Two Motors on the Table

A meeting room in New York on a May afternoon, daylight from tall windows, rows of chairs with men in dark frock coats seen from directly behind, faces turned fully away, a long table under green baize, on it two small motors of dark cast iron of different sizes, each a ring-shaped housing with a bright steel shaft, wires to a wooden reversing switch, behind the table the man, a very tall slim man of thirty-one, dark hair parted in the middle, thin moustache, high white collar, dark frock coat, one hand on the switch, his face toward the camera.