NOTED RADIO PIONEER HAD LAB, TOWER AT SHOREHAM IN 1902

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.