The Atmospheric Railroad Anticipated
First Voice.
“But why drives on that ship so fast,
Without or wave or wind?”
Second Voice.
“The air is cut away before,
And closes from behind.”
—The Ancient Mariner.
This is the exact principle of the atmospheric railroad, and it is, perhaps, worthy of note as a curious fact that such a means of locomotion should have occurred to Coleridge so long ago.
W. Y. Bernhard Smith, in Notes and Queries.