

Pneumatic tube network at Stanford - gnosis
http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2010/january/tubes-0111.html

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carbocation
As the article says, every hospital has these. Without them, I have no idea
how we would ever get medications to inpatient floors in a timely fashion.

The tubes are also quite "smart"; all products (including blood products) are
barcoded and scanned prior to being put into the tubes for routing to the
appropriate destination.

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mbubb
I love these systems.

The main branch of the New York Public Library had (still has?) a nice shiny
brass system in the research room. You filled out a request on a little card
and the librarian would put it into a metal canister and send it down to the
stacks. I last used this in 1993 or so when I was a grad student in a
literature department.

Then you would go to the big reading room and wait for your number to comeup
on the big board. Some wonderful books there ( I remember getting a version of
Vincente Huidobro's Altazor that looked like it had a dedication from the
author.) And a beautiful old building to sit and read in.

The pnuematic tubes added a nice 'steampunk' feel to the experience (although
that word didn't exist yet). I would have been reading William Gibson at the
time I am sure though. I know that I read the "Difference Engine" about this
time.

It is so remarkable how these systems still exist in the 'older' modernist
cities. I say older in reference to NYC because of the fact that it hasn't
gone through a war so the intfrastructure is quite a bit older than the larger
European or Asian cities. It is different in other cities. When I was in Seoul
I would frequently visit a market that was near one of the old city gates. A
freestanding market a few thousand years old. That's old - there is nothing in
NYC that can touch that. The old stuff in NYC is a few hundred years old at
most.

In NYC, the subway is still switched by hand at some places. There is a steam
heating system under the streets that, on cold days like this billows up and
forms impromptu clouds. And the brass pnuematic tubing at the NYPL.

These systems - especially the older bridges, streets and the subways - are
crumbling. And in some ways the "must have exposed brick in our apartment"
nostalgia for an older verdegris patina-ed existence is a false desire for
something that never ways.

But you can't help but marvel when crossing something like the Pulaski Skyway
in New Jersey (think the Soprano's opening shots) or taking the subway under
one of the river tunnels or walking up over the Brooklyn Bridge - that so much
was possible with relatively little.

An idea that was beautifully expressed in some of the writing around the
recent open-sourcing of the Apollo Lunar Module code from the first moon
landing.

[http://atlasobscura.com/places/pneumatic-system-new-york-
pub...](http://atlasobscura.com/places/pneumatic-system-new-york-public-
library)

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thomasfl
If these things we're built into new apartments, people would use less cars if
groceries could be sendt by tube. Groceries could even be sendt without
packaging. Catering could become cheaper and better.

~~~
slapshot
While that would be an awesome Jetsons future, this doesn't seem like the kind
of system that would well for long-distances, amateurs, heavy items, or
fragile foods (would you like your 6-pack of beer shaken or shaken?). It's
like the tunnels under Chicago that were supposed to revolutionize delivery,
but didn't. (Tunnels: <http://users.ameritech.net/chicagotunnel/tunnel1.html>
)

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kiba
I once imagine a tubes network for delivering beverages from the fridge that's
located in an outside unit on the property.

Also, a serviceman come by every once and a while to fill up the fridge when
it get empty. Of course, security measures are there to prevent unauthorized
people from filling the fridge with poisonous beverages or stealing them. The
transaction are then already billed somewhere on the internet.

All the programmer have to do is press a button or order from a fridge...and
viola! A nice cold beverage is delivered via pneumatic tubes to his desk.

With a little bit of programming, you could have it deliver beverages at
regular interval.

Ultimate convenience!

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bradgessler
Amazon needs to invest in more tube infrastructure.

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slapshot
Quite the impressive series of tubes.

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talleyrand
Tubes are cool.

