Take the tube

Recently in my basement, I found a stack of old Life magazines from the 1960's and 1970's. I'm in the midst of a de-cluttering project, and I no longer have the desire to keep a lot of magazines; but I looked through the stack to see if I should keep a couple. Maybe I'd find an article about the astronauts or something. One thing caught my eye, an article speculating about the future of transportation. There was a nice photo of the bullet train in front of Japan's Mt. Fuji. And a photo of what looked like a model of a pneumatic tube car.

Wait, what?

We all know pneumatic tubes from bank "drive-throughs", and In the past I've had some fun thinking about what if they tried enlarging the tubes and cars for a transportation system. You'd get in, fasten your seatbelt, probably put on earmuffs (quiet ride? Doubtful). When everyone was in their seats the door would close, a big fan would start somewhere, and off you'd go. Almost before you knew it you'd arrive at your destination. The car would stop, the door open, you'd unfasten your seatbelt and walk out.

I liked to tell myself that I had an original idea here, but obviously not.

So, should I save the old magazine for one photo? Hey, let's check the internet! I keyed in "pneumatic tube" and found that of course there were articles on such proposed transit systems.

Here's the jaw-dropper: it's actually been done before. Click here to read about The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company.

The Pneumatic Despatch opens at Holborn, 1865, through the larger tubes of the second phase of the system. Some of the staff put themselves into the cars for the occasion. From Beach, Pneumatic Dispatch, from an English source.

Unless this whole article is a hoax (it doesn't have that feel and I've found a reference elsewhere), they actually built this in England in the 1860's for transporting baggage. Apparently during the trial run a couple of people got in the car for the test.

What won't they think of next?