Pneumatic Tubes: Transportation of the Past... And Future?
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- čas přidán 11. 07. 2024
- Wouldn’t it be nice if our transportation was as sleek as in The Jetsons or Futurama? Flying cars are cool, but what about a giant network of human-sized tubes that run through buildings and across entire cities? Well guess what? The future may not be as far away as you think!
Hosted by: Michael Aranda
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Sources:
www.theatlantic.com/technology...
www.theatlantic.com/technology...
io9.gizmodo.com/5822028/a-brie...
www.explainthatstuff.com/pneum...
www.techinsider.io/science-elo...
www.et3.com/
lapsedhistorian.com/get-blower...
Video of Pneumatic Tube in action: • Pneumatic Tubes I Scie...
Traveling in a Pneumatic Tube would totally suck.
SMH
NMH
oh, but monster documentation is super chill? smh.
+Master Therion Or would it totally blow? :-)
~Trav
+Master Therion contact the media; we've got a clown.
my uncle used to be a police officer, he had to sit at the station and do paperwork all day, and he had a gerbil that he "borrowed" from his co worker's cage, and when he got a message in the tube system wanting his gerbil back, my uncle put the gerbil and a note in the tube and sent him back, the gerbil arrived a little dazed and happy to be back with his owner, people called him Rocket
The internet isnt a truck that you put something in!!
its... ITS A SERIES OF TUBES!!!!
Yo when u gonna finish animating that top quality Yiff you're working on
we use pneumatic tubes to transport pretty large volumes of material every time we clean our cars and carpets.
What seems missing here is why those early inventors wanted to send cars through tubes using air pressure. The only alternatives were cables, not yet in use for public transport, but used in mining operations and other industrial funicular mechanisms. The London Underground railways used steam engines and were very smoky, which the pneumatic tubes avoided. That smoke was reason for London's underground railways to not be copied in other cities for decades. Electric motors for trains were not yet perfected either. Air pumps for mining were, however, so that means of employment of a stationary above ground steam engine seemed the way to go. Cable car railways first in San Francisco and then copied in dozens of cities we've forgotten ever had them, were just a few years off, derived, again, from mining practices and some versions of elevators. The electric street railway development would be some 18 years away from practical commercial success. That made the underground railways a much more civilized means of transport.
None of these old pneumatic tube technologies was even close to what the Hyperloop proposal envisions, as they all still need atmospheric pressure coming in behind the vehicle for propulsion, and have a very light vacuum ahead. Air molecular drag on the tube's inside surface is a problem even the Hyperloop will have to deal with, though to a very much lesser extent as it is such a very low pressure tube. The key to that system is found in its analogy to very high altitude flight, another regime where air breathing engines tend to fail us, and electric means of propulsion begin to look better so long as there is some air at low density to work with for some of its functions.
For Hyperloop, having some air still left in the tube means not having to maintain a very high vacuum at great expense of energy cost and originally was considered useable for suspension of the car with air bearings, as that residual air did have to be diverted in some way around it. I feel that eventually a combination of air bearing (somewhat like the way that magnetic heads in disk drives "fly" and magnetic levitation control loops will emerge as the way those vehicles will be supported. There will always be a layer of attached air molecules however thin, near that tube wall and making use of it seems necessary and desireable.
There were trains that had a piston going into a tube on the track. The tube had a slit on the top so it could fit the armature for the piston. The tube was then drained from air and the partial vacuum pulled the train forward. The slit in the pipe was sealed with leather and had to be oiled from time to time but random critters chewed it up. It was also impossible to make intersections with this system.
Ohhhhh no, I know what happens with this. First you rally the people to overthrow city hall with your rockin' tunes, then you install the pneumatic tubes, NEXT THING YA KNOW YOU'RE MUTUALLY POISONING EACH OTHER'S WINE AND WE'RE LEFT WITHOUT KINGS! I'VE HEARD THIS SONG BEFORE!
what?
WHY ARE YOU NOT YELLING LOUDER!!!!!!
+Nhoj Sivad YELLING IS FUN. DON'T QUESTION IT. YOU SHOULD TRY IT.
I AM YELLING AT THE BASTARDS OF CITY HALL!!!!!
I love how this series keeps on saying, "Well. . . maybe"
We use pneumatic tubes to transport salmon up dams.
Look up the Salmon Cannon it's beautiful.
Pneumatic tubes were my favorite thing about going through the bank drive through as a kid! :D
whys that building at the beginning say "obey" on the too
top
+Ro Bc Watch 'they live'
The building at 0:53?
+Mattson McCraw 0:11
+Ro Bc You are indeed perceptive. Too perceptive.
