WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: A Series of Tubes Part Two 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.480 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.640 job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.360 and held the tech are you? It is time for 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.720 a tech Stuff classic episode. This episode you're about to 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.800 hear originally published on April two thousand fifteen. It is 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.160 also a part two. It's called a Series of Tubes 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:33.440 Part two. So if you want to listen to part one, 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:38.440 check out last Friday's classic episode and then pick up here. 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:45.800 It's okay, I'll wait now, let's listen in de Brown 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:50.280 with patent the cash Carrier, which was in the United States, 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.360 which was an in building system for sending money throughout 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:57.800 department stores. UM. These suckers operated for decades. UM One 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.720 Philadelphia retailer Wannamaker installed a really huge system in e 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.280 eighty that was just a year after they got electric lighting. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.920 I've actually seen these in department stores. Have you ever 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.240 seen one of these? So there were some old department 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.280 stores in um in Georgia where they still use these. 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.800 And I'll talk more about, you know, the purpose of 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:21.640 these in department stores, because I'm sure there's still quite 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:26.119 a few that still have them um behind the scenes yea, 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.039 or or it's one of those things that maybe it's 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.160 just one of those that's only in older buildings, And 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.160 you know, whether or not they're still in use is 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.840 a question that you know, that's a different question. But 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.679 I've actually seen them operated, and i remember wondering how 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:40.880 they worked. And I'm pretty sure my dad made up 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:45.520 a completely fictional like I'm sure there were like hobbits. 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.320 Ask science fiction writers to explain science. Kind of love 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.880 my dad, but if he doesn't know the answer, he 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.560 will be more than happy to make it up. And 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:57.760 here's the thing, you probably knew the answer too, So 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.080 at any rate, yes, in um in by by by 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:07.440 e eighties six, the postal tube system in London stretched 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.799 for thirty four miles that's about fifty four kilometers underneath 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.639 the city and it was transmitting thirty two thousand messages 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.200 per day. It speeds up to fifty one miles per hour, 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.760 that's about eighty two kilometers per hour fast. Uh. Yeah. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.960 The mail was carried by what they referred to at 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.720 the time of street tubes, which were these like two 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.520 point five inch diameter tubes that were made of lead 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.120 and encased in iron ducks a couple of feet beneath 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.640 the street. Um. Today, some of these, like I said 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.160 at the top of our previous episode, are still intact 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.120 and are used to house telecom cables. Really is a 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.440 series of tubes before it really is? Uh. Then in 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.080 two the US Congress would authorize an investigation into this 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:57.639 crazy nomadic mail system thing. Um. This was headed up 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:02.320 by Postmaster General John when a Maker who is totally 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.400 the same dude who owns those lines of department stores. Uh. 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.920 And yeah, he would too take charge of the project. Yeah, 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.160 pretty cool. He's a pretty rad dude, by the way, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.280 if if I'm not sure if history mist in history 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.360 has ever talked about him, but he basically created the 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.880 idea of the department store and is you know, went 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.119 on to be Postmaster General, did a bunch of stuff. So, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.600 due to his influence in New York City would open 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.440 their own pneumatic mail system that would send letters and 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.200 parcels on a loop under Manhattan at a about about 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.720 thirty miles per hour forty kilometers per hour, not not 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:43.440 too shabby respectable speed. All of this was operated by 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:49.000 the Tubular Dispatched Company. Fully were the totally tubular, totally tabulary. 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:53.520 That would probably be the California right right, maybe maybe 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.680 in l a um. According to the USPS, at peak productivity, 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.680 six million pieces of mail went through the system daily. 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.000 That's a rate of five carriers per minute, each with 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.840 a maximum load of some five dred letters. Now keep 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.960 in mind this is and remember then eight that's when 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.120 Mr Beach died. That's the guy who was going to 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:21.400 build the pneumatic tube system. Uh So, so around around 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.000 that time, lots of cities started to uh to to 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.680 have these crazy pneumatic tube things. Um, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.599 Satan Louis across the Pond, Paris, Berlin, Vienna. Italy even 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.560 issued specialized stamps for sending mail through tubes. They're really 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.839 pretty I'll have to take a look at those, yes. Uh. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.839 Then in nineteen eleven, pneumatic tubes started being used to 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.800 assist telephone systems. All right, how how do you mean? Um? 