1840 – 1907
- 1840 Joe Vincent Meigs born in Nashville, Tennessee
- patented a breech loading firearm
- patented a metal cartridge with an improved firing chamber
- 1869 appointed Meigs agent of the U.S. Cartridge Company
- invented a single-rail elevated railway system
About Joe Meigs
Joe V. Meigs, often recorded as Josiah Vincent Meigs, was a 19th-century American inventor born into a professional family in Nashville, Tennessee. During the Civil War he served as a captain in the Union Army and personally asked President Lincoln for permission to raise a battery of Black artillerymen, reportedly the first unit of its kind in the war. For firearms historians he is remembered for the Meigs rifle, a breech-loading design, and several other firearms patents from the era when metallic cartridges and breechloaders were replacing muzzleloaders.
Meigs is best known today for a bold transit idea, the Meigs Elevated Railway, a single-rail steam-powered system he patented in 1875 and revised in 1885. Massachusetts chartered his company in 1884, and a 227-foot demonstration section opened to paying riders on Bridge Street in East Cambridge in June 1886. A fire, suspected to be arson, destroyed the car shed and experimental coach on February 4, 1887. The line made its last trial trip in April 1893 and was dismantled in 1894, and Meigs sold the Boston franchise in 1896 after failing to raise funds, in part because he refused to switch to electric power. He died at his home in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1907.
Key Facts
- 1875: Meigs patents his elevated rapid transit system
- 1884: Massachusetts charters the Meigs Elevated Railway company
- June 1886: 227-foot demonstration line opens in East Cambridge
- February 4, 1887: Fire destroys the car shed and experimental coach
- 1894: Experimental line dismantled
- 1907: Meigs dies in Charlestown, Massachusetts
Sources
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