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Internet Access Via Pneumatic Tubes -- Whooosh!

Posted by timothy on from the steampunk-express dept.

selectspec writes: "Old pnuematic tubes used for delivering mail in 19th century cities like New York possibly could be used as piping to hold new fiber lines. Accoding to this nytimes article the tubes were used to deliver mail through New York City via pressurized air in 1897. Now, an entrepreneur wants to use the tubes instead of laying new pipes which would cost upwards of 100 million dollars a mile in New York City." Pneumatic tubes have been ahead of their time for over a century, so it's cool to see some of their inherent latency problems can be overcome by creative re-use.

4 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Re:paint it black by JabberWokky · · Score: 4
    To spend money on pnuematic tubing is a complete scam and waste. First off it isn't going to send the light down a fiber line any faster than any other tube, so it would be senseless to go with pnuematic tubing as opposed to plain old PVC tubes from your local hardward store.

    They mention that back in 18xx they tested the system by sending a live cat in a tube. I wonder what would happen if we sent a troll through the system? Hopefully there would be plenty of breaks and obstructions.

    BTW - just for clarification, idiot, they are using the *existing* tubes in New York City, where it is nearly impossible to run any new lines... the city is built layer upon layer upon layer, and nobody is really sure what does what underground. The classic restaurant in New York has a bathroom that is in the corner, go down the stairs, 100 feet down a cooridor, down some more stairs, make a right, 50 feet across, and the bathroom is five feet up.

    Now picture a few square miles worth of these labrythine tunnels in 3D, with sewer, subway and other services running between them, and you'll realize how much easier it is to use existing pipes than try to go through what is necessary to figure out who to pay, who has rights and where you should dig to lay new lines.

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  2. Brazil! by Speare · · Score: 4

    The first thing I thought of, when reading the story, was Terry Gilliam's movie, "Brazil."

    When will we have Robert de Niro zip-lining into people's apartments to fix their networks without a 27B-6?

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    [ .sig file not found ]
  3. internet in the tubes... by donutz · · Score: 4
    pneumatic tubes...so in a sense, someone who gets their access thru them could say their internet really sucks? or would that be blows . . .

    . . .

  4. RFC 1149 by egjertse · · Score: 4

    Wow! Pneumatic tubes must be exactly what The RFC 1149 project needs. Imagine using these for LAN and corporate networks - add a few hundred pigeons, a barrel of grease and voila! High-speed CPIP communication.

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    ^]:wq!^M