Dangerously perceptive.
But nobody will notice you disappear.
My parents installed a pneumatic elevator in their home. It only goes between two floors, but it works the same way as the old mail tubes do. You stand in an air-tight capsule. A fan sucks all the air out the top of the elevator, causing the air underneath the capsule to push it up. When you want to go down, vents open and gravity does all the work. The only downsides it has in my opinion are its size (it only holds one person comfortably, two people if they don't mind being cozy) and how loud the fans are when it's going up. You can't have a conversation when it's in use.
I worked in a large hospital in the '60's and sent we medical records throughout by the pneumatic tubes.
lol at that 'obey' sign
where
+The Mighty Punion Thumbnail or at 0:11
+x.iso Big brother is watching.
+jinhong91 Doubleunplusgood
One of the highlights of joining my mother on shopping trips to Montgomery Fair in downtown Montgomery in the 1950's was watching the sales clerks use pneumatic tubes to send and receive payment and receipts. I don't know if other cities had department stores that also used them. Thanks for the memory.
So you were there in the 50s?
Canada Owns Yes. We had been there in 1951 and moved back in January 1954. We left in May 1961 when [coincidentally] Montgomery was still under martial law.
+Zeyev Granddad? what are you doing here?
Dick Hunter One should never be too old to learn and I doubt I'm the oldest subscriber to this channel. BTW, I'm not a grandfather but thanks for thinking that. :-)
Futurama style or bust!
Hyperloop would be cool to.
The video was pretty much this: "Pneumatic Tubes!!! YAY!!!" for the whole thing then right at the end, "But we're just gonna use magnetic and electric engines" Lol.
in the UK many supermarkets have them to transport excess cash from the tills to a secure safe in the cash office for counting later. it's largely a more secure system as many people don't know about it and the tubes are hidden but there was one incident I read about where someone had knowledge of the systems would go into the disabled toilets remove the ceiling panels and lift themselves into the space above. they would then disconnect the pipes, catch the containers, release the money before sending the containers back down the system. if anyone checked the toilet they were empty and if anyone looked in the receiving area they would see a nice pile of containers bit it wasn't until the person left with visibly bulging trousers that they were able to catch them.
Those pneumatic tubes really do look exactly like the ones we use to transport samples at the hospital where I work, but the stations we have are a lot fancier =p
Cool vid Michael - They still use these in Kmart here in Australia for money collection from the till to the back office. It looked like magic when I was a kid.
This is what me and my friends call a Brain Bang: I literally just 1 hour before this was posted watched the season 2 finale of LOST and they used pneumatic tubes to transfer notebooks from the Pearl Station to a landfill as part of the psychological experiment to test and see if the subjects would watch and document on everything the people in the Swan Station did.
it's all just pipe-dream !
Brunel built an atmospheric railway before the earliest example you mentioned in the county of Devon in England.
It didn't last long but when it did work it was said to be both smooth and near silent.
You forgot to talk about pneumatic elevators. They exist and can be bought brand new.
without the car I can picture someone getting poop streaks on the walls or someone getting stuck in the tube. I never appealed to the idea
Hank Green I love this scishow here on youtube . Your show is one of the best and most educational stuff ive seen . But I also want to say I love your bother's ( John Green) work. Both of you the most intelligent people I admire. I love your science show because I am a huge science fan .and your brother for making by far the best books I have ever read . Both of you my most favorite people I have to admire. Thank you for making these videos. And also Thank your brother for making the best books I have ever read!!!
Yay Sci-Show time! :D
fucking "maybe" was the answer to the question? wow. my mind is bursting with knowledge that MIGHT come to fruition. what a time to be alive.
This is going straight down the memory tube ... Get back to work Winston!
+Pharozos
1984 joke.... nice.
***** Off to room 101 you say ... What could be so bad about that?
See, I would've thought the cheaper alternative (to building the horribly complicated tube networks) would be to have more of an operator system. Every desk/office has an send tube and a receive tube. You put your message in a canister, with the recipient's name on it somewhere, most likely a slip of paper in the canister, facing out. You hit send, and the canister goes off to a central receiving area, where a person takes the canister and puts it in the tube for the recipient, and off it goes. One set of tubes (in/out) per office, and far fewer points of failure. Still faster than a runner.
I'm sure we were ALL thinking of Futurama.
I was thinking of Portal 2.
+Nulono how
HOW COME I SOMETIMES SHIVER WHEN IM DONE PEEING?
Ebola
+Maytriks bc the warmth in your body (pee) is suddenly leaving
3X0SK3L3TON - You're an idiot,
They already did a video on that. Use the search bar.
