sources. However, as Moore is a noted screenwriter, I suspect that telling a great tale is the number one motive.
Edison patented the light bulb in 1878, and a decade later was battling Westinghouse over infringements to his patent. Defending Westinghouse was Cravath. The question was what had Edison patented? Was it a light bulb? Or was it incandescent light and thus, all light bulbs? The second matter between the two legends was the delivery system of electricity to the bulb. Edison was selling direct current( d/c) and Westinghouse's systems worked on alternate current ( a/c ).(One of Westinghouse's colleagues on a/c was Nikola Tesla). At issue was who would electrify the entire country, and consequently, the financial stakes were beyond enormous. Edison had more money for the battle that at one point was encapsulated in 312 different lawsuits. The general assumption was that Edison would easily prevail. Initially, Cravath intended to prove that Westinghouse's light bulbs did not infringe Edison's patent. He also tried to pursue an argument that Edison had falsified his patent application, as the filaments had been changed. The courts ruled for Edison. "Paul's strategy had been to narrow the scope of Edison's patent to a nonexistent, nonfunctioning device; in response, Edison had succeeded in broadening the scope of his patent to include practically anything that lit up." Cravath emerges the hero when he finds a solution, inspired by a meeting with Alexander Graham Bell, that will make everyone happy and everyone very, very rich. Cravath convinces the man who owns 60% of Edison General Electric, J. P. Morgan, that spending money endlessly in litigation is not in his best interests. A compromise that involves cross-selling and licenses is agreed to, America is bestowed with a mammoth leap forward, and the Westinghouse Electric Company, General Electric and Cravath, Swain and Moore all bound into the 20th century as paragons of modernity and success.
This is a great book and worth the effort of all who see this post. Since I've started the book, I've also learned that it is soon coming to a theater near you, starring Eddy Redmayne as Paul Cravath,
No comments:
Post a Comment