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Swift as Aeolus - American contribution in developing pneumatic railways as compared to European achievements.

The paper given on the annual meeting of SHOT (Society for the History of Technology), Atlanta, USA, October 2003.

By common opinion, the idea of the pneumatic railway in America is being linked to Alfred Beach; the innovator who bored his famous tunnel under Broadway in 1870. It was once called The first American subway. In general most of the innovative ideas currently on that field stemmed from Britain and France, as all four working lines of air driven railways had been built right there. However, the American contribution is also quite remarkable and well worth emphasizing.

Beginnings

The story began in 1812 when George Medhurst, of London, proposed employing compressed air for transporting passengers. He suggested blowing the passenger carriages through a tunnel. The secondary plan was to pull the carriages by a piston passing through a tube with a slot on its top. His ideas remained on blueprints for many years, as no one quite knew how to put them into practice. He had an imaginative plan to seal the slot in the tube with copper plate or by placing it into the water. The first, who attempted to find a more feasible solution, was an American inventor, Henry Pinkus of Pennsylvania who at the time resided in England. In 1834, Pinkus patented a valve made of rope. Unfortunately, his 'valvular cord' was unsuccessful. Then in 1838, two English engineers Samuel Clegg and Jacob Samuda adopted the same principle. When their idea eventually succeeded, they became known as the originators of the atmospheric railway system. It had since been adopted by the contractors of all four lines that were built. For several years, Pinkus had been purporting himself to be the originator of the idea, even though he had powerful supporters, such as John Herapath of Railway Magazine, he eventually failed.

Different systems

These systems can be classified according to the means the pneumatic power was to be employed for driving trains.

1. A carriage enclosed in a tunnel has its body fitted to the interior tunnel's walls. The movement of the car is caused by producing a vacuum at the front of it or overpressure behind it. The system was commonly called the pneumatic one. The cars are supposed to run on their wheels or, in the case of being shaped like a ball or cylinder, to roll around on an axis.

2. The second group adopted a similar principle, vacuum or overpressure is applied on a piston moving within a tube. The piston is connected by means of rigid bar with a truck running on outside rails. There were also several proposals to employ a magnetic attraction.

3. The pistons were also adopted in those systems in which the moving parts of the track interacted with the cars, causing its motion. For instance, a piston passing through the tube would mobilize the rotating cogged wheels and by consequence shove a bar connected with a truck. These cogged wheels could be also driven my pneumatic engines placed along the track. Another manner was to place the car on a track having a capacity to raise the car's wheels and thus putting them in motion. Initially an inflating hose was employed but a piston could also cause the same effect as the rising of a membrane.

The proposed classification of various pneumatic railway systems and the most significant inventions in each group (requires Flash).

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The first pneumatic railway system patented in America was issued in the small town of Tunkhannock in Pennsylvania. The inventor, Ira Avery, was a very skilled mechanic and an author of several improvements in household equipment. The principle that he adopted differed from those proposed by Medhurst in that there were to be flexible hoses laid along the whole length of the track. These hoses, when inflated, were supposed to impact the carriage's wheels resting on them and thus encourage its rolling motion. An editor of Scientific American, who denominated Avery's proposal as the first American Pneumatic Railway System in a future issue of the journal also gave some accounts on the proposals of his precedents - namely, Christopher Nickols and Antoine Andraud, who patented their solutions in England and France in 1839 and 1844, respectively. The idea was never put in practice however, it attracted the attention of the inventors again in the 1880s when another American, Milton Conger got two patents on just such a solution. It is worth mentioning that recently, on May of this year, a Japanese company patented, in this country, an industrial conveyor that employs the very same principle.

