Comments on: New and improved retrotech

By: duffymoon

duffymoon — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:04:15 +0000

I was briefly working on a steam-punkish story where pneumatic tubes and manual typewiters meged in some hybrid device that was sort of a mechanical e-mail. The entire cylindrical carriage of the typewriter would slide off, travel through the tubes, and, when it re-emerged on whatever floor it was headed for, would sort of slide into the empty carriage-place of the receiving machine, waiting there for a response to be typed.

I love the tube system at the hospital where I moonlight weekends. It’s fun to send a tube to your own station; it’s amazing how far it has to travel to get back to you.

By: olivander

olivander — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:17:18 +0000

Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUwDJsY7GWk

Consider it today’s companion piece to Mike’s Sending your camera around the sushi conveyor post.

By: Strikethru

Strikethru — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:57:00 +0000

Someone always beats me to the ’series of tubes’ joke.

I want to see a Youtube video OF a pneumatic tube in action.

By: olivander

olivander — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:58:01 +0000

Or write a story about a shoe salesman in a Brazil-like future who uses pneumatic tubes to ship soles.

[ducks]

By: Mike.Speegle

Mike.Speegle — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:50:53 +0000

Just like the internet! A series of tubes!

Oh, and pneumatic tubes are the way of the future. Haven’t you ever watched Futurama?

Mike: Pneumatic tubes that ship souls. Holy crap. If you don’t write that one I will.

By: mpclemens

mpclemens — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:51:04 +0000

Pneumatic tubes suck.

Heh. Heh. Heh heh. Heh heh heh.

Our Costco has them at every register station to shlup receipts? checks? souls? back to the safe. I secretly covet it.