

Prediction 1957: Pneumatic Tube Roadways - samsnelling
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/future-that-never-was-pneumatic-tube-roadways#slide-38

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Scaevolus
The proposed Hyperloop's operation is quite different from a pneumatic tube,
which forces objects through with air pressure. The design document explicitly
describes the limitations of pneumatic tubes:

"At one extreme of the potential solutions is some enlarged version of the old
pneumatic tubes used to send mail and packages within and between buildings.
You could, in principle, use very powerful fans to push air at high speed
through a tube and propel people-sized pods all the way from LA to San
Francisco. However, the friction of a 350 mile long column of air moving at
anywhere near sonic velocity against the inside of the tube is so stupendously
high that this is impossible for all practical purposes."

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Joe-Z
Even if it's not the same as the hyperloop I still find it very interesting to
see that similar ideas have already appeared in the 1950's and obviously not
been executed.

I saw this talk a while back by Peter Thiel ("You're not a lottery ticket")*
where he specifically mentions the decline of big infrastructure projects,
beginning around the 50's-60's. (I don't know how true this claim is though,
since I haven't really studied the development of infrastructure in the USA in
the 2nd half of the 20th century).

I often wonder if Elon Musk could be more than just a guy making money off of
awesome ideas but also a catalyzer for bigger societal changes as far as
optimism in big infrastructure and future investments is concerned.

*[http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/29931127?utm_campaign=t.co&ut...](http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/29931127?utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=29931127&utm_medium=social)

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Tloewald
We probably had to pick between big infrastructure projects that benefited
ordinary people (e.g. bridge maintenance, universal health care) and big
infrastructure projects for the military industrial complex (e.g. a
bewildering variety of fortified / mobile / densely packed / widely spaced
ICBM launchers, enormous early warning systems, fleets of bombers capable of
flying high or low, fast or slow around the world and back with multiple
thermonuclear weapons, enough aircraft carriers to control the world's oceans
and rotate for maintenance and shore leave, an even larger number of nuclear
submarines to launch ICBMs, hunt rival submarines, perform covert
intelligence-gathering missions in "enemy" waters, and protect the
aforementioned aircraft carriers, SDI, etc.).

You can only spend more money on the military than the rest of the world
combined and undertake so many other projects.

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thufry
Predictions of technology from long ago just aren't interesting, since it's
trivial to fantasize about technologies without having to think about
implementation.

I can predict today of future flying cars, teleporters, mind-controlled
interfaces, Turing-test AIs, electrically powered autonomous airplanes, giant
tubes that go through the center of the Earth and take me directly to China, a
massive spaceship that takes all of Earth's 20 billion people to a new galaxy
in the year 2380, etc. etc.

Doesn't mean that I know anything.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
We are scheduled to have flying cars by 2015 according to "Back to The Future
Part 2." I'm sure the car companies will announce something in the next year
to get us ready for it. I would just be happy with a hover board.

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sambeau
The Victorians had pneumatic railways powered by power stations generating a
vacuum. If it wasn't for the perishability of leather we might still be using
them:

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

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kps
The original 1957 article referred to is available beginning at [1], with the
drawing on the following page; the specific paragraph about pneumatic tubes is
on p206 [2].

And two paragraphs later:

    
    
      Contents of the world's greatest libraries and schools will be
      available to anyone over special television services. From an
      armchair, it will be possible to call for any information by
      coded request.
    

[1]
[http://books.google.com/books?id=JuEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA100](http://books.google.com/books?id=JuEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA100)
[2]
[http://books.google.com/books?id=JuEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA260](http://books.google.com/books?id=JuEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA260)

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dhughes
I'm guessing the department store vacuum tube systems used to send items to
different areas of the store was the inspiration for this.

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freshyill
New York had it in 1873. Well, they _tried_ to have it.

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

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mtowle
What do you call predictions whose sum is not predictive?

~~~
azernik
Speculation.

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6ren
Hyperloop simulates stratospheric flight.

But its electric jet engine doesn't propel, but prevents syringe-like air
build-up.

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_ZeD_
should I mention futurama?

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eplanit
With all due respect to Elon Musk (and he deserves a lot of respect) and
acknowledging the truly positive and altruistic motivations (those I assume)
-- his idea is good, but not new. It's fine with me if he has resurrected the
notion of a "pneumatic" vehicle. Perhaps it's simply a fact that now is
finally the time to do this.

~~~
marshray
Musk's design is neither a pneumatic, nor a vacuum tube system. It's more like
an enclosed high altitude system.

~~~
jlgreco
Sort of a Concorde-railgun, if you will...

