Yesterday afternoon , Elon Muskrevealed his plansfor a arrangement that could revolutionise transit . This is n’t the first time a private enterpriser has taken on shipping in America , though . In fact , another loaded businessman and artificer make Alfred Ely Beach attempted to do the same affair in New York , in 1869 . Except instead of Hyperloops , he had pneumatic tube .
https://gizmodo.com/hyperloop-alpha-this-could-change-transit-forever-1112058546
Beach was the boy of the affluent owner of the New York Sun , and like his pop , he own a publication : the then - vernal Scientific American . An inventor at centre , Beach patented all personal manner of idea during his life story , like a typewriter for the blind and an improvement to the cable television car . But his most famous idea was the pneumatic subway . And while it ’s novelty cannon fodder for historians today , Beach ’s idea had considerable traction in his own day — it even competed with the fresh - fangled elevator railway for funds .
New York in 1873 . What a mess !
New York of the 1850s and 60s was a incubus to navigate : a crumb ’s nests of horse - drawn carriages , pedestrians , and pitch carts . Beach was interested in financing an option . His first idea was simple : Why not just build up a second street , below the background story , where horse - drawn trolley could go untied ? An choice to beast power came from London , where the first secret underground was run on steam engines . Steam was clearly a better than gymnastic horse — but Beach , perhaps through his work at Scientific American , had an even more radical plan in mind .
Beach ’s idea , which he patented in 1865 , was relatively simple — especially compared to Musk ’s 54 - page dissertation ( though they deal some core tenets , surprisingly ) . It center on an cloak-and-dagger system of rules of round , brick - lined tubes , at the ends of which would support high - power buff . line pressure from each end would crowd a tram back and forward along the wrinkle — much like the pneumatic tubes that were being used to transport post in 1860s London and New York . In fact , twenty year originally , British discoverer George Medhurst had actually built a prototype of a similar contraption — which he christened ( with substantially more flare ) the Atmospheric Railway .
Beach ’s epitome in 1867 .
Being a man of means around the metropolis , Beach was invited to test his thought at the American Institute Fair in 1867 . In the fair ’s grand hall he built a 100 - foot - long plywood version of his pneumatic subway system , where visitors could go for ride in the airy hold of its carriage . At either end , a gargantuan rooter blew enough melody through the subway that it could propel the ten - person car from one destruction of the raceway to the other with simplicity . The New York Times breathlessly called it “ the most novel and attractive characteristic of the expo . ”
In no small-scale part thanks to his purpose in the publication world , the idea began to gain traction . Beach successfully lobby the infamous Boss Tweed , who ran New York on bribery and blackmail , to pass a broadsheet allowing him to construct a organization of pneumatic tube-shaped structure and he got to work .
Crucially , he only request permission to build tubing for transporting post , not the great unwashed . But in arcanum , he and his crew were building his dream — New York ’s first flatulence - free , soot - free , and steam - free subway . They worked daylight and night to excavate a 300 - foot tunnel from Broadway and Warren to Murray street and finally , through which they ran a 30 - person pneumatic car power by pressurized melodic line from two monolithic fans . When the railcar reached one stay , the lover would alter commission .
actor dig the tunnel in secret .
After two years of mystical subway - tunneling , Beach have no chances unveiling his surprise to the populace . accord toone history , he build a 120 - substructure - long waiting hall decorated with ok lamp , fresco , and a goldfish fountain , hoping that official would be too becharm to object . The mechanical press , for their part , was enamored ( “ Fashionable Reception keep back In The Bowels Of The Earth , ” report the Post ) .
Image viaMyNYC .
But , as they say , you ca n’t fight back urban center foyer — specially not Boss Tweed ’s . When Beach went back to Albany to quest funds to progress a longer pneumatic line , Tweed enclose a interchangeable vizor — to work up an sublime subway line . The governor ’s plan bring home the bacon out . And within years , few masses had intellect to pay a quarter to ride Beach ’s experimentation . Soon , the space was convert for other uses and finally , it was destroy to make means for the subway we lie with today .
In a path , Beach wanted the same matter as Musk : A clean , cheap , and technically glorious solution to public passage . And interestingly , the key technological introduction of Musk ’s plan — Kantrowitz terminus ad quem , which dictates the behavior of a pressurized tunnel — is one of the barriers that stood in the way of life of pneumatic tube tube in the first place . Of naturally , it ’s going to be tougher for Musk to build the Hyperloop in secret , and it ’s not even clear that he’sinterested in build up it himself . But one lesson from Beach ’s saga still rings unfeigned : No matter how brilliant your idea , render not to piss off the multitude with the money .
https://jalopnik.com/the-key-innovation-that-makes-the-hyperloop-work-1113028439
For an excellent account of pneumatic subways , check out Columbia professorJoseph Brennan ’s thorough poston the national , from which some of these images are cast unless otherwise noted . Meanwhile , Untapped Citieshas more information on where to look for evidence of Beach ’s organisation .
Elon MuskHyperloop
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