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.680 This was over in in Britain and they were called 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.600 ticket tubes. They were used in telephone stations to help 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.920 operators account for calls. So so when a call was completed, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.400 the operator would write up a docket on a on 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.120 a stiff piece of paper that recorded the time of 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.599 the call and then the duration and total charge that 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:17.640 incurred by the customers. That then fold that stiff piece 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.719 of paper into a sort of sale and just send 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.080 it straight up to the accounting office. Interesting on, on 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.360 the same system, error messages could also be sent from 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.360 the switchboards to the machinery rooms. So this is different 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.720 from what I thought when you said that pneumatic tubes 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.080 were being were helping out with telephone systems. I just 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.280 imagine that you just started screaming into a tube and 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.640 I hope that someone somewhere down the line could hear you. 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.040 They did. Actually, I believe that they did actually have 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.760 some tubes like that in some buildings, like just shout 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.560 into this tube, like some of the old old ships 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.279 had those right right. Yeah, they were really used in 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.039 a in in naval naval capacities. But I also just 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.200 love the idea of the like original four or four 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.960 message being like sent on a stiff piece of paper 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.240 that was just sailed along. I imagine Google will have 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.240 to bring that back for him for Full's Day sometime 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:15.640 in the future. Uh. Then in nineteen thirteen, one Waldemere Comfort, Yeah, 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:20.560 I think Valdemar comfort excellent. I'm so bad at German. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.359 You think that over the years I would have gotten 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.960 better anyway. Uh. He was then the managing editor of 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:30.400 Scientific American, and he proposed that, like, really soon, we 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:34.680 should be delivering prepared meals to homes via pneumatic tubes. 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.200 He was like, this is a direct quote. He was like, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.559 if a letter can be shot through a pneumatic tube 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.960 from New York to Brooklyn, why not a five course dinner. Now, 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.599 obviously you would want to enclose said meal and some 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.320 sort of container. I'm just having like a turkey shoot 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.520 through the tube at top speed. I don't know, I 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.159 kind of like that idea. You just imagine like like 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.600 I didn't get a full five course meal. I guess 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.679 maybe I did. All I can tell is it's mush. Now. 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.799 You would be kind of like having the Willy Wonka gum, 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.360 except that all the flavors of all the courses are 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:13.760 delivered simultaneously. It speeds of like thirty miles per hour. U. Yeah, 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.440 that never took off, not surprisingly. Also, I mean obviously, 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.280 in order to have that even work, first of all, 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.280 the tubes would have to be of a considerable size, right, 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:26.280 and also you would have to make sure you had 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.880 the appropriate breaking system to make certain that the food 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.920 was not just converted into sludge by the time it arrived. Yes, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.120 and I and I don't believe that those those air 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:40.400 braking systems were really developed until like maybe the nineteen 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:46.160 thirties there um so so at any rate, in nineteen 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.920 fourteen or by nineteen fourteen, rather some third of New 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:54.000 York City's mail was being sent by pneumatic tube. Um. 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.200 But oops, hey, that was the year that the World 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.800 War broke broke out, um, And so the US Post 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:03.000 off the suspended the pneumatic mail system on the basis 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.560 of fuel preservation. Um. After the war the service would 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.600 be restored, but only in New York City and Boston. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.200 The other cities of the US their pneumatic mail systems 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.320 would remain dormant. Well, this does make sense. I mean, obviously, 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.080 during the World War, you know, they're they're using motors 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.640 that are running on fuel, and that fuel was very 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.240 necessary to the war effort. Yeah, or or some of 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.000 them were probably still running on steam engines. That's true. 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:33.080 That's true. And I mean, even just from a labor perspective, 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:35.840 I want to make certain that you are dedicating that 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.160 labor to the efforts that are going to give you 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:43.200 the most positive outcome from that advantage. Right. Um. Although 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.760 in London those were the pneumatic mail tube systems were 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.800 considered important enough to keep going. Um. They they kept 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.480 their tubes running through the war. Um, especially I think 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:58.040 because they were tied to um uh telegraphy. Yeah, so 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.400 they were really useful for keeping secret messages secret during 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.440 the war, especially because you know, other quick communication methods 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:10.160 could be tapped right, right, So it's obviously tapping into 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.920 a pneumatic tube would be pretty difficult. You just break 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:15.760 the tube, right, Yeah, you have to dig under a 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.920 city street and break the tube and the people notice 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.200 you do that. Yeah, be hard. It would be hard 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.160 for you to be able to actually intercept a message 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.360 at all. Just Yeah, I can understand why it would 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.600 remain to a a way of sending messages in secret. However, 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.480 the fact that it's a way to send messages in 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:38.319 secret also creates a vulnerability. Yeah. Absolutely