† port-electricadj.
U.S. Obsolete.
Designating or relating to a dispatch system for parcels, etc., incorporating a series of coils through which electricity is passed in turn, generating in each a magnetic field which draws a wheeled cylinder through the coils.
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port-electric1889
1889 Trenton (New Jersey) Times 17 May 1/2 Gen. John M. Corse, postmaster of Boston, has been elected president of the New England Port-Electric company, which proposes to transport mail packages along elevated wires by means of magnetic attraction.
1890 Globe 14 Nov. 3/1 The Portelectric car is an air cylinder 10 inches in diameter, 12 feet long, and 350lb. in weight. It runs on two wheels, one above, the other below, along an elevated railroad which supports the..hollow coils.
1891 Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate 24 Dec. The object is claimed to be accomplished by the port electric system of mail transportation.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1889