Elon Musks Hyperloop One: Its Forgotten NYC Precursor From 1870

in #technology8 years ago (edited)


New York’s Subway in use today was first opened in 1904, but there was one forgotten line created 35 years before. This initial attempt can even be considered the precursor to Musk's Hyperloop One!

Alfred Ely Beach, the same guy who owned and edited the magazine Scientific American, had an idea to lessen the traffic on Broadway. He designed a passenger system that used a giant fan to suck and propel a railway car much like wind propels a sailboat. It worked similar to Elon Musk’s experimental Hyperloop and those tubes that some banks still have in the drive through lane. In fact, Beach had to pretend it was a mail delivery system to even get permission to start!

Mr. Beach, along with partner Orson Munn, bought the poorly run Scientific American magazine in 1846. Soon after they created a business called Munn and Co., a patent filing assistance company. Since many inventors were naturally interested in their magazine, they always had their ad for patent assisting in the best places. Soon they were making tons of cash and filing more than 3,000 patents per year in the 1860’s.


Editing the magazine also kept him in the loop on the latest technological theories and ideas. One day he read about a proposed Pneumatic Despatch system in London, England. That got his mind working and he thought about how he could create a system like this to move people. Beach demonstrated his model at the American Institute Exhibition in New York City in 1867. It was the most popular exhibit of the event, winning two ‘first premium’ prizes.

The Times reported on the Exhibition: “some startling novelties, among them a great pneumatic tube, through which the adventurous will be carried north and south according to the fancy or advice of their physicians.”


Because of the amount of interest in the project Beach put out $350,000 of his own money to begin the transportation company, Beach Pneumatic Transit Company.

He had to be sneaky though, “Boss Tweed” was a crooked politician that ran NYC back in those days, and Tweed got a lot of his legal money by passenger transportation, and the rest from his corruption. So when Beach put his plans in for approval by the city he stated that it was for mail delivery, with no mention of passengers. The plans were approved and Beach got work started.


Beach and his team would work at night digging a tunnel beneath Broadway. He wanted to keep it a secret as long as he could, so he stored the dirt in the basement of an entire building he bought just to do so. It only took them 58 days, or should I say nights, to finish the first tunnel – a 312ft stretch from Warren Street to Murray Street.

The system was officially opened on February 26th, 1870 and passengers had to enter the basement of Devlin’s Clothing Store to get on it! The subway car held 22 people, a ticket cost 25 cents and the ride lasted 55 seconds each way. It was more of an attraction than anything else, as the station at the other end only had a ladder to climb out from! Still, during the first two weeks they sold 11,000 tickets and 400,000 in the first year.


Unfortunately Boss Tweed (who was later arrested for corruption and died in jail) now knew what Beach was doing and blocked any further expansion. Without any real reason to ride it, the public lost interest. It was closed in 1873 and converted into a shooting gallery, and later a storage vault. The whole thing was demolished with the expansion of the current subway infrastructure in 1912. You can see what remains in the tourist stop of City Hall Station, as that is what was built from the platform that was in the basement of Devlin’s Clothing Store.

Writer’s Opinion: To me it is so sad that petty people block technological advancements to protect their own self-interests. Imagine if this idea was able to advance at its own pace, if Boss Tweed hadn’t blocked future expansion. Technology could have progressed. We could even be using Futurama or Jetson’s style tubes for personal transport! How much more could have been possible had 150 years of intellectual effort been focused on this branch of technology?

If it wasn’t for dirty politics the 600+ MPH Hyperloop wouldn’t be experimental and the infrastructure would already be in place for it! Heck, we even could have been living it 50 years ago!



Please leave your comments down below, I would like to discuss your opinions.


My moment of honesty:

I would like you to follow me. I usually make one post per day. I strive for quality work, check my blog for proof. My interests vary but if you read and like one of my posts then at some point I will be writing a post that you will like again. I will not fill up your feed with crap. I can't guarantee you will be interested in every single one of them, but they will all be quality work on the subject they cover. I will also reply to all your comments if they warrant any reply. These things I promise to you. So follow me, or don't. I want you to do what you want to. Thank you for reading.

@getonthetrain

To research further: Source Source Source Source Img
Sort:  

What about Atlantic avenue subway?

Ahh, that one was also closed for political reasons as well. Would you like me to write about that one too?

Its an interesting tale, but just a train underground because of all the traffic above. This one was a different type of technology.

The encyclopedia of @getonthetrain continues. Another sad case of politics winning over advancement in society.

Absolutely smashing it, bro. Top article!

Thank you, dug up this info and knew I had to post it!

Thanks for the article. I really like reading it.
The question which came to mind was, how many other technologies which could have worked were blocked by a person in power just because he could?

There are many. I should write some posts on them when I get the chance. Stay tuned!

Thanks for the idea! :D

Hey man. I got on the train. Following!

Great historical post! A wonderful thing to use for a steampunk themed work. :)

Yea, one of the source links, I think the second one, is full of other early types of this technology. Pretty cool mid 1800s artwork there.

More of your amazing research. Keep on rocking and stay safe. Great chatting with you yesterday.

That's what I do. I drink and I research crap. :D

I had a good time chatting too!

In the 19th century, there were a few railway systems that used air vacuum or air pressure. Some of them are described in Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway

That is true, you can check out one of the links below to get the information on the earliest ones from Columbia university. They had lines that were external, with a tube that pushed a block that was connected to the car on rails - but they had problems with too much leakage.

The most successful were the internal ones, both above ground in tube and underground in tunnels. It really became a thing over in England for awhile. But I'll wager many people alive today didn't know about this one underneath the streets of NYC!

This was as interesting in facts as it was equally intriguing . Excellent balance!
PS! Couldn't agree more about using the Jetson's transparent tubes! Pretty sure the technology even exists today.

It is interesting to think about all the alternate history that is possible if just a few things happened differently. Thanks for checking out my article. :D

I love this kind of historical stuff. I don't have time to read now but will save for later:)

Alright, let me know what you think about it when you got a chance to finish it. :D

Very cool post, I have a lot of interest in the Hyperloop proposed by Musk and I had never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing, and I followed too!

Yea, I was searching for something interesting and came across this, and had never heard of it before. I knew I had to share it with steemit.

I checked out your blog, I like your stuff so am following you too. I saw you like sci-fi, I wrote the beginning of a short story last weekend and I was wondering if you could read it and leave a comment if you like it. It did ok, but if you think it is a good start I will make it my mission to write the next part this weekend. I would appreciate it.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.18
TRX 0.13
JST 0.029
BTC 57616.20
ETH 3030.92
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.25