The Tubes Went Where?

Discussion in 'Science & Nature' started by Nancy Hart, Jan 5, 2019.

  1. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Remember in the big department stores, when the clerks would stuff money into a cylinder, push a button, and the thing would whiz along the ceiling in a transparent tube?

    "An extensive pneumatic tube transport system in the G. Fox & Co. department store linked sales counters with a centralized cash room. Inbound cash, checks and charges would be processed here and change and receipts would be quickly returned to customers through outbound tubes. This photograph dates to about 1920."

    [​IMG]

    They are still around today.

    Lamson Pneumatic Tubes

     
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  2. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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  3. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Only saw the tubes in movies, fascinated me - never seen them over here :)
    Was also fascinated by the 'dumbwaiter' :p (couldn't find a picture)
    Got to use one ! you pulled on the ropes to hoist the plates of food up to your floor !
    FAB ! :cool:
     
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    Last edited: Jan 6, 2019
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  4. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Hospitals still use tubes extensively for document, pharmacy drug, and lab specimen delivery. Of course, many drive-in banks use them as well.
     
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  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    We may be actually improving on this same technology, and it will be used to transport humans in almost the same manner as it has been (and is being) used to transport money or prescription drugs from the pharmacy to the drive-through pickup window.
    The idea of using a tube and a vacuum for transporting people has been being developed for several years now, and the most well-known one is probably Elon Musk’s Hyperloop.

    It will probably be used for shorter distances at first, and I read that a tube can go from Washington DC to New York City in about a half hour, as compared to 3 hours on Amtrak. Since it can be powered by solar, and runs on a vacuum, it should be not only fast, but very economical to run once it is set up.
    An interesting side fact, is that having a Hyperloop tube running from (if I remember right) San Francisco to Los Angeles has been in the planning stage for several years now, and the recent fires that ruined homes in California just happened to be right on the same pathway as the Hyperloop is proposed to take.
    Make of that what you will.....

    https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/elon-musk-s-hyperloop-dream-may-come-true-soon-ncna855041


    C9966A8F-4787-447D-8F98-7642CD74729B.jpeg
     
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    Last edited: Jan 6, 2019
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  6. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    The big shoe store where my Mom bought all our shoes had a basket pulley system that just fascinated us kids to no end.

    You'd decide on your shoes and then your cash and the shoes would be put in a wire basket and hoisted to the high ceiling where it would be propelled on a wire across the store to the second floor office. Change would be made and the change put in an envelope. The shoe box would be wrapped in brown paper and tied with string (why, I don't know.....) and the whole caboodle would be returned to the basket, whizzed back across the ceiling and back down to the sales desk. On busy days, it would take forever.

    Even if you wanted to wear your new shoes out of the store, you had to go through the whole procedure. Then you had to ask the clerk to cut the string so you could get to the new shoes. Why? BECAUSE.THAT.WAS.HOW.IT.WAS.DONE, dammit.
     
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  7. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Demo of automated pharmacy. I wonder how it reads the doctors' handwriting?

     
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    Last edited: Jan 11, 2019
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  8. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    @Nancy Hart it is usually barcoded for the patient and an order is generated by orders entered into the computer by the prescriber. I have never seen a system where a pharmacist or tech is not involved, but I guess it is possible. Errors entered by the prescriber could not be caught then unless the person administering the drug managed to catch the problem..not usually the case. When Schedule 2 substances are involved, the system is shut down and only one channel is used to prevent accidental delivery to the wrong station.
     
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  9. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    1972 I worked for Merrill Lynch in the wire room. I had about 15 tube drops to handle.Brokers would write their order and pop in the tube, which traveled down to the wire room.I would open and hand over to wire operator to place the order.
    You had to be fast, because when the market was up or down the orders came fast and furious. Many times skipped lunch or tried to eat while handling the tubes. There was some very fun times and some scary ones working the tubes.
    Every second counted when dealing with the stock market. Woes me when one got stuck right on the close of the market!
     
