WEBVTT - A Series of Tubes Part Two 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.920 Get in touch with technology with text up from dot 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:15.360 com either and welcome to text UFF. I'm Jonathan Strickland 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.160 and I'm Line and we're picking up where we left 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:23.400 off last episode, which was about pneumatic tubes. Yes, because 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.560 who knew they were a really big thing for a 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.400 really long time. Yeah, and pretty cool. You know. I 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.240 know a lot of people say they both suck and blow, 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.080 but personally I think they're pretty awesome. They do, but 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.199 in a cool way. Yeah, like like that's what they 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:42.000 literally do. Yeah, a fan, Yeah, because it's it's pneumatic 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.279 tubes are a air pressurization system that moved the thing 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:50.680 from one point to Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, last time, 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.560 we just left off with a Mr. Beach, the inventor 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.760 and engineer who sunk a lot of his personal fortune 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.600 into the attempt to create a new men the subway 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:05.840 system in New York, which ultimately did not happen failed completely. 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.640 But we're still in the eighteen hundreds, yeah, and lots 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.600 more stuff was going on. In e one, D. Brown 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.399 would patent the cash Carrier, which was in in the 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.280 United States, which was an in building system for sending 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:24.520 money throughout department stores. Um. These suckers operated for decades. 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:29.800 UM One Philadelphia retailer, Wannamakers, installed a really huge system 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.120 in eighteen eighty. That was just a year after they 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.319 got electric lighting. I've actually seen these in department stores. 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:37.959 Have you ever seen one of these? I don't think 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.600 I have now, So there were some old department stores 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.240 in UM in Georgia where they still use these. And 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.959 I'll talk more about, you know, the purpose of these 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.600 in department stores, because I'm sure there's still quite a 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:54.040 few that still have them, um behind the scenes, yeah, 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:55.920 or or it's one of those things that maybe it's 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.000 just one of those that's only in older buildings. And 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:00.120 you know whether or not they're still in use a 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.600 question that you know, that's a different question. But I've 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.960 actually seen them operated, and I remember wondering how they worked. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.000 And I'm pretty sure my dad made up a completely 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:14.000 fictional like. I'm sure they were like hobbits. Yeah. I 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:18.840 don't ask science fiction writers to explain science kind my dad, 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.040 but if he doesn't know the answer, he will be 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.040 more than happy to make it up. And here's the thing, 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.280 you probably knew the answer too, So at any rate, yes, 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:33.760 and um and by six the postal tube system in 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:38.120 London stretched for thirty four miles that's about fifty four 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:42.040 kilometers underneath the city, and it was transmitting thirty two 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:46.079 thousand messages per day. It speeds up to fifty one 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.960 miles per hour. That's about eighty two kilometers per hour. 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.600 That's pretty fast. Uh. Yeah, the mail was carried by 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.080 what they referred to at the time of street tubes, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.320 which were these like two point five inch diameter tubes 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.760 that were made lad and encased in iron ducks a 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.920 couple of feet beneath the street. Um. Today, some of these, 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.160 like I said at the top of our previous episode, 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.560 are still intact and are used to house telecom cables. 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.000 Really is a series of tubes before it really is? Uh. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.160 Then in two the US Congress would authorize an investigation 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.720 into this crazy pneumatic mail system thing. Um. This was 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.520 headed up by Postmaster General John when Amaker, who is 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:34.400 totally the same dude who owns those lines of department stores. Uh. 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.280 And yeah, he would would take charge of the project. Yeah, 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.000 pretty cool. He's a pretty rad dude, by the way. 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.120 If if I'm not sure if history mist in history 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.200 has ever talked about him, but he basically created the 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.760 idea of the department store and is you know, went 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.960 on to be Postmaster General, did a bunch of stuff. So, 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.200 due to his influence, in seven, New York City would 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.000 open their own pneumatic mail system that would send letter 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.080 and parcels on a loop under Manhattan at about about 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.600 thirty miles per hour forty kilometers per hour, not not 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:11.280 too shabby, respectable speed. All of this was operated by 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:16.800 the Tubular Dispatch Company. Fully it were the totally tubularular 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:21.360 that would probably be the California right right, maybe maybe 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.560 in l a um. According to the USPS, at peak productivity, 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.520 six million pieces of mail went through the system daily. 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.880 That's a rate of five carriers per minute each with 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.719 a maximum load of some five hundred letters. Now keep 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:39.640 in mind this is and remember then eight six, that's 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.680 when Mr Beach died. That's the guy who was going 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.560 to build the pneumatic tube system. Uh So, so around 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:53.000 around that time, lots of cities started to uh to 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.520 to have these crazy pneumatic tube things, um Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:02.440 Satan Louis, across the pond Aris, Berlin, Vienna. Italy even 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.400 issued specialized stamps for sending mail through tubes. They're really 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.680 pretty I'll have to take a look at those, yes. Uh. 