23 Pneumatic Tube Systems
The second place winner in the recent VisionWorks competition, which sought new ideas and technologies to help create and sustain better living conditions, was an unusual proposal by Philipp Hermes that involves using track-mounted containers to ship objects, documents and goods around the city. Though the project, dubbed Urban Mole (pictured), sounds expensive, the beauty of the proposal is that the tracks would be installed in existing pipelines (sewers, utility ducts, whathaveyous), so there wouldn’t really be that much construction involved.
The benefits would include reduced truck traffic on the streets, and quicker deliveries from grocery stores, take-out restaurants, courier services and online stores. Though the project is still a fantasy, it got us fantasizing about the return of another high-tech lookin’ delivery system to which the Urban Mole bears striking resemblances: the pneumatic tube. Remember those? Well, if not, here are 23 Pneumatic Tube Systems.
Church Organ-Shaped Pneumatic Tubes
Copy Editors Receiving their Work via Pneumatic Tube
Disused Pneumatic Tube Station
A Factory Wired for Tubes
Elegant Arched Pneumatic Tube Tips
Pneumatic Tubes for the United States Postal Service
New York Pneumatic Tube Post Office
Pneumatic Tube at the Drive-In Bank
Pretty Pneumatic Tubes at the Credit Office
Chandelier-Shaped Pneumatic Tube Coffee Dispenser
Pneumatic Tubes Line Tunnel Walls
Pneumatic Tubes at the Office
Plastic Pneumatic Tubes
Photo Op at the Pneumatic Tubes
Pneumatic Tubes at a Swatch Store
Woman Operating Pneumatic Tubes
Picking the Right Pneumatic Tube
Pneumatic Tube Office Ad
Fantasy of Pneumatic Tubes as Public Transportation
Detailed Fantasy of Pneumatic Tubes as Public Transportation
Futurama’s Pneumatic Tube Public Transportation
Man Poses Hesitantly at Entrance of Pneumatic Tube Elevator
The Jetsons’ Pneumatic Tube Elevators
In Paris (France, not Texas) in the ’70s and ’80s, pneumatic tubes linked all post offices and assured same-day delivery of letters, allbeit rather bent from being rolled into the capsule that whooshed through the tube. An architecturally striking factory along the Seine in the 13th arrondissement (quai de la Gare & Bd. Massena) provided the compressed air throughout the city, and also serviced department stores. bises
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[...] Broadway between Murray and Warren Streets. Evidently, despite the cool, super-quick rides pneumatics promised, the idea never really caught on outside the world of sci-fi narratives like Futurama or [...]