ONCE upon a time, there was an unconventional US entrepreneur who devised a revolutionary mode of transport that would send people hurtling through narrow tubes at high speeds.
Not Elon Musk, who this week unveiled a system designed to put Los Angeles within 30 minutes鈥� reach of San Francisco (see 鈥�Hyperloop: Musk unveils high-speed pneumatic transport鈥�), but Alfred Beach, whose Pneumatic Transit briefly carried people under New York in 1870.
Several 鈥渁tmospheric railways鈥� also operated in the UK around that time, including one built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. And many shared Beach鈥檚 dream of a pneumatic age, in which everything from mail to meals whizzed around cities.
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But the dream rapidly faded as the technology proved expensive and fiddly 鈥� though it still has its uses today (see 鈥�Newmatics: antique tubular messaging returns鈥�).
Musk鈥檚 Hyperloop is far more sophisticated. But whether it will prove any more viable remains to be seen. Mass-transit systems need government support, and high-speed rail is contentious in the US. On the other hand, a flamboyant scheme might be just what鈥檚 needed to spur interest. Perhaps Beach鈥檚 dream will belatedly come true after all.