It's your soul leaving your body
The bank my parents used when I was little had a pneumatic tube. I was always fascinated with it.
In the 1940's through 50's, many department stores did not have cash registers at check-out counters. You handwritten invoice and cash were sent by tube to a separate room, office, floor or building, where the math was checked, your copy of the receipt was marked paid and your correct change was returned by tube. All in just enough time to give the salesperson time to properly package your purchase and exchange pleasantries.
A train that works like that would be even better lol
They have one at the Co-Op in Beamish Museum. Actually, it might not be pneumatic, but it's similar. Little spherical cases that go along tubes/rails to different parts of the shop via a 'switchboard' room.
I grew up with the american tail movies, 3 and 4 had these tubes and the Beach subway tunnel as an abandoned place
Pneumatic tubes, just like Portal!
I'm working on a draft of a novel. It has an alternate time line, and the protagonist helped implement a pneumatic train system that replaced domestic air travel in Europe, the US and parts of Asia. Wrote that section less than two week ago. So funny to find this in my feed now.
"Get the scientist working on the tube technology, Immediately" - Jack Black
Surprised and disappointed that vacuum trash collection systems weren't included. Especially since they are still in use most notably Roosevelt Island in NY
Please Sci-Show, do one or two on Vertical farming and/or the desertec-project...they have so much potential...
I immediately thought of the "Sebben & Sebben Employee Orientation" video.
The Hyperloop combines the idea of pneumatic tubes with free construction labor, right of way over land, and operation. His "quote" for the SF to LA system barely covers the cost of steel to make almost 400 miles of elevated tube.
could you please elaborate? I'm intrigued
That "maybe" came with the face and tone of it leaning towards the properly not.
+Malcolm Pagett *For Scientists*
Yes = Maybe
Maybe = Probably Not
No = ABSOLUTELY NO
one of the restaurants near my old school used to use this technology to send orders from the bar to the kitchen and it was so cool and the tube ran alonmg the ceiling and you could see the orders whoosh along
I didn't realize that wallpaper I looked at in Subway stores when I was a kid would actually be so historical and cool.
Hey Michael, nice shirt!
But why is there lint in my bellybutton?
+Moonbeam Sorry moonbeam, you're not getting an episode devoted to you. That was a one time thing.
Bionicle incorporated the idea of a metropolis-spanning chute network into its story in 2004. There, the chutes weren't pneumatic, but instead were composed of some unknown fluid that was kept flowing by pumping stations. They were mostly used for high speed cargo transit, but some beings rode in them as well.
Is a fluid filled chute system like that more feasible than a pneumatic one?
+Nathaniel Little You are describing a hydraulic system. Fluids (hydraulic), as opposed to gases (pneumatic), are incompressible and require some more complex machinery to make it work, plus filling tubes with liquid is more expensive.
They would need to have massive reservoirs of the fluid in order to help keep the system pressurized. Also if there was a leak in the car you were riding in you would probably drown or be crushed by the pressure before rescue could reach you. They would have to pump out vast quantities of liquid to reach a broken car. With air all that needs to be done is open up a vent, stop the car and let in enough air to last until help could arrive through an emergency tunnel.
"Well, not yet"
Don't do that, Don't give me hope.
I think the best piece of media that depicts travel tubes the best is the game Satisfactory. Each tube has an entrance at each end consisting of a bladeless fan. Since it's a game it all just works but if i had to imagine how it would work IRL it'd be something like this
You'd step onto a scale to tell the computer system your mass so it can adjust the airflow for your BMI. Then you step forward and get sucked into the tube and the computer begins tracking your progress through the tube using radio relays in each tube support. When you get close to the exit the fan there starts up sending an opposing air current at you slowing you down enough to exit safely. You'd probably still have to roll or something upon exiting though or turn around inside the tube to face feet first as you exit. The only problem i can see are sharp turns. Idk how you send a person through a tube and not have them splatter themselves all over the inside at the first sharp turn, so turns are going to have to be wide and gentle.
There's a pneumatic tube where I work. I've seen it get jammed before. Imagine being in one that's stuck; it's like being trapped in a coffin
at the Bottle depot when a giant bag was filled with bottles they would put it in a big tube and send it to the back of the store. I got to push the button once, it was cool.
What is dust made of and where does it come from?
I thought the green illustration was Trogdor for a second 😂
Its just missing the beefy arm
What about HUGE pneumatic tubes? Like a small room size with a table and Windows so you can take In the great view while eating some future food.
sounds like a pipe dream to me.
both literally and metaphorically XD
You should discuss the reasons that things don't scale well, the square - cube law, etc. Very likely, you will discover there some of the reasons pneumatic tubes have not successfully scaled up.
