Early "streamline" inventions - Joe V. Meigs - Meigs Elevated Railway

Joseph "Joe" V. Meigs of Lowell, Massachusetts submitted an application in 1884 to patent a steam-powered, "post-supported" elevated monorail train intended for rapid transit use in Boston. Materials include: U.S. Patent Office report. Joe V. Meigs. "Railway" drawings and specifications (18 p., 1885); "General (George) Stark's Report, Meigs Elevated Railway, Eighteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners." (1887); "A Condensed Review of Rapid Transit and the Meigs Elevated Railway, Prepared For The Legislature of 1888" by the Meigs Co. (1888); "Rapid Transit Made Plain; Interrogations propounded by a Member of the Legislature to Capt. Joe V. Meigs, And By Him Answered." Testimony with drawings (1894); prospectus titled "Complements of Meigs Elevated Railway Construction Co...." Inside, "An Account of Progress." (1886); "Memorandum of the visit to Boston of the Committee on Railroads... of the City of Philadelphia.... to inspect... the Meigs [Railway]." (1887); printed report by H. Haupt, Consulting Engineer. On back: Printed request by Meigs for information on legality of his design and Judge Thomas Russell's reply (1883); copy photographs of the Meigs railway and demonstration site in East Cambridge, Mass.; clippings, ordinances from 1880s newspapers (from a scrapbook once owned by Meigs).