Pneumatic Tubes facts

While investigating facts about Pneumatic Tubes Nyc and Pneumatic Tubes In Department Stores, I found out little known, but curios details like:

NYC's Roosevelt Island doesn't have a need for garbage trucks and weekly trash pick up. Instead there is an automated vacuum collection. Put your garbage into a porthole and it's transported via underground high speed pneumatic tubes to a centralized location where it's finally picked up.

how pneumatic tubes work?

A group of French thieves called the vacuum gang stole 600000 Euros by sucking bills out of safes through those pneumatic tube deposit things with a vacuum.

What are pneumatic tubes made of?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are pneumatic tubes used for. Here are 22 of the best facts about Pneumatic Tubes New York and Pneumatic Tubes Bank I managed to collect.

what are pneumatic tubes?

1. There is no trash collection on most of New York City’s Roosevelt Island because a pneumatic tube system sends 10 tons of garbage a day from trash cutes in buildings to a trash processing plant at 60 mph.

2. There was once an underground network of pneumatic mail delivery tubes in New York City. Each tube could carry between 400 and 600 letters and traveled at 30-35 miles per hour.

3. From 1897 until 1953, the postal service in New York City delivered letters using an enormous system of underground pneumatic tubes—operated by workers called 'rocketeers'—that shuttled giant canisters across town at 35 miles an hour.

4. From 1897-1953, the NYC Post Office moved some of its mail using an intricate system of underground pneumatic tubes that shot canisters at a speed of 35 mph. At its peak, the tube system carried close to 100,000 letters a day -- about 30% of all the mail that was routed through the city.

5. Songdo City in S. Korea uses pneumatic tubes in all apartments to transport waste to a central disposal center

6. To solve the telegraph’s “last mile” problem, major cities like New York, London, and Paris developed pneumatic mail services, systems of tubes that used compressed air to push canisters of mail under city streets at about 35 mph. The systems were basically 19th-century, physical internets.

7. One of the very first capsules sent through the New York City Pneumatic Tube system, in 1897, contained a cat.

8. The Detroit Century Box from 1900 had predictions for 2000: Canada would be annexed by the US, Detroit's population would be 4 million, and "That prisoners instead of being conveyed to the several police stations in Automobile patrol wagons will be sent through pneumatic tubes..."

9. There was once a pneumatic mail system in NYC. It connected 23 post offices and moved 97,000 letters across the 27 mile tube system each day.

10. For nearly 30 years the CIA used a pneumatic tube system for routing mail, with over 30 miles of tubes and an automatic routing system built into the capsules

Why use pneumatic tube?

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In a time capsule buried in 1900, the Police Chief of Detroit predicted that in the year 2000 "That prisoners instead of being conveyed to the several police stations in Automobile patrol wagons will be sent through pneumatic tubes, flying machines, or some similar process."

On Roosevelt Island in NY household waste is collected by an automated vacuum collection (AVAC) system using a system of pneumatic tubes; this is the only AVAC system in the United States that serves a residential complex. - source

Pneumatic tubes (or 'capsule pipelines') at bank drive-throughs were first utilized in 1836. - source

There is an island in New York City that uses pneumatic tubes to shoot trash from the citizens apartments to a cleaning facility.

A live cat was shot through the Pneumatic tube mail in New York City on purpose. - source

When were pneumatic tubes invented?

A pneumatic tube system was used throughout NYC in 1897 to carry mail from one post office to another.

How do pneumatic tubes work?

Pneumatic tubes are still used for communication and delivery - even in modern environments.

Andy Warhol had plans to open a restaurant called the Andy-Mat, which would serve reheated, frozen dinners through pneumatic tubes.

In the 1800's, banks and financial institutions passed messages back and forth all over the city using a complex network of pneumatic tubes like the ones banks use now at the drive-thru's.

Disneyland uses bins connected to a system of tubes for waste removal. The trash travels through pneumatic tubes to a central location where it is processed and compressed for transfer to a landfill or recycling plant.