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.680 Then in nineteen eleven, pneumatic tubes started being used to 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:18.640 assist telephone systems. All right, how do you mean? Um? 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.520 This was over in in Britain and they were called 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.480 ticket tubes. They were used in telephone stations to help 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:30.760 operators account for calls. So so when a call was completed, 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.279 the operator would write up a docket on a on 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:35.960 a stiff piece of paper that recorded the time of 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.440 the call and then the duration and total charge the 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:45.520 incurred by the customers. That then fold that stiff piece 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.559 of paper into a sort of sale and just send 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:53.279 it straight up to the accounting office. On the same system, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.039 error messages could also be sent from the switchboards to 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.640 the machinery rooms. So this is different from what I 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.440 thought when you said that amanic tubes were being were 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.520 helping out with telephone systems. I just imagine that she 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.360 just started screaming into a tube, and I hope that 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:10.200 someone somewhere down the line could hear you. They did. Actually, 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:12.760 I believe that they did actually have some tubes like 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.279 that in some buildings, like just shout into this tube. 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.200 Like some of the old old ships had those two 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:21.560 right right, Yeah, they were mostly used in in in 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.559 naval naval capacities. But I also just love the idea 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.200 of the like original four or four message being like 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.320 sent on a stiff piece of paper that was just 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.520 sailed along. I imagine Google will have to bring that 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:38.480 back for the full's day sometime in the future. Uh. 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:43.760 Then in nineteen thirteen, one Waldemeir Comfort. Yeah, I think 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.760 Valdemar comfort excellent. I'm so bad at German you think 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.680 that over the years I would have gotten better anyway. Uh. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.120 He was then the managing editor of Scientific American, and 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:59.200 he proposed that, like, really soon we should be delivering 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:03.120 prepared me two homes via pneumatic tubes. He was like, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.320 this is a direct quote. He was like, if a 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.720 letter can be shot through a pneumatic tube from New 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.800 York to Brooklyn, why not a five course dinner? Now, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.480 obviously you would want to enclose said meal and some 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.160 sort of container and just having like a turkey shoot 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.360 through the tube at top speed. I don't know, I 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.120 kind of like that idea. You just imagine like, like 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.440 I didn't get a full five course meal. I guess 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.520 maybe I did. All I can tell is it's mush now, 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:32.840 you know. I'd be kind of like having the Willy 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.640 Wonka gum, except that all the flavors of all the 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:41.800 courses are delivered simultaneously speeds of like thirty Yeah, I 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.280 that never took off, not surprisingly. Also, I mean obviously, 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:49.160 in order to have that even work, first of all, 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.200 the tubes would have to be of a considerable size, 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.120 and also you would have to make sure you had 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.720 the appropriate breaking system to make certain that the food 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.760 was not just converted into sludge by the time it arrived. Yes, 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.000 and I and I don't believe that those those air 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:08.760 braking systems were really developed until like maybe the nineteen thirties, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.480 somewhere in there. Um so so. At any rate, in 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.600 nineteen fourteen, or by nineteen fourteen, rather some third of 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:21.840 New York City's mail was being sent by pneumatic tube um. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.360 But oops, hey, that was the year the World War 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.040 broke broke out, um, and so the US Post Office 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:33.160 suspended the pneumatic mail system on the basis of fuel preservation. UM. 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.680 After the war, the service would be restored, but only 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.440 in New York City and Boston. The other cities of 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.160 the U S there pneumatic mail systems would remain dormant. Ye, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.640 Now this does make sense. I mean obviously, during the 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.160 World War, you know they're they're using motors that are 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.160 running on fuel, and that fuel was very necessary to 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:54.640 the war effort. Yeah, or some of them, we're probably 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.880 still running on steam engines. That's true. That's true. And 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.560 I mean even just from a labor or perspective, you 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.160 want to make certain that you are dedicating that labor 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.120 to the efforts that are going to give you the 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.240 most positive outcome from this advantage. Right. Um. Although in 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.239 London those were the pneumatic male tube systems were considered 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.760 important enough to keep going. Um. They they kept their 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.640 tubes running through the war. Um especially I think because 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:26.960 they were tied to um uh telegraphy. So they were 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.560 really useful for keeping secret messages secret during the war, 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.640 especially because you know, other quick communication methods could be 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:38.679 tapped right, right, So it's obviously tapping into a pneumatic 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.880 tube would be pretty difficult. You just break the tube, right, 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.640 You have to dig under a city street and break 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.480 the tube and the people notice, yeah you do that 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:49.440 be hard, It would be hard. For you to be 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.040 able to actually intercept a message at all. Yeah, I 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.480 can understand why it would remain to a way of 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.080 sending messages in secret. However, the fact that it's a 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.120 way to send messages in secret also creates a vulnerability. Yeah. 