so. In the 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:44.160 Luftwaffe specifically targeted London's pneumatic tube system. Uh. They successfully 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.000 bombed out a bunch of it, and it would take 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.439 about a year to recover the tube system at all, 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:51.599 and it would not be fully restored until after the 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.240 war was over. Meanwhile, over in Germany, the Berlin system 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.400 was also targeted, but had didn't didn't suffer enough damage 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.000 for a lot of it to be taken offline. I mean, 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.400 there were parts that had to be repaired, but it 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:09.680 largely remained operational throughout the war. Yeah. Uh. In the 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.120 New York City Post Office would shut down their mail tubes, 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.600 those same mail tubes that had been proposed by Beach 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.600 back in the day. Poor Beach, you just you just 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.560 didn't quite live long enough. I mean, granted, again, the 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.720 electrical system ended up created being the future of the subway, 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.280 but still that idea of using it for for freight 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:38.120 and for mail was something that he could have actually 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.000 if he if he had lived just another year, he 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.480 would have seen it in operations. Although by this point 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:49.120 the competitor for pneumatic tubes was really motor vehicles. Um, 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:54.640 the Post Office began in investing in trucks, which kind 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:56.720 of made all of these matic tubes a little bit 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.400 inefficient by comparison. You know, you put you can put 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.520 heavier thing, more things in a truck and you can 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.760 drive it further distances to you more than one place, 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:11.319 so yeah, um you could actually make multiple stops. Crazy. 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.679 But meanwhile, around the same time, the CIA was busy 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.320 building a really hugematic tube system on their campus in Langley, 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.280 Virginia that would wind up transmitting some seven thousand, five 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.000 hundred messages every day. Yeah, even the n s A 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:30.800 wasn't able to read all those. Oh we'll be right 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.200 back with more of a series of tubes after these messages. 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.320 By nineteen sixty two, London would also shut down its 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:50.480 street tube system. Uh and in nineteen seventy six for 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.400 Lynn would shut theirs down as well. There's was pretty big. 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.760 If you lined up all the tubes into end, you 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.320 would have about two miles of them. That's about four 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.959 hundred kilometers. And like we said, you know, this one 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.280 was one that was built in sixty five, made it 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.559 all the way through nineteen seventy six and even survived 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:14.920 those World Wars mostly intact. So that's pretty pretty impressive. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:20.240 The Paris system would last until seven The pairs the 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.640 Pair system, by the way, it was named the carts 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:29.040 Nemadiq a k A. The new Oh your French I 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:34.480 love you so so dearly. By nine, even the CIA 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.200 would give up the pneumatic ghost as email began hitting 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.000 the scene. And now with the n s A, I'm 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.640 sure they're regretting that decision. Well, yeah, that's the thing. 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.480 In the UK, the government may still be using pneumatic tubes. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.520 It's latest two thousand three. There's a written record of 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.400 messages being sent between ten Downing Street and then the 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:57.000 Foreign Office by pneumatic tube, like like right alongside fancy 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.959 encrypted computer system. And I know it's still a new 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.320 is in the Norwegian parliamentary buildings because I watched a 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.040 really cool video. So there's a video on YouTube and 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:13.160 it's it is Norwegian. There speaking Norwegian, I cannot understand Norwegians, 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.080 so I do not know what the description is. I 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.600 assume it's an explanation of what is about to happen, 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:22.600 but probably not saying like this entire video is lies. 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.880 I'm guessing that's probably not the case. But in this 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.040 in this video, they have a canister that's outfitted on 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.880 one end with a go pro and a light. So 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.000 the light obviously is necessary because they want to capture 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:37.679 what it looks like if you were to go through 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.360 one of these neumatic tubes, but you need the light 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.200 because it's gonna be dark in there. So they have 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.280 someone from Parliament I assume, set the canister into one 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.360 of the devices. They look like a T M S. 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.560 I'll talk more about that in just a second, But 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.679 they program where it needs to go, you know, they 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.199 select the destination, they hit the butt, and it gets 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.079 pulled up into the pneumatic system and starts rocketing through 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.000 all those pipes. So you can actually watch the journey 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.400 and it takes a you know, a minute or so 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:12.840 for it to get from where they sent it to 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.440 its destination. Uh. And I think they even said it 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.960 so that it hit a place and then had to 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.080 backtrack some because at least that's would It looked like 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.800 they definitely went through some sort of sorting system at 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.360 least once, which is kind of cool, Like it's not 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.560 just a straight shot, which would have been you know, 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:34.640 I've been like it looks tonnel. Yeah, this was a 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.000 little more exciting. It also looks pretty rough, like there's 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.680 a lot of clattering around you, which makes you think like, yeah, 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.360 but based on this principle, might not have been the 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:49.200 most gentle of rides um but still pretty awesome. And uh, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.440 and keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter probably 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.080 and and tumbler. I'll send out a link to the 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.760 video because it is pretty interesting to watch, even if 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:01.240 you don't understand Norwegian. But that also leads us to 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.520 a discussion about how pneumatic tubes are being used today. 