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  10. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    [​IMG]
    First dispatch of mail bags through pneumatic tube from Eversholt Street to Euston Station, London, United Kingdom, illustration from magazine Illustrated London News, volume XLII, February 28, 1863
     
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  11. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Mary, your description made me curious. :cool:

    Baldwin Flyer basket carriers were used in department stores from the 1880's to the 1950's. "The Flyer would carry the merchandise for wrapping and the cash in a leather purse via an overhead wire."

    [​IMG]
    There are still a few stores that proudly maintain their antique systems, going so far as to have replacement parts custom-made. One is Stout's Shoes in Indianapolis. When asked why his 117-year old store, held onto its Baldwin Flyer basket system, co-owner Brad Stout replied:

    “Because if you sit in that office up there, every single day you will see an adult come in with a child and point and say, ‘Look! That’s what I was talking about!’” ..
    (Source: The Rise and Fall of the Cash Railway)

    [​IMG]
     
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  12. Lois Winters

    Lois Winters Veteran Member
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    My son's bank uses them. I loved using them at one of the hospitals I worked in.
     
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  13. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    Well, what a coincidence! That is the very store I was talking about! I had no idea it was still in business.

    We were taken there to get our school shoes, our Easter shoes, our gym shoes. My first pair of high heels were bought there. I purchased my wedding shoes there.

    It was always an adventure. They had a huge parrot in a cage that was quite the talker and would gladly take your finger off if given the chance. Shopping was a hit-or-miss proposition as they carried "odd lots" of shoes. You'd better like what they had because they seldom had what you'd like.

    Very few shoes were on display. You told the clerk what you were looking for....."I'd like a black patent leather pump with a three-inch heel in size 8 1/2" and you hoped you get one of the nice clerks, who would bring you five pairs from which to choose. It was worth it to wait for a while to get one of the nice ones, because you didn't want one of the crabby ones, which was the majority of them. The crabby one would bring you one pair, claim that was the only pair of black patent pumps in stock and dig in her heels about looking again. With the crabby ones, you also didn't want to complain that the 8 1/2 was a little tight and could you see a 9? There would be a loud sigh and a sour look and there would NEVER be a 9 in that particular shoe or any other black patent pump. NEVER. Even though there probably 50,000 pairs of shoes back there somewhere.

    They did not like children. Children tended to say things like "I HATE THESE SHOES!" and "THESE SHOES HURT!" and that sort of criticism by lesser citizens was looked upon as poor upbringing, which had to be nipped in the bud. And was. Children had the nasty habit of being visible and being heard. They would prefer that children be left out on the sidewalk or the parking lot (preferably locked in the trunk or chained to a lamp post) and just their feet brought in.

    Why, then, did my mother buy all our shoes there? Well, my mother believed in Jesus, good quality sturdy shoes for growing feet and cheap prices. Two of those three things could be found at Stouts. They carried only top quality brand shoes and they sold them cheap. There was the "hint" that the shoes were last year's stock from an unnamed but extremely ritzy New York store, y'know, the kind that the likes of us could never aspire to frequent. I assume Jesus bought his sandals somewhere else, 'cause we never saw him in there.
     
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  14. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    @Mary Robi:
    It's a coincidence you mentioned the parrot. I was going to post this video instead because it shows a brief shot of the basket.

    Meet Ripley. The new bird at Stout's Shoes. :cool:

     
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    Last edited: Mar 9, 2020
  15. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    We seldom ever even go to the bank anymore since we have direct deposit, and pay most things online; but for some reason, Humana sent me a check for $27, and I wanted to deposit it.
    I just went through the drive though and was amazed at how much it had changed. We used to have those tubes where you put in your ID and whatever you wanted to deposit, and it went sailing through the tube to the inside of the bank.
    Now, the tube was gone, there was a screen that read my ID when I held it up to the reader, and the rest of the machine operated much like an ATM machine.
    I just fed the check into the little opening, and the teller was able to read it and deposit the money into my account, If I had anted cash, it would have probably dispensed it like an ATM machine does. An interesting thing was that , they can’t give change back, now that they do not use the tube delivery anymore.
     
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