

London's forgotten pneumatic messaging system - andyjohnson0
http://lapsedhistorian.com/get-blower-londons-forgotten-pneumatic-messaging-tubes/

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fennecfoxen
New York also used pneumatic tubes for the postal service, but they were
replaced with mail-trucks. My understanding is that the empty tubes themselves
have been repurposed to carry fiber-optics cables for trading firms and the
like.

Heck, the first New York City subway (the Beach Pneumatic Railway) (a) was
pneumatic (b) was an abuse of a permit to build a pneumatic tube under
Broadway.

There were also open-air pneumatic railways ("atmospheric railways") in a few
places, including in the UK -- they used a piston in a small tube to drive the
car from underneath, sort of like a cable car ... but they didn't have good
rubber, had to rely on leather seals that were plagued with inflexibility and
rat problems. Then they invented the electrical multiple-unit train... bo-
ring. :b

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arprocter
Roosevelt Island uses pneumatic tubes to collect trash because the streets are
too narrow for garbage trucks [0]

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_refuse_conveying_syst...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_refuse_conveying_system)

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maaku
I remember the Costco on in Santa Clara near the Alameda had pneumatic tubes
back in the 80's and 90's when I was growing up. Looking back I think they
were used for exchanging cash between registers, and submitting requests for
expensive items held in the back room. But as a kid, those tubes were a bit of
magic, even when I knew exactly how they worked. I used to think how great it
would be to have one big enough for people to ride in -- you could go to work
in near record time on a roller-coaster ride!

I think technology of that era had a certain appeal because it operated at
human-scale limits. We could _see_ the inner workings and comprehend the
ingenuity involved. Sadly as technology has advanced we no longer have that
basic, primal connection to the operation of the state of the art :( I wonder
if kids are able to get as excited about the inner workings of a fiber optic
cable as I was staring at those pneumatic tubes as a child...

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0172
Costco still uses it here in Canada or at least the ones I've been to.

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collyw
I am always amazed at how everything seems to be a reiteration of something
before. I thought that telephones were the first long distance communication
method. And then I saw a documentary about semaphore towers, and realized that
long distance communication has been going on far longer than I realized.

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rayiner
I think people generally underestimate how much technology existed in the late
19th and early 20th century. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid
in 1858. Hydroelectric power plants date to the 1880's. The commuter train I
used to take from Westchester to NYC was electrified in 1907.

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jacquesm
It goes a bit further back than the late 19th century:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_telegraph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_telegraph)

4th Century BC!

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darkmighty
This seems more close to optical communication
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-
width_modulation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation)), the
water is just used as a chronometer.

~~~
jacquesm
All serial communication depends on timing.

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nthcolumn
I used one of these in my first job (pdp11 sysadmin). I'd stick the report in
a canister, place it in the tube and it would whoosh away across the factory.
They are still used today by Tesco to take cash from the tills up to accounts.

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markbnj
As a boy in the 60's and 70's it was still pretty common to see these systems
in department stores for handling receipts. I always found them fascinating.
The cashier would open the slide and you'd hear the suction, then a solid
thunk as the container was sucked into the line. A few minutes later and you'd
actually hear the returning container whoosh down the line before it thudded
into the padded basket. The development of these systems strikes me as being
similar to the development of canals, in that they solved a significant
physical problem for a short time until much better technology (railroads,
telephones) emerged. Interesting article and thanks for posting it.

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aembleton
I remember these still being used in a supermarket in the early 90s here in
the UK.

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mapgrep
I still remember my mom using them at a "drive thru" at our bank in the early
1980s. Instead of a window you'd pull up to a tube station. Slips of papers
would go in and come out. I think she even did withdrawals this way. (No idea
how this was secure, given how far the observation window was from the
farthest tube stations. Maybe there were cameras.)

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VLM
Maybe its a state law thing, but we have these tubes today at local bank drive
thru and local walgreens pharmacy. They have cameras now of course.

I've always been interested in building a tube into my house for the pure heck
of it, because I can. Main problem is I believe PVC pressure rating for
compressed air is 0 psi, so there "seem" to be enhanced modern materials that
make the job easy, but things aren't as simple as they appear. Also its harder
than you'd think to go bidirectional. Unidirectional with simple one way flaps
and a timer hooked up to a valve (about a 5 minute arduino project) is pretty
simple. Bidirectional is not so simple.

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kurthr
Pneumatic tubes are still regularly used in large hospitals where rapid
delivery of medical samples is required. Multiple companies provide them.
[http://www.aerocomusa.com/](http://www.aerocomusa.com/)

Frankly, it's a bit scary knowing what hazardous biologicals goe into the
carriers... and how difficult it would be to clean if something went wrong.

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Animats
Cleaning up a spill in a pneumatic tube system isn't that hard: "This
procedure consists of sending a carrier containing a clean-out kit from
station to station until all affected segments of the system have been
traversed. As this carrier travels through the tubing, the clean-out bottle
dispenses the cleaning solution while the carrier rubbing bands act as
swabs."[1]

[1]
[http://www.swisslog.com/-/media/Swisslog/Documents/HCS/Trans...](http://www.swisslog.com/-/media/Swisslog/Documents/HCS/TransLogic_Pneumatic_Tube_System/Related_Information/PTS_400_Infection_Control_White_Paper.pdf)

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gumby
I sent a letter to myself (from my home to the office) using the Paris
pleumatique when I realized that it would probably not survive for long. It
stuck around for another couple of years after that, but I was glad I did it.
It was of course an anachronistic relic by the 1980s but using it made me feel
like a time traveler.

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crazygringo
For years I've dreamed about if New York had a pneumatic tube system working.
Forget about transmitting data/documents -- use it to replace small
deliveries!

For Chinese takeout or some tacos, for a book delivered from Barnes & Noble,
for some lemons from the supermarket when you realize you've run out, for a
bottle of shampoo from the corner pharmacy. Heck, try on different sizes of
shirts and sneakers and jeans from different stores, and pack them back in the
tube when they don't fit. Use it for mail too. Individual tubes that run
straight into each apartment.

The convenience would be incredible. And now that we have software to
intelligently and automatically route all the canisters, I often wonder why
you never see it proposed more often.

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devicenull
The last mile costs are significant even for running some wire to every house.
Can you imagine what they'd be to run a multiple inch tube?

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csentropy
For an interesting read on how telegraph and pneumatic technologies evolved :
search for the book "The victorian internet".

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NietTim
Does anybody have a mirror? The page doesn't load for me.

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wongarsu
Here you go:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20150304165118/http://lapsedhisto...](http://web.archive.org/web/20150304165118/http://lapsedhistorian.com/get-
blower-londons-forgotten-pneumatic-messaging-tubes/)

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wahsd
Is this were we make Ted Stevens jokes?