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.760 Absolutely so. In nineteen forty, the Luftwaffa specifically targeted London's 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:13.040 pneumatic tube system. Uh. They successfully bombed out a bunch 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.880 of it, and it would take about a year to 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.080 recover the tube system at all, and it would not 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.760 be fully restored until after the war was over. Meanwhile, 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.400 over in Germany, the Berlin system was also targeted, but 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.120 had didn't didn't suffer enough damage for a lot of 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.439 it to be taken offline. I mean, there were parts 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.920 that had to be repaired, but it largely remained operational 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:37.679 throughout the war. Yeah. Uh. In ninety three, the New 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.000 York City Post Office would shut down their male tubes, 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.679 those famale tubes that had been proposed by Beach back 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.439 in the day. Uh, poor Beach, you just you just 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.400 didn't quite live long enough. I mean, granted, again, the 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:57.560 electrical system ended up create being the future of the subway, 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.160 but still that I of using it for for freight 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.000 and for mail was something that he could have actually 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.880 if he if he had lived just another year, he 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.319 would have seen it in operations. Although by this point 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:17.120 the competitor for pneumatic tubes was really motor vehicles. Um, 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:22.480 the Post Office began in investing in trucks, which kind 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:24.600 of made all of these magic tubes a little bit 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.280 inefficient by comparison. You know, you put you can put 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.360 heavier things, more things in a truck, and you can 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:35.880 drive it further distances to more than one place. So yeah, um, 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:41.280 you could actually make multiple stops. Crazy. But meanwhile, around 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.560 the same time, the CIA was busy building a really 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.880 huge tumatic tube system on their campus in Langley, Virginia 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.520 that would wind up transmitting some seven thousand, five hundred 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.200 messages every day. Yea, even the n s A wasn't 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:58.679 able to read all those. Oh. By nineteen sixty two 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.920 London would also down its street tube system h and 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.600 in nineteen seventy six Berlin which shut THEIRS down as well. 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.240 There was pretty big that if you lined up all 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.720 the tubes in to end, you would have about two 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.600 miles of them, and that's about four d KOs And 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:19.719 like we said, you know, this one was one that 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:21.719 was built in eighteen sixty five, made it all the 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.360 way through nineteen seventy six and even survived those World 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:31.280 Wars mostly intact. So that's pretty pretty impressive. The Paris 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:36.200 system would last until seven, the Paris the Paris System, 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.240 by the way, it was named the carts a new 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:47.200 Oh your French, I love you so so dearly. By 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:51.200 night nine. Even the CIA would give up the pneumatic 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.360 ghost as email began hitting the scene. And now with 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.280 the n s A, I'm sure they're regretting that decision. Well, yeah, 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.240 that's the thing. In the UK, the government may will 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.640 be using pneumatic tubes. It's latest two thousand three. There's 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:06.800 a written record of messages being sent between ten Downing 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.120 Street and the and the Foreign Office by pneumatic tube, 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.160 like like right alongside fancy encrypted computer system. And I 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.040 know it's still in use in the Norwegian parliamentary buildings 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:22.040 because I watched a really cool video. So there's a 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.760 video on YouTube and it's it is Norwegian. They're speaking Norwegian. 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:30.240 I cannot understand Norwegians, so I do not know what 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.920 the description is. I assume it's an explanation of what 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.520 is about to happen, but probably not saying like this 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.640 entire video is lies. I'm guessing that's probably not the case. 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.120 But in this in this video, they have a canister 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.760 that's outfitted on one end with a go pro and 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.480 a light. So the light obviously is necessary because they 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:52.360 want to capture what it looks like if you were 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.080 to go through one of these pneumatic tubes. But you 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:56.880 need the light because it's gonna be dark in there. 