Pneumatic Scandal In Nyc And Transportation

Although the company was unsuccessful in creating a permanent method of transportation

, the case of the Beach Pneumatic Transit Company in NYC is of utmost interest in that it brought into the realm of law and politics the problems of a pneumatic system. The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company rode on an amendment to an old bill, to begin building their tunnels without attracting particular attention to their project.

Although they didn't run into problems initially they would soon find them selves in a legal battle. The New York Times reported, "The mayor has some doubts as to whether the legislature can give a company the right to excavate beneath a street, and thus, in some measure, to place both public and private property in danger." (New York Times 2) The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company even released propaganda in order to create positive spin, to help with the government blockage. This incident widely publicized pneumatics and got way more coverage in newspapers.

The Beach Company published a pamphlet through S.W. Green Printer that resembles a press packet, including detailed description of the system and articles from other newspapers, which gave the company a positive spin. The fact that the pamphlet doesn't even mention the Beach Company until well into it, gives the whole thing an air of deception. This problem indicated a severe limitation in pneumatic systems, in that the necessity of constructing on both public and private property is inherent to the design of the system.

What stands out about the pneumatic railway is the fact that it is essentially exactly the same as the pneumatic post, except constructed on a different scale.

In an editorial appearing in the Boston Transcript May 23, 1870 and aptly titled A Peep Into The Future a relative newbie to the world of pneumatic mail described the confusion that transpired during his first encounter with the newfangled system. While in Glasgow he found that he must have made an error in a telegram he sent to London. When he requests to see the telegram he is baffled by the fact that his message is in fact not where he dropped it off, but in the London Post Office. After requesting it be returned he is amazed that it is back in his hands only five minutes later. The thought process that occurred next is what is of more interest, then his general amazement with a new technology. "If I could only go to Boston with the same relative speed, you might count on my passing an evening every week at 124 Beacon Street, and returning home to sleep. Who know but we may be conveyed in this marvelous manner before many years?" (Chicago Tribune 0_1). The immediate leap to using the pneumatic mail system for transportation (to pass evenings at the home of poet Charles Stoddard) was a quick one for someone unfamiliar with pneumatic systems.

Scientific American on October 5, 1861 featured an editorial that described the construction of a Pneumatic Dispatch system intended to carry packages quickly through a quarter mile tube into London. "Two gentleman occupied the carriages during the first trip. They lay on their backs on mattresses with horsecloths for coverings, and appeared to be perfectly satisfied with their journey." (Scientific American 209) I think that the severity of the public's obsession with putting people into pneumatic tubes can be exemplified by the fact that the first time that this particular system was used at all, it was not for used the purpose it was built for. This unintended use of the pneumatic dispatch system, in a big way overshadowed its intended use, which would soon be developed into the Pneumatic Railway.

Why was it about pneumatic tubes that caused people to want to jump inside and use them for travel, especially since steam engine trains were already invented? I think one major reason can be gathered from the fact that railway plans were nearly exclusively for use in metropolitan areas. No one, to my knowledge suggested a transcontinental pneumatic railway. They were seen as a way to put trains underground in highly congested areas, due to the fact that it would be problematic to put steam engines underground. Additionally I would contend that pneumatic transit was appealing due to a certain mystique that must have come along with watching something be moved by an invisible force.

Is it a coincidence that the subways of NYC actually resemble the Pneumatic Railway? It's hard to claim that modern NYC subways wouldn't use cylindrical tunnels had it not been for it's predecessor. However, the technology for building steel tunnels, patented by Joseph Dixon for the Pneumatic Railway, undoubtedly was referenced by modern subway builders (Dixon).

by: Emma

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