His father was a publisher and Alfred would follow in his footsteps early in his adult life. By 1946 Alfred Ely Beach and Orson Munn I entered into a business relationship. Another fellow science enthusiast had started a newsletter which reported on the emerging scientific trends of the day. The US patent office was the greatest source of information for the Scientific American newsletter. Munn and Company ( Beach) took over the newsletter and worked it into a magazine. The magazine was continued by their children and continues to be published to this day.

 

Alfred Ely Beach was inventive and he and Munn also started a patent company. Beach registered some of his own inventions through this company. He is credited with innovating on a typewriter whereby the blind could type, as well as with other inventions.

 

His most publicized invention was the Pneumatic Transit System which came to life beneath the streets of New York in the 1870's but the project was not totally realized and the subway system took a back seat to the elevated train system.