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:02.320 So they have someone from Parliament I assume, set the 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.040 canister into one of the devices. They look like a 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.280 T M S. I'll talk more about that in just 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.360 a second. But they program where it needs to go, 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.320 you know, they select the destination, they hit the button 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.440 and it gets pulled up into the pneumatic system and 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.840 starts rocketing through all those pipes. So you can actually 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.040 watch the journey, and it takes a you know, a 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.280 minute or so for it to get from where they 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.720 sent it to its destination. Uh. And I think they 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.720 even said it so that it hit a place and 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.680 then had to backtrack some because at least that's what 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.160 it looked like. They definitely went through some sort of 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.080 sorting system at least once, which is kind of cool, 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.240 Like it's not just a straight shot, which would have 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:49.160 been you know, I've been like it looks tonnel. Yeah, 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.960 this was a little more exciting. It also looks pretty rough, 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:56.120 like there's a lot of clattering around, which makes you 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.200 think like, yeah, but based on this principle, might not 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.440 have been the most gener toll of rides um, but 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.600 still pretty awesome. And uh, and keep an eye out 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.440 on Facebook and Twitter probably and and tumbler. I'll send 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.000 out a link to the video because it is pretty 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.160 interesting to watch, even if you don't understand Norwegian. But 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:18.400 that also leads us to a discussion about how pneumatic 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.680 tubes are being used today, you know in the UK, 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.160 may be used for government purposes in Norway as well, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:29.200 maybe in the US government, particularly in more secretive circles. 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:33.440 Kind of hard to say. They don't really advertise that 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.280 they do not. Yeah, no, that part they advertised that 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:42.239 they are being secretive, just not how they're doing it. Um. 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.120 So in order to really talk about this, one of 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:47.920 the things I saw and I thought I had to 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:49.640 bring it up because you know, Lauren was on the 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.080 show to talk about coffee. Oh yeah. The last time 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.800 I was here, we were talking about how coffee machines were. Yeah, 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:59.040 and as it turns out, there was a pneumatic system 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.040 that's very closely tied to coffee, and I thought i'd 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.160 bring that up. There's actually a video about this too, 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.400 although it's not quite as harrowing as they journey through 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:11.920 the pneumatic tube. Bought the go pro. So there's a company. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.720 It's called the Roasting Plant, and it's a coffee company 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.720 that has stores in New York City. When I was 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.480 the video dated to a time when they only had 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:24.280 a store in Manhattan. But I've seen the plural used 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.520 to describe their stores now, so I assume they're more 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:32.160 than one. Uh. And they have something called the java Bot. Yeah, 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.960 so here's what the java bot does. You get? They 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.840 actually have green coffee beans, so they right, So these 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.560 are unrested trees exactly, and so you know, once you've 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.280 dried them in everything and then the whole thing. You 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.080 can learn more about that in our episode about how 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.760 coffee machines were. Yeah, we go into the tail because 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:55.320 there's a subject we're passionate about. It's coffee. Uh. So 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:59.440 you take the these beans that have not yet been roasted, 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.440 and you put them into canisters that then are attached 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:06.520 by tubes to a roaster. Now, whenever you need to 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.600 roast a specific type of coffee, it can automatically pull 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.199 the beans from those canisters through the tubes to the roaster. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.320 Once it's done roasting, it sends them through other tubes 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:22.960 to other storage canisters so that you have your different 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.879 you know, different types of coffee being roasted side by side, 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.199 and they're all sorted properly. And this way, when you 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.639 want a particular type of coffee. Let's say that you 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.480 go in and you're like, I want a mix of 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.919 Sumatran and Ethiopian coffee, you could totally do that and 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.840 the system will end up pulling exactly the right number 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:47.200 of beans from each It measures it automatically, and and yeah, 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.680 the whole thing is automatic. So it's pretty pretty cool 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.360 to look at. And from what I understand, the way 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:57.040 they describe their stores is that it's like walking into 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.320 a giant coffee machine, except it's a coffee mach that's 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.800 also a roaster, so it goes beyond what a normal 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.600 coffee machine does. So I'm pretty sure that they have 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.240 to roast the beans ahead of time, because there's no 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.359 way you could roast them fast enough for someone waiting 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.480 for a cup of coffee to get their coffee. I 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.400 think I would think that roasting them that fast would 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:20.640 have to be at temperatures that you don't really want. 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.480 You just burn the beans. So my guess is that 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:25.960 they roast them and then what happens is when you 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.040 order a cup of coffee for the first ones that 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.720 had gone through, that's that process. Are the ones served 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:36.199 up to you. And from what I've heard about the company, 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.240 they don't keep any roasted beans longer than forty eight 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.840 hours because after that they as well they should not 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.520 because now it's no longer as fresh. But they're also 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.120 other uses. A lot of hospital systems are using pneumatic tubes. 