RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

National Archives Catalog (run 2, via Chrome) - 2026-10-03

Site: https://catalog.archives.gov/ (web UI and its /proxy/records/search JSON endpoint, called from the page in Chrome). Run 1: blocked (quoted searches failed). Run 2: positive. Recheck: yes (NARA keeps adding OCR'd microfilm).

Queries tried (hit counts)

"Moray" "radiant energy" (16); "Henry Moray" (23); "T. Henry Moray" (4); "T. H. Moray" (3); "Thomas Henry Moray" (0); "Moray Products" (1, noise); "Cosray" (error); "Felix J. Frazer" (12); "Moray" "Rural Electrification" (51, noise); "Moray" "Salt Lake" (1,880, noise); "Franklin P. Wood" (24); "Moray, Thomas" (22, noise); "Moray, T" (43, noise); series searches: Rural Electrification Administration Administrator correspondence 1935-1941, Rural Electrification Administration research, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry Rural Electrification investigation 1943. Catalog hits are whole microfilm reels whose OCR contains the words anywhere; each was opened at the matching image and the OCR panel read.

Findings

1. War Department (Adjutant General's Office) index sheets, 1936 and 1939 [web]

RG 407, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, series "Cross Reference Sheets to General Correspondence" (microfilm T822): - 12-14-36, index 413.68 [image shows 413.68; OCR read 413.63], from "Brig. Gen. Edward M. Shinkle, Office C/Ordnance" to TAG: "Invention of sound detector by F. Henry Moray". File unit "095 Montero, C. THRU 095 Motz, Frank", NAID 557685758, image 1100. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/557685758 (objectPage=1100). Image saved: files/NARA_RG407_T822-0330_img1100_AGO-index-1936-12-14_Shinkle-Ordnance_Moray-sound-detector.png. - 2-14-39, AG 413.68, John H. Magdiel to TAG: "Requesting information re report of Col. Edward M. Shinkle who witnessed a demonstration of Radiant Energy device invented by Dr. F. Henry Moray", with reference date 12-8-36. Same file unit, image 1099; duplicates filed under 413.68 (NAID 559956033 img 2443; NAID 559958970 img 2650) and under 032.23 Thomas, Elbert D. (NAID 557310471 img 49), i.e. the enquiry came through Senator Elbert D. Thomas's office. Image saved: files/NARA_RG407_T822-0330_img1099_AGO-index-1939-02-14_Magdiel-request-Shinkle-report_Moray.png. - "F. Henry" is the clerk's error for T. Henry. Edward M. Shinkle was an Army Ordnance officer (index says Brig. Gen., Office Chief of Ordnance, in 1936; Magdiel calls him Col.).

Meaning: an Army Ordnance officer witnessed a Moray demonstration and reported it to the Adjutant General in December 1936 (report dated 8 Dec 1936, forwarded 14 Dec 1936), describing the invention as a "sound detector". The Moray books already say that "General Shinkle and Captain Deitrick of the U.S. Army witnessed demonstrations" in 1936, that the device then drove loudspeakers, and that Shinkle asked how the government could obtain it [read: digests of the 5th ed. and the Pepe/Tesla-pages edition]. The War Department index is the first independent record that this happened and that Shinkle filed a report; it also shows how the Army filed it (a "sound detector", i.e. a receiving device, not a power source). The index sheets are only pointers; the report itself should be in the AGO central decimal file 1926-39, decimal 413.68 (and the 095 Moray name file), RG 407, at NARA College Park. Interested party: the Army was a prospective user; its officer's report is still the only military eyewitness record found.

2. Series that hold the REA and Senate records [web]

  • RG 221 (REA) "General Correspondence", NAID 653877; "Subject Files of the Chief's Office", NAID 1919487; "Reference Files of Robert D. Partrige", NAID 1872016.
  • John M. Carmody Papers (FDR Library), series "Rural Electrification Administration Papers", NAID 83577592. Carmody approved the 1938 inquiry; his papers are a likely home for Wood's August 1939 report and the 1938 correspondence.
  • RG 46, "Committee Papers of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and its Predecessors", NAID 560253 (the 1943-44 investigation's working files and exhibits).
  • None is digitised; request through NARA reference (archives2reference@nara.gov) or the FDR Library.

3. Noise and minor hits

  • OSTP (Bush administration) "Physical Science: Energy" 1991-92 files (NAIDs 285791717, 285791701, 285791721) contain "T. Henry Moray": public letters about free energy, not read (PDF, no OCR panel).
  • MID cross-reference "Moray, Jose" (1919, Mexican archbishop), Navy index "Mrs. Moray N. Wootton", Secret Service Salt Lake 1917-20, WPA reels: word coincidences or unrelated.
  • "Felix J. Frazer": WPA project reels 755-756, State Dept 812.x (Mexico) purport lists, DOJ record slips 1921-28: not opened; possible Frazer career traces.

Bearing on claims

Claim 1 and Claim 6: a December 1936 Army Ordnance eyewitness report exists (contents unknown). Silence C (missing agency records): adds RG 407 413.68 to the records that would decide. The REA, Carmody and Senate series are now identified by NAID.