Chronicling America (Library of Congress newspapers), 2026-10-08
Chrome, https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/ (the old chroniclingamerica.loc.gov OCR URLs and loc.gov search by curl return a Cloudflare block; the main loc.gov search gave HTTP 503 once). Investigator (STEP I).
Queries
Tesla Shoreham tower, dates 1917 (4 hits: The Sun (New York) 19 July 1917 p.2 and 5 Aug 1917 sect. 5 p.43 [image 43]; Rogue River Courier (Grants Pass, Or.) 20 July 1917 p.4; Bridgeport Evening Farmer 26 July 1917 p.5)Tesla "stationary waves", dates 1899-1910: results page froze the tab; not read (retry next run).
Found: the 1917 demolition of the Wardenclyffe tower as reported at the time
- The Sun (New York), 19 July 1917, p.2 [web: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030431/1917-07-19/ed-1/?sp=2&st=text], dateline Riverhead, L.I., July 18, headline about the structure at Shoreham "Demolished as Precaution" (OCR): suspecting that it might be used to receive information on the movement of US warships, steamships and troops, "the Federal Government this week had the tower demolished. Charges of dynamite were placed under the foundations ... the tower collapsed." The presence of strangers near the tower "hastened the destruction". It gives the height as "about 100 feet", built by Tesla "some fifteen years ago"; Tesla abandoned it "and subsequently the property was sold at foreclosure sale".
- The Sun, 5 Aug 1917, Section 5 feature supplement, p.43 [web: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030431/1917-08-05/ed-1/?sp=43&st=text], "Destruction of Tesla's Tower" (OCR): "The destruction of Nikola Tesla's famous tower on Long Island by the Government shows forcibly the great precautions being taken ..."; but also "was recently sold, but whether the buyer was the Government is not known"; "a queer copper domed affair, 185 feet high"; describes it as made useless "to an enemy alien by tearing it down". - Other two hits (Grants Pass, Bridgeport) not read (time): probably wire copies of the same story.
How it bears on the record (priority 4; claim 1 context, Absence of evidence)
- Competing accounts of why the tower came down: (a) Contemporary newspapers, July-Aug 1917: the Federal Government had it dynamited as a wartime security measure (the 5 Aug piece itself admits the buyer's identity, and so whether the Government acted, was "not known"). (b) Leland Anderson, in his 1992 edition of the 1916 interview (Appendix III): "The tower was destroyed in order that the property could be commercially developed", after foreclosure by the Waldorf-Astoria (Boldt) [web: research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md]. (c) Wikipedia's current article (citing Cheney 2011 pp.218-219 and Anderson 2002 p.159) calls the government story a rumour and says Boldt demolished it for scrap [web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower, raw text lines 104-110].
- What would decide it: the foreclosure-appeal transcript (Bingham's testimony on the premises, Exhibit B inventory), records of the salvage contractor, and any 1917 Navy or Department of Justice order concerning private radio stations on Long Island (National Archives, RG 38 Office of Naval Communications or RG 60). None examined yet.