Origins of The First American Subway

In the late 1840s, when the fall of atmospheric locomotion had been announced in Europe, the system felt into inventors' disgrace. There were only few designs brought to the attention of the public during the next 20 years. Among them was that of Ithiel Richardson a resident of Boston, who patented his system in 1853. Then another inventor turned his attention to pneumatic propulsion. It was Elias Parkman Needham who was very skilled in pneumatics as a manufacturer of melodeons. He patented his Tubular Pneumatic Ways in 1864. The fame of Needham as an inventor of the pneumatic tube remained for many years. In 1867, when Alfred Beach presented his model at the American Institute Fair, some journalists referred to it as the Needham's Pneumatic Railway. The one who influenced Beach the most however, was Thomas Webster Rammell of London. He built his experimental pneumatic tube at Crystal Palace in Sydenham in 1864 while Alfred Beach was still considering a cable road as the best solution for traffic congestion in New York. Three years later, Beach finally had his own wooden tube presented at the Fair, while Rammell was struggling with difficulties which were obstructing the construction of the first regular pneumatic railway tube under the Thames River in London. In fact, the Whitehall and Waterloo Railway was never completed, but before the construction had been abandoned in 1868 it influenced several American engineers who proposed similar lines in this country, mostly under the East River which divided New York from its neighbors. It was suggested not only to lay the pneumatic tubes across the river but also along its length, close to the shores of Manhattan. It was believed that it would be cheaper and easier than boring tunnels under the avenues. After the success of his demonstration under Broadway, Alfred Beach was very close to realizing his dream. Finally he obtained a bill allowing his company to build his subway yet unfortunately; he failed to collect the necessary funds. Another innovator, who had to abandon his plans of pneumatic ways along Manhattan, was surgeon Henry Gilbert. He designed an elevated structure with arcades in Victorian Gothic style and patented it in 1870. In 1872 he formed The Gilbert Elevated Railroad Company, which was authorized to ...construct, maintain and operate the tubular ways and railway by atmospheric pressure, compressed air or other power... Finally the Company opted for ordinary steam traction. Yet another, Albert Brisbane, who had entirely engaged himself in promoting his pneumatic tubes yet was still, more likely than not, remembered as a pupil of Charles Fourier and prophet of utopian socialism in America. His rolling spheres were intended to transport merchandises over long distances at very high speeds. The companies he chartered were aimed at connecting major American cities. The public opinions on that scheme varied from enthusiasm to irony. L. Reavis in his Saint Louis: the future great city of the world is dreaming about possible benefits of such tube passing through his city. On the other hand in Underground; or, Life below the surface by Thomas Knox we can read about a man rotating some 200 times per minute on his way from New York to Washington and how he supposedly looked like after such a journey. Human ingenuity has no limits, and as such in 1873 Henry Yates, of Kalamazoo, patented a system in which a car, cylindrical in shape, was to be placed inside the hollow rim. The body of the car was held in proper position, and it retained its center of gravity while the wheels were moving allowing the passengers to remain in a stationary position while seated inside the sphere.

Number of patents in different countries

Relieving traffic congestion

During Railway Mania of the 1840s the pneumatic or rather atmospheric railways were considered as an alternative for steam locomotion, particularly on mountain sections. During the 1860s when the traffic congestion in large cities reached an enormous level, a pneumatic subway was thought to be the best solution to the problem. But the most characteristic case poses the significant growth of the interest in pneumatic railways among American inventors in the 1880s. It was the time of escalating demands for an effective rapid transit in large cities. The elevated roads and horse trams couldn't answer those demands anymore and the electric drive for railways was still in the early stages of development. Perhaps looking for a solution for the traffic needs of dynamically developing American cities, the inventors drew inspiration even from untried or unsuccessful solutions. They had a clear definition of the problem and had new technologies at their disposal, thus they accepted the challenge. The total number of patents for various improvements in working pneumatic railways exceeded 150. The significant parts were more or less finished designs of whole systems. In addition though, there were also the improvements in separate components of those, which had reached the stage of extended tests or even practical operation.

Conclusion

The history remembers the winners and quickly forgets about those who were vanquished. The pneumatic railways, if ever remembered, are mostly linked to the names of Clegg and or Beach among Americans. In most cases, their efforts appear as the samples of the spectacular failures or at least romantic stories of unrealized dreams. All others involved in developing pneumatic railways still remain in oblivion or if recognized at all are remembered as the authors of other inventions. Generally, the output from English engineers is emphasized. Yet, in reality, there were many Swiss, Polish, German and Belgian inventors but first and foremost French and American, who had great impact on it.