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The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

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Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#91

Post by sandworm101 »

pests wrote: post #46
corytheboyd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad to hear the dream of the nineties is alive in the midwest:D

Oh its here. Metro Detroit. It gets cold. The thought of banks not having pneumatic tubes is so strange to me I'm chuckling here. Seeing you reminisce about something that I see almost daily is a weird culture shock in that people in our same country experience life is somehow completely opposite ways. It's like if someome told me there a secret Blockbuster still serving some quiet neighborhood in the country and for…

>> Oh its here. Metro Detroit. It gets cold.

Lol. Detroit doesnt get cold. My local bank closed its ATMs after hours due to homeless people sleeping in the vestibule. Strangely, with real winter comming soon they are going to re-open the vestibules to provide emergency shelter to all people maybe caught out in the cold. It hits -30 and -40 regularly around here. Drive thoughs are a norm because at those temps nobody wants to turn their car off. People regularly leave cars/trucks running while they shop in stores, if the parking lot doesnt have plugs for block heaters.

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#92

Post by sandworm101 »

bombcar wrote: post #57
boneitis wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seeing you reminisce about something that I see almost daily is a weird culture shock How about: i legitimately thought that the pneumatic tube system i saw in Futurama where Hermes saves the day was a made up thing (or otherwise not commercially used or deployed outside of some sort of lab setting) until i came across this submission? I feel so silly right now.

Costco used to use them in the stores to send money to the main cashier, Home Depot might have had them too. Or you can get food! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTHZLKFblKo

Yes, back when it was actually costco. Everything changed after the merger. I dont think i saw any pneumatics afterwards.

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#93

Post by farnerup »

pests wrote: post #46
corytheboyd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad to hear the dream of the nineties is alive in the midwest:D

Oh its here. Metro Detroit. It gets cold. The thought of banks not having pneumatic tubes is so strange to me I'm chuckling here. Seeing you reminisce about something that I see almost daily is a weird culture shock in that people in our same country experience life is somehow completely opposite ways. It's like if someome told me there a secret Blockbuster still serving some quiet neighborhood in the country and for…

Bank offices and cash is something I only see in old movies nowadays.

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#95

Post by tonyedgecombe »

UK Supermarkets used to send cash from the tills to a back office using a system like this[1].

At some point a thief decided it would be a good idea to intercept some of this cash: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1554632/Thief-stole-...

These systems disappeared as we shifted away from cash.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamson_Engineering_Company_Ltd

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#96

Post by dheerajvs »

Coincidentally today I was daydreaming about such a system being built alongside the metro rail corridors of my city. Doesn't have to be pneumatic if built today, but such an automated system would certainly help move packages at an unimaginable speed within a congested city.

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#97

Post by chiph »

corytheboyd wrote: post #9

Watching my parents go through the drive in bank teller using pneumatic tubes to send items back and forth is such a fun cool memory I have from my childhood. In a funny way, it still feels way more “sci-fi future tech” than pressing a touch screen and wait 4 seconds for a change to happen… or not.

I did some contracting at a bank and an employee told me about a problem they had with their pneumatic tubes: A customer had taken the carrier with them when they drove off, so the teller put their spare into the tube and continued working. A short while later the customer realized they had absconded with the carrier and returned to the drive-thru and put it back into the tube. The next customer put their deposit in the carrier and sent it off - the teller received it and said "Sir, there's nothing in here." and held up the empty carrier to the window to show them. And sent it back. The customer took the carrier out, held it up to show his documents in it, and sent it back into the bank .. only to arrive empty again. They eventually figured out there were two carriers in the tube.

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#98

Post by chiph »

nologic01 wrote: post #88
htrp wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Brazil is for today's digital dystopia Can you elaborate there?

Spoiler alert: the "algorithm" malfunctions due to a real bug.

Also spoiler - there are no terrorists. It's the incompetence of Central Services that is causing things to explode.

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#99

Post by ybc37 »

I recently learned that Hamburg had a big tube system ("Großrohrpost"). The tube diameter was 45cm and the length of the wagons was 1,60m.

Some information in the German Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohrpost_in_Hamburg#Gro%C3%9Fr...

Recent article (paywalled) on German news site: https://www.zeit.de/2023/37/grossrohrpost-hamburg-kommunikat...

Re: The pneumatic tube mail system in New York City

#100

Post by ghaff »

TheFreim wrote: post #54
corytheboyd wrote: post #9

Watching my parents go through the drive in bank teller using pneumatic tubes to send items back and forth is such a fun cool memory I have from my childhood. In a funny way, it still feels way more “sci-fi future tech” than pressing a touch screen and wait 4 seconds for a change to happen… or not.

They still use those here. My local bank had candies, like tootsie rolls, that they'd send with withdrawals if parents let them know they had kids in the car. It was always such a treat to watch the cool pneumatic tube and then get a sugary treat to top it all off.

I think my local bank branch still has a drive through and (I assume) pneumatic tubes although I've never used it. But then I think I've used the ATM once in maybe the past three or four years.
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