You must log in or register to comment.
TUBES!
The internet is a series of tubes!
If only we had a series of pneumatic tubes connecting all our homes, you could order something online and have it pop up right next to you minutes later.
I still want Futurama style human transport tubes
You’re a series of tubes!
It’s true! I put a potato in my face hole and it comes out between my butt cheeks. A bit worse for wear but it doesn’t matter.
What an awful inspiration for a waterslide concept. Halfway through, you get covered in fecies collected from the port-o-potties.
And dumped off in the pool at the bottom…shaped like a toilet.
Dammit brain!!! Why do you make me think these things??? Other people are thinking about puppies, or, 4th of july plans, or pride month, or juneteenth, or how small snicker bars can get before bite size is the new standard bar.
Yet here I am thinking “what if we ruined everybodys pool party???”
That’s why:
As computers and credit cards started to become more prevalent in the 1980s, reducing paperwork significantly, the systems shifted to mostly carrying lab specimens, pharmaceuticals, and blood products. Today, lab specimens are roughly 60% of what hospital tube systems carry; pharmaceuticals account for 30%, and blood products for phlebotomy make up 5%.
I initially thought it’s because of IT-security and the hospital hacks.
I want more pneumatic tube systems. I don’t care what it’s used for. They are super satifying and analog.
When I was young I remember that banks often had large drive-thrus with pneumatic tube systems at each car stall.
There would only be one teller but they could serve quite a few lanes.
If you wanted a cash withdrawal, you might put your ID and your withdrawal slip in the tube, and a few minutes later it would come back with cash in it.
It was pretty rad. But ATMs seem like a better bet overall.
The headline is a bit wrong: the tubes don’t seem to be returning, it’s mostly talking about an industry they never left: hospitals. They are fancier now, though.
