Footnotes to Long Island History
Noted Radio Pioneer
Had Lab, Tower at Shoreham in 1902
December 23, 1965
by
Thomas R. Bayles
Caption: Tower and
Laboratory built by Nikola Tesla at Shoreham in 1902 are pictured. Mr.
Tesla was an inventor and electrician. He pioneered in radio and his
experiments and inventions aided in the development of wireless.
Pioneering in radio
was what Nikola Tesla, inventor and electrician, intended when he built
a huge tower and laboratory across from the railroad stations at
Shoreham in 1902. The tow was 200 feet high with a stairway leading to
the platform near the top. Below the tower was a well 120 feet deep and
12 feet square, which was cased its entire depth with 8-inch timbers. A
staircase led down to the bottom where there were four tunnels nearly
100 feet in length. The tower was constructed mostly of wood, with
50,000 bolts used. Nearby was the brick experimental building 100 feet
square with electrical equipment of various kinds furnished by the
Westinghouse company.
Tesla was a man of
great vision, and his experiments and inventions were really the
foundation of wireless, although Marconi received most of the honor and
credit for its development. The tower was dismantled during World War
I, and the brick building converted into a factory where the Peerless
Film Company is located.
Through a remarkable
coincidence, Tesla’s plant was located within tow miles of the present
site of the RCA broadcasting station at Rocky Point.