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.760 Oh yeah, yeah, it's uh, it's really convenient, as it 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.160 turns out, for transporting um thing things like like specimens 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:03.000 and documents that have important time stamp pically across campuses. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.600 And this one really again, after watching that video of 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.920 the pneumatic tube, like the journey through it, it surprised 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:11.760 me to think of, you know, things like specimens and 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.840 drugs being delivered this way, because typically you consider those 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.120 to be really you know, delicate, delicate, you know, are 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.520 usually in like glass containers and stuff. So I looked 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.080 at a company that does this called swiss Log. It's 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.520 just one company that does pneumatic systems for hospitals. That's 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.680 one of the things they offer. And the pictures explained 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:37.119 a lot. So the canisters, uh, were not just big 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.560 plastic containers that you would put stuff in. They were 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.879 actually they had a foam in them with openings that 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:46.480 were just large enough to put in things like a 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.720 vial of blood. So it holds it steady and it's 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.600 padded all around, and then you can close it up. 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:57.399 And obviously, if you're talking about things like healthcare, talking 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.439 about patient privacy, you're talking about delivery drugs, there's a 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.400 high need for security with these systems. Oh sure, yeah. 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:06.760 You don't want just anyone walking off the street and 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.879 opening up a canister, right yeah. Whether that's because that 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.600 has you know, drugs that would be illegal for you 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.160 to obtain without a prescription, or it contains some sensitive 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.639 information about a particular person, whatever the reason, you would 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.840 not want that to happen. So a lot of these 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:24.480 systems also have security measures in place so that you 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:28.119 cannot retrieve the canister unless you do something else first, 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:30.880 like insert a pen, So you would have to know 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.080 what the pen was. To retrieve that particular canister, you 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.040 would have a little notification. Again, it looks like an 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:38.000 a t M. You would walk up to it. It 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:42.639 would say like a secure carrier. Um, uh, you know 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.640 is in the system, and to retrieve it you would 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:47.719 have to put in the pen or you might have 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.000 to scan like a badge. So let's say that Lauren 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.160 and I work in the same hospital, and I want 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.399 to send Lauren some some information. I could make sure 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.359 to pick her from a list specifically to to me 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.399 yea of that exactly, you would swipe your badge and 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:07.160 you'd be the only person capable of retrieving that particular 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:13.760 uh whatever canisterer and in in hospital. Obviously, cutting down 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.080 on the amount of time it takes to deal with 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.240 this sort of stuff is a huge benefit both to 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:24.479 the patient and to the hospital itself. So you can 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:28.400 understand why this sort of system would be put in place. Um, 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.080 they're they're usually these days so complex that they have 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.040 to be controlled by computers because uh, you know, human 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:38.600 button pushing is not as ideal, especially once you get 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.679 into the really complex systems. I was reading about Stanford Hospitals, 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:47.359 which started installing this huge numatic system. Before then, a 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.040 team of like twenty people had the job of running 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:54.560 important samples and results around the expanding Stanford Hospital campus 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:59.080 um some eight million samples and results per year. And 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:00.920 and even with that team of twenty people, they were 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.400 frequently short staffed, which is, you know, really bad news 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.560 when the freshness of the samples um or the immediacy 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.800 of the results are are important to a patient's health 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.400 and welfare. According to Stanford, the system as of now 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:17.359 ish hosts a hundred and twenty four stations. Every nursing 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:21.480 unit has its own. There are one forty one transfer units, 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:27.440 nine interzone connectors, and twenty nine blowers um to alert 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:30.320 employees to the arrival of the containers. The system has 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:35.800 more than three dozen different combinations of chimes. I can 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:40.240 only imagine what it's like learning what each chime is signifying. 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:42.080 You're like, oh, no, no, no, honey, that was beat 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:46.840 beat boop bee boop boop. Yeah, that's not for you. 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:52.040 If you are hearing two boops, don't even bother. Yeah, 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.120 that that was highway to Hell you're looking for stay 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:59.800 were close, totally unrelated. One one is much faster to 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.160 a very undesirable location, the other one takes a lot 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:05.439 more effort, but you love being there. Just think of 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.680 it in those sense. Now you'll be fine. But these 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:10.879 these canistries that they use can can go up to 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:13.960 eighteen miles per hour, which means that even at peak 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:16.600 use of the system, which can which can get very busy, 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:19.000 it only takes about three minutes for a package to 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.240 transfer the longest route in the system, which is pretty cool. 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.120 I mean, if you've ever been in one of these 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.280