New and improved retrotech

Filed under: Newsworthy — olivander March 5, 2009 @ 5:06 pm

Here’s a headline you don’t see everyday:

Pneumatic tube system upgrade planned for Saint Marys Hospital

This summer, the 4-inch black pneumatic tube system at Saint Marys Hospital will be upgraded to provide faster, more reliable service. To perform this upgrade, the tube system will be taken out of service for approximately four months. The red pneumatic tube system, 4-inch by 7-inch pneumatic tube system and Electronic Track Vehicle (ETV) will be unaffected.

The new black pneumatic tube system will include three hubs that provide greater capacity and expedite deliveries. All 128 tube stations and 60 transfer locations will be retained, but upgraded.

How many places can you think of that are expanding their pneumatic tube system?

6 Comments »

  1. 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.

    Comment by mpclemens — March 5, 2009 @ 5:51 pm

  2. 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.

    Comment by Mike.Speegle — March 6, 2009 @ 10:50 am

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

    [ducks]

    Comment by olivander — March 6, 2009 @ 10:58 am

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

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

    Comment by Strikethru — March 6, 2009 @ 2:57 pm

  5. 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.

    Comment by olivander — March 6, 2009 @ 3:17 pm

  6. 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.

    Comment by duffymoon — March 8, 2009 @ 5:04 pm

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