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.120 You know, in the UK, may be used for government 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.440 purposes in Norway as well, maybe in the US government, 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.640 particularly in more secretive circles. Kind of hard to say. 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:21.520 They don't really advertise that so secret they do not. Yeah, no, 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.400 that part. They advertise that they are being secretive, just 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:29.240 not how they're doing it. Um. So in order to 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:31.600 really talk about this, one of the things I saw 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:33.440 and I thought I had to bring it up because 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:35.960 you know, Lauren was on the show to talk about coffee. 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:37.440 Oh yeah, the last time I was here, we were 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.600 talking about how coffee machines were. Yeah, and as it 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.880 turns out, there was a pneumatic system that's very closely 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.360 tied to coffee, and I thought i'd bring that up. 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.560 There's actually a video about this too, although it's not 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.040 quite as harrowing as they journey through the pneumatic tube 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:57.080 bought the go pro. So there's a company, it's called 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.720 the Roasting Plant, and it's a coffee company that has 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.640 store wars in New York City. When I was the 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.320 video dated to a time when they only had a 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:09.120 store in Manhattan. But I've seen the plural used to 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:13.240 describe their stores now, so I've seen there more than one. Uh. 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:17.200 And they have something called the Java Bot. Yeah, so 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.080 here's what the java bot does. You get? They actually 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:24.760 have green coffee beans, so they right, so these are 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.600 unrested trees exactly, and so you know, once you've dried 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.200 them in everything and then the whole thing. You can 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.160 learn more about that in our episode about how coffee 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.840 machines were. Yeah, we go into the tail because there's 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:41.080 a subject we're passionate about. It's coffee. Uh. So you 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.200 take the these beans that have not yet been roasted, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.200 and you put them into canisters that then are attached 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.280 by tubes to a roaster. Now, whenever you need to 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.520 roast a specific type of coffee, it can automatically pull 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.960 the beans from those canisters through the tubes to the roaster. 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.120 Once it's on roasting, it sends them through other tubes 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:07.720 to other storage canisters so that you have your different, 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.639 you know, different types of coffee being roasted side by side, 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:14.959 and they're all sorted properly. And this way, when you 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.399 want a particular type of coffee. Let's say that you 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.240 go in and you're like, I want a mix of 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.720 Sumatran and Ethiopian coffee, you could totally do that and 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.560 the system will end up pulling exactly the right number 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:31.960 of beans from each It measures it automatically, and and yeah, 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.480 the whole thing is automatic. So it's pretty pretty cool 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.120 to look at. And from what I understand, the way 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.800 they describe their stores is that it's like walking into 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.080 a giant coffee machine, except it's a coffee machine that's 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.560 also a roaster, so it goes beyond what a normal 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.400 coffee machine does. So I'm pretty sure that they have 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.000 to roast the beans ahead of time, because there's no 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.119 way you could roast them fast enough for someone waiting 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:00.560 for a cup of coffee to get their cop think. 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.280 I would think that roasting them that fast would have 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.560 to be at temperatures that you don't really want to 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.879 just burn the beans. So my guess is that they 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.000 roast them and then what happens is when you order 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.040 a cup of coffee for the first ones that had 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.639 gone through, that's that process are the ones served up 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.000 to you. And from what I've heard about the company, 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.000 they don't keep any roasted beans longer than forty eight 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.639 hours because after that they as well they should not 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.320 because now it's no longer as fresh. But they're also 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.880 other uses. A lot of hospital systems are using pneumatic tubes. 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.560 Oh yeah, yeah, it's uh, it's really convenient, as it 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.960 turns out, for transporting um thing things like like specimens 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.760 and documents that have an important time stampically across campuses. 