The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-21
Rapid Transit, A. D. 1850.



The great development of railroad trav-
ell fifty years hence will undoubtedly he
along the line of urban and suburban
rapid transit. Long distance steam rail-
roads, as we know them today, carrying
both freight and passengers, are in some
respects at the apex of their achieve
ments Speed Is for all practical pur-
poses limited to the maximum Of sixty
miles per hour, or but little more. The
item OF comfort, even luxury, has reach
ed a point whsre there is little left to
be desired. Accidents affecting life and
limb on a modern passenger railway have
been reduced to percentage so low that
it is actually safer TO travel on a rail-
way train than to walk along a city
street.
1t is probable that for some time to
come long distance travel will continue
to follow the same general lines as now
exist. Steam locomotives may give place
to machinery operated by electricity or
compressed air. The two rails may in
process of time become one. Cars, both
passenger and freight, may be still fur
Their improved, but III the main the rail-
way system Of 1850 will be simply an i'm
ever present speed limit of less han 100
miles per hour.
There is a department of railway trav-
| ell, however, that demands and will ex-
perience radical change, and that is ur-i
| ban and suburban rapid transit of both
| passengers and freight; it is the crying
need of the day. Municipalities and cor
| porations are moving heaven and earth
| to provide better means of transporting
| the millions of men from their homes to
their offices and work shops Conditions
instead of improving grow steadily worse.
| In all large centers exceeding half
million population the congestion OF
street car lines, horse cars, electric cars
! or cable cars and elevated roads is
] constant menace to health, life and prop
| erty.
Extension along the lines OF existing
methods is almost at stand still New
York, the second c1ty i'll the world, is
helpless before an ever growing problem.
Twice every day struggling mass of hui
mainly wastes precious hours in a slow
and tedious journey between office and
home There IS no room for more sur
face lines of railway. The extension of
the elevated system means the ruination
of valuable streets. What is wanted Is
some method that will practically ami
hilate distance, and at the same time re-
move from the city streets the danger Of
electric wires or cable slots, and the hid
eous structures of the elevated railway.
Recent machinery utilizing compressed
air and the marvellous results that are
latent in the discovery of a practical
process of liquifying air, point TO the at
mosphere as the great ever present, ever
lasting source of cheap power. What is
accomplished by an excess of air can also
be done, in many cases, by the absence
of air. A combination of the two forces
will be irresistible. The method of util-
izing this power already exists in prac-
tical FORM but to a limited degree, in
the pneumatic tubes through which pass
at incredible speed packages OF money,
goods and mail matter.
1t requires no effort of the imagination
to see an extension of the pneumatic tube
system view of New York. London,
Paris or other large city in 1880 may show
something after this fashion: Justices
asphalted streets with no noise of clang-
ing car gongs or steel shod hoofs. Clean
unbroken pavemeGts across which pass
with noiseless rush rubber tired horseless
carriages driven by compressed air mo-
tors. No deathly trac Gerry of electric wires
or network of smoke begripled elevated
trestlework disfiguring the city streets.