The Precursor of the Mono=Rail.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 3, 2 January 1906, Page 60

The Precursor of the Mono =Rail.

It would seem that the railway of the near future is to be on the mono-rail principle, the advantages which such a system offers in point of speed and, perhaps, of safety being a subject now occupying the minds of our most advanced railway engineers. The underlying principle of the mono-rail was, in a somewhat crude form, discovered as far back as 1824 by a Mr H. R. Palmer Mr. Palmer's idea was described and commended by the Editor of the Register of the Atts and Sciences, Impiovements and Discoveries m the issue of that journal bearing the date Saturday, January 10, 1824. Mr. Palmer did not suggest steam as the motive power for his railway, his object being to make the fullest use possible of horse power for the traction of coal or other heavy merchandise across country, the question of quick passenger traffic being outside his scheme. The limited scope for which he designed his railway does not in the least detract fiom the credit due to Mr. Palmer for having been apparently the first man to conceive the mono-rail idea. — Magazine of Commerce.