author
Boynton Bicycle Railway Company
A late-19th-century company book turned a bold transit experiment into a sales pitch for the future. Its pages champion a lightweight monorail-style railway system meant to be faster, cheaper, and more efficient than conventional trains.
1 Audiobook
Boynton bicycle railway system
by Boynton Bicycle Railway Company
About the author
Boynton Bicycle Railway Company was the corporate author behind Boynton bicycle railway system, published in the United States in 1896. Rather than a personal memoir or literary work, the book reads as a concise promotional and technical presentation of the company's patented railway ideas.
The company was tied to the Boynton Bicycle Railroad, an unusual monorail venture in Brooklyn based on the invention of Eben Moody Boynton. The system used a single running rail with an overhead stabilizing guide, and contemporary descriptions emphasized reduced weight, lower friction, and the possibility of high speed.
That background helps explain the tone of the book: it is best understood as an artifact of Gilded Age engineering optimism. For listeners and readers today, it offers a fascinating glimpse of how inventors and companies once tried to sell the future of transportation in the language of efficiency, innovation, and practical advantage.