Twelve o'clock
At eleven-thirty , through the little view window , Buck Kendall saw something that made him cry out in amazement . The mercury metal in the receiver , behind its layers of screening was beginning to glow , with a dull reddish light , and little solidifications were appearing in it ! Eagerly the men looked , as the solidifications spread slowly , like crystals growing in an evaporating solution . Twelve o'clock came and went , and one o'clock and two o'clock . Still the slow crystallization went on . Buck Kendall was casting furtive glances at the kilowatt-hour meter . It stood at a figure that represented twenty-seven thousand dollars ' worth of power .