Alfred Ely Beach
American businessman (1826-1896) · United States · On the map · Scientists · Died at 69
Alfred Ely Beach was an American inventor, entrepreneur, publisher, and patent lawyer, born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is known for his design of the earliest predecessor to the New York City Subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit, which became the first subway in America.
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Childhood home of Alfred Ely Beach, built by his father in 1846
Scientific American in 1845, a magazine that was a major force for the diffusion of innovations during the 19th century
Munn & Co. in 1859, patent office headquarters in Washington, next to the United States Patent Office
Broadway underground railway (1872), New York, next to City Hall
Socialites waiting in the Beach Pneumatic Transit station under Broadway
London Pneumatic Despatch Company, inspiration for Beach's mail system
Plan of the patent of Beach Pneumatic Transit mailing system with pneumatic cars used to deliver packages through an underground railroad networkAbout this person
He was an early owner and cofounder of Scientific American and Munn & Co., the country's leading patent agency, and helped secure patents for Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and other innovators. A member of the Union League of New York, he also invented a typewriter for the blind and a system for heating water with solar power.
