Some of us may think that Elon Musk's ambitious Hyperloop is a great leap forward in the future of mass transportation technology ...
Some of us may think that Elon Musk's ambitious Hyperloop is a great leap forward in the future of mass transportation technology that is even far ahead than the reliable Japanese Shinkansen or the German Maglev trains. The Hyperloop is essentially a train that Musk calls "a cross between a Concorde, a railgun, and an air hockey table."
But many people have failed to realized that there was an old technology that was also far ahead of its time that has predated what we think is future technology. Powered by air, a series of pneumatic tubes can shuttle people from one place to the other. Some of the smaller scale tube systems are still in operation but this time, it transports mail or small package to different parts of a building.
Although the Hyperloop is still experimental and yet to be built, American inventor Alfred Beach received a patent for his pneumatic subway train concept in 1865 and an actual working subway was in operation beneath the streets of New York within five years! Known as the Beach Pneumatic Transit, the subway featured a single car that ran for a single block: 312 feet from Warren Street to Murray Street in an 8-foot wide tunnel under Broadway. Unfortunately, it was short-lived and was closed three years after its opening. It would took another 30 years before New York would have its own subway system.
Although the Hyperloop is still experimental and yet to be built, American inventor Alfred Beach received a patent for his pneumatic subway train concept in 1865 and an actual working subway was in operation beneath the streets of New York within five years! Known as the Beach Pneumatic Transit, the subway featured a single car that ran for a single block: 312 feet from Warren Street to Murray Street in an 8-foot wide tunnel under Broadway. Unfortunately, it was short-lived and was closed three years after its opening. It would took another 30 years before New York would have its own subway system.
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