this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 24 points 6 months ago

Ahhh reminds me of my youth.

Tried to build these in our garage with PVC pipe, a blowtorch (to heat and bend tubes), and a shop vac.

Went about as well as you can imagine, but still had a blast.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Pneumatic tubes were used to move mail in New York City, London, Germany, and Washington, D.C., and even transport food, cats, and yes, people.

I'll take bad ideas for 1000.

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There was a huge network of pneumatic tubes under Paris used by the postal services between 1866 and 1980.

With that you could send a letter to any address in the city that would arrive in less than 2 hours.

https://youtu.be/Ns5SKH-ooy0

[–] cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

Cool video 👍

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 8 points 5 months ago

A series of tubes, you say?

I used to haunt surplus yards as a high schooler in the 1980’s. There were a lot of pneumatic tube components to be found as the world was switching to electronic networking. Pumps, boxes of o-ring seals, tubes and junction fittings.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wish there were more of these still

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, they're pretty much only in bank drive-up windows and maybe some office buildings. It really is a shame because they're so cool.

[–] MrShankles@reddthat.com 4 points 5 months ago

A lot of hospitals have them too

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The elevator tubes on the Jetson's were probably based on these.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wow, I never made that connection

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Futurama too, I would assume - even if only indirectly via the Jetsons.

[–] spyd3r@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

Ted Stevens version of the Internet.