[ih] Nit-picking an origin story

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

oops, pushed send before adding this notable Pneumatic transportation
system:

*The Very High Speed Transit System*
by Robert M. Salter
Year: 1972

*Description of a very high speed transit (VHST) system operating in its
own rarefied atmosphere in evacuated tubes in underground tunnels. Most
cases considered took less time to go coast-to-coast (e.g., 21 min) than it
takes an aircraft to climb to an efficient operating altitude. VHST's
tubecraft ride on, and are driven by, electromagnetic (EM) waves. In
accelerating, it employs the energy of the surrounding EM field; in
decelerating, it returns most of this energy to the system. Tunnel systems
would be shared by oil, water, and gas pipelines; channels for laser and
microwave waveguides; electric power lines including superconducting ones;
and freight systems. Environmental and economic benefits are substantial,
and the technology for building and operating the system exists.*

https://rand.org/pubs/papers/P4874.html


*Trans-Planetary Subway Systems*A Burgeoning Capability
by Robert M. Salter
Year: 1978

*Describes a subway concept called "Planetran" comprising
electromagnetically supported and propelled cars traveling in underground
evacuated tubes, able to cross the United States in one hour. It is
designed to interface with local transit systems, and the tunnel complex
also contains utility transmission and auxiliary freight-carrying systems.
Tunnels represent a major problem area and most of the cost. They will be
placed several hundred feet underground in solid rock formations. It will
require advanced tunnel-boring machines, such as hypersonic projectile
spallation, laser beam devices, and the "Subterrene" heated tungsten probe
that melts through igneous rocks. Planetran is rated as a system high in
conservation of energy. For every car being accelerated, there is one
decelerating in an adjoining tube. The decelerating cars return energy to
the system. The tubes have a reduced atmosphere, making drag losses much
smaller than for aircraft. Coast-to-coast energy costs are expected to be
less than $1.00 per passenger.*

https://rand.org/pubs/papers/P6092.html


geoff

On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 5:49 PM the keyboard of geoff goodfellow <
geoff at iconia.com> wrote:

> yours truly's fav:
>
> Pneumatic (tube) transportation ~1799
> William Murdoch
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 5:40 PM touch--- via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> > On Aug 16, 2025, at 5:15 PM, Dave Crocker via Internet-history <
>> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > the scope of my original query was meant to be about much closer -- and
>> possibly competitive or complementary -- milestones: automated, shared
>> (wide-area) digital communications.
>> >
>> > So, for example, telegraph signal/smoke fires, heliography and the like
>> play into the larger... picture.
>>
>> I included a history when I taught intro to networking.
>>
>> Couriers                        Spoken/written language (30,000 BC)
>> Pigeons                 2900 BC, Egypt
>> Beacons                 1200 BC, Troy
>> Calling posts           400 BC, Persia
>> Heliographs             400 BC, Greece
>> Flags                   400 BC, Greece
>> Hooke semaphore 1680s (shutters and symbols)
>> Chappe’s telegraph      1790s (arms) with time sync, collision
>> management, priority flow control, and error recovery
>> Edelcrantz              1790s (just shutters, inspired by Chappe)
>> Cooke/Wheatstone        1830s magnetic needles
>> Morse                   1830s electromagnetic relays
>> Morse                   1850s teleprinter (like a stock ticker)
>> Bell                            1870s phone
>> Marconi                 1890s RF
>> Tube amps               1900s
>> Transistor              1950s
>> Laser                   1950s
>> Satellite                       1960s
>>
>> As you note, the adjectives are the key, as with most superlatives.
>>
>> For "computer networking", I would say Sage is the first in the 1950s,
>> with SABRE (reportedly inspired by SAGE) and telephone switches (arguably
>> remote machine-machine) not far behind in the early 1960s, all AFAICT
>> predating ARPAnet.
>>
>> Joe
>>
>

-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True