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.399 And this one really again, after watching that video of 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.680 the pneumatic tube, like the journey through it, it surprised 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:56.520 me to think of, you know, things like specimens and 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.600 drugs being delivered this way because typically you consider those 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:02.920 to be really you know, delicate, delicate, you know, you're 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.320 usually in like glass containers and stuff. So I looked 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.880 at a company that does this called Swiss log. It's 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.280 just one company that does pneumatic systems for hospitals. That's 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.440 one of the things they offer. And the pictures explained 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.879 a lot. So the canisters Uh, were not just big 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.320 plastic containers that you would put stuff in. They were 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.639 actually they had a foam in them with openings that 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.240 were just large enough to put in things like a 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:35.480 vial of blood. So it holds it steady and it's 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.360 padded all around, and then you can close it up. 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.160 And obviously, if you're talking about things like healthcare, talking 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:46.120 about patient privacy, you're talking about delivery of drugs, there's 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.160 a high need for security with these systems. Sure, yeah, 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.560 you don't want just anyone walking off the street and 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.639 opening up a canister, right yeah. Whether that's because that 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.359 has you know, drugs that would be illegal for you 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.320 to obtain without a prescription, or it could take some 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.119 sensitive information about a particular person, whatever the reason, you 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.480 would not want that to happen. So a lot of 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.080 these systems also have security measures in place so that 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.920 you cannot retrieve the canister unless you do something else first, 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:15.680 like insert a pen, So you would have to know 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.879 what the pen was. To retrieve that particular canister. You 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:20.800 would have a little notification. Again, it looks like an 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:22.720 a t M. You would walk up to it and 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:27.280 it would say like a secure carrier. Um. Uh, you 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.200 know is in the system, and to retrieve it you 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.320 would have to put in the pen or you might 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.439 have to scan like a badge. So let's say that 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:37.760 Lauren and I work in the same hospital, and I 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.840 want to send Lauren some some information. I could make 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.919 sure to pick her from a list specifically to to 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:48.399 me exactly. You would swipe your badge and you'd be 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:53.920 the only person capable of retrieving that particular uh whatever 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:58.679 canister and in in a hospital. Obviously, cutting down on 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.920 the amount of time it takes to deal with this 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:05.119 sort of stuff is a huge benefit both to the 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.800 patient and to the hospital itself. So you can understand 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.160 why this sort of system would be put in place. Um, 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:15.840 they're they're usually these days so complex that they have 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.840 to be controlled by computers because, uh, you know, human 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.360 button pushing is not as ideal, especially once you get 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.440 into the really complex systems. I was reading about Stanford Hospitals, 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:32.080 which started installing this huge numatic system. Before then, a 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.800 team of like twenty people had the job of running 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:39.400 important samples and results around the expanding Stanford Hospital campus. 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.840 Um some eight million samples and results per year. And 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:45.439 and and even with that team of twenty people. They 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:47.960 were frequently short staffed, which is, you know, really bad 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:50.600 news when the freshness of the samples um or the 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.360 immediacy of the results are are important to a patient's 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:57.879 health and welfare. According to Stanford, the system as of 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.680 now ish hosts a hundred in twenty four stations. Every 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:06.240 nursing unit has its own. There are onety one transfer units, 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:11.480 nine nine interzone connectors, and twenty nine blowers um to 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.879 alert employees to the arrival of the containers. The system 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:20.359 has more than three dozen different combinations of chimes. I 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:23.960 can only imagine what it's like learning what each chime 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:26.520 is signifying. You're like, oh no, no, no, honey, that 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:31.080 was beat beat boop, bet boop boop. Right, yeah, that's 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:35.200 not for you. If you are hearing two boops, don't 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.560 even bother. Yeah that was highway to hell you're looking 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:43.960 for staywad close to totally unrelated. One one is much 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:47.680 faster to a very undesirable location. The other one takes 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:49.879 a lot more effort, but you love being there. Just 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:52.919 think of it in those sense you'll be fine. But 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.560 these these canistries that they use can can go up 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:58.360 to eighteen miles per hour which means that even at 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:00.800 peak use of the system, which can which can get 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:03.240 very busy, it only takes about three minutes for a 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.440 package to transfer the longest route in the system, which 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:08.399 is pretty cool. I mean, if you've ever been in 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:11.520 one of these huge hospitals, you have to realize that 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:15.199 if you were to physically give this to someone and 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.440 have them running across a campus, yeah, and and take 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:22.159 elevators or stairs. I mean these these buildings can be 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:26.680 gargantu like if you ever go to um like here's 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:30.280 an example in Atlanta, Great Memorial Hospital is an enormous 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:34.120