Pneumatic tubes also have to pump air behind the object. a vacuum will only get it so far/high before becoming ineffective. it's the same concept as sucking water through a straw: ten or so meters up and you'll need a pump.
Simple economics. A pneumatic tube transport would be, like railroads and light rail, a system requiring a fixed infrastructure that's limited to traveling between specific points. That's great for highly-traveled routes, at least until circumstances change and that route isn't so popular or necessary anymore. The advantage of cars is primarily that they require limited infrastructure (well-built roads are nice, but not absolutely necessary) and allow you the freedom to go almost anywhere you want. The advantage of flying cars, if they ever come about, would be even less infrastructure requirements (basically just a place to take off and a place to land), and even more freedom of travel.
There were small tubes like these at a Home Depot once, didn't see it get used used tho
You know what else is tubes?
The internet
mind = blown
+MaxFist Internet is cables
+Wojtek Kiraga the internet is a series of tubes
+MrQamboy ¦ UHC Get this. You....TUBE?? Yeah? anyone? ...I'll show myself out.
Pneumatic tubes are still used in some hospitals here.
i'm referring to what people call #2. as is now it is sludgy and slows movement in the present sewage system, clogs the system, and raises pumping costs. what if people stored it on their property and then when these facilities were full emptied it into canisters in a pneumatic tube system which could deliver this human waste to plant to be burned for energy, converted to fertilize whatever.
the average person produces four 5 gallon drums of #2 wet two drums dry per year. so #2 does not take much storage space per person/year so it could be stored on ones property for years. one could reline existing sewers to adapt them to serve as pneumatic transportation tubes.
LOL watching that now
...am I the only one who thought of Kurzgesagt (probably not spelled right) when they saw the thumbnail? Kinda reminds me of his art style. And I mean, hey! He WAS the very first Sci-Show President of Space, after all. :)
(and yes yes Futurama and OBEY, I mean the rounded cartoony solid-colour-shapes thing.)
That would be interesting if we had personal pneumatic transportation, we could call it the You-Tube
Do one on cafeteria food!
Why does my mouth feel colder when I mix water with mints?
+Nicholas Ingram Mint numbs the nerves that feel the hot things, so your mouth can only feel cold things.
Something like that.
+mike shaft Close but not quite. The chemicals in mint amplify and stimulate cold receptors in your tounge when binding to tastebuds, much like what happens with spicy food but opposite.
Nosirrbro The more you know~
+Nosirrbro thank you
+mike shaft thank you
At 1:08, that's not a pneumatic tube, that's Trogdor. And you forgot the consummate Vs!
They Live reference gave me a laugh.
I was thinking about Futurama through the entire episode
0:07 "OBEY"
The Blacklist reference. LOL.
I bit of irony a guy telling me tube transportation will never happen - as his image is transferred from their recording studio to my home in a You *Tube* video.
Nice MS Paint drawings
I mean, we already communicate information via a series of tubes due to the inefficiency that would be caused if the primary transference medium were a truck, so using a similar system for more... material goods seems like a logical next step.
Tell your writers that maglev has nothing to do with air resistance {2:53}
There was a pneumatic railway in Victorian London.
The original "packet switching network."
Oh... so this video isn't about Traumatic Pubes?
I read that too
My local bank has a pneumatic tube system. When i was little they would send a lollipop in it along with my moms stuff.
Is this a re-upload? I have already seen this.
not a word about the River Of Slime in Ghostbusters 2?
Yeah. That's true. I sure wish those tubes are used for transportation and delivering things.
Guess I gotta fall asleep and wake up in the year 3000
I know a functioning pneumatic tube system for paperwork. It works constantly instead of a on off button
Hill AFB has a system of vacuum tubes that are no longer in service.
Futurama here we come
I swear if this becomes a real thing I need the stations to be shaped as a giant green tube
I always wondered how you'd land on your feet at the receiving station. Like getting into the tube you'd walk in but you'd land upside down at the other spot since the air pressure is at your feet.
➡️↗️⬆️↘️⬇️
Do a video about pilotless planes
Meet the Robinson's had bubble transportation, can we have that?
@SciShow - How will it reduce air friction? O.o 2:53
Thought the thumbnail said 'Pubic Tubes' when I was scrolling through my subs lol
by the way here in Germany we use things like that in One of our electronics shops they always have them at the cassiers
"WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW!!!"
Seems impossible but you just never know what's ahead of the future
my parent's bank had a drive through with pneumatic tubes when I was a kid.