Designer Phillip Hermes has come up with a new system to transport packages which, if ever instituted, could probably be much faster than any of today's available options (trucks, mailmen, airplanes, ponies). The Urban Mole -- which recently placed second in the Vision Works contest -- enables the use of "existing networks" of underground pipes (yes, sewer pipes) to transport packages up to about the size of a shoebox, which are put in capsules to fully protect the contents from the surrounding sewer water. The packages would be moved via a system of electric rails within the pipes, creating a
robotic underground highway for transporting goods to drop off points, or "Mole Stations" where people can pick up their goods. Hermes estimates that an average cross-town trip could take less than ten minutes. Sounds a lot more eco-friendly and way faster than the grumpy mailman, right? It doesn't sound like there are any plans to bring this project to fruition, but we sure will keep hoping.
[Via
Wired]
posted August 1st 2009 1:51PM
So now regular mail gets delivered by a series of tubes, too?
This is actually a very old idea that was put into real service decades ago in NYC. They didnt use rails, but compressed air to deliver mail up and down Manhattan. It was also used in office buildings as well.
The only place it's still in service is at a bank drive-up.
My first thought as well.
One place I can think of that still has compressed air tubes for moving paperwork is Costco.
Combine the sewer moles with a surface system of pneumatic tubes and I'm sold! I want a receiving station in my driveway, right next to the mail box. On second thought, there better be some kind of cleaning station in between the sewer system and the surface system...
If they can put a system like this in the sewers, what exactly is the hold-up on delivering fiber to every sewer-connected home? It's like that Google April Fool's Joke but in reverse.
Don't forget about home depot
This might cause confusion if implemented in London - someone's bound to misunderstand the phrase "catching the Tube".
I wonder if this was in any way inspired by a certain Alaska senator ;)
This sounds like an awesome way to steal stuff too. Technically if you didn't mind hanging out in the sewers you could setup shop to hijack these little robots and their cargo... kind of like 21st century's version of robbing stage coaches...
my loft building in LA uses the compressed air mail tubes, too. it used to be an old bank building
we use a tube system at the hospital I work in. it's pretty efficient but does seem to break down a lot
From SnailMail to SmellyMail.
Now instead of eMailing a letter, you can flush a letter to someone you love.
Seal with a kiss.
An article from a 1900 issue of Ladies Home Journal predicted that our mail would one day be delivered in a series of tubes.
http://s655.photobucket.com/albums/uu273/BarC0de/?action=view¤t=LadiesHomeJournalDec1900paleofuture.jpg
I recall a city where they wanted to build a series of larger tubes (but not man-sized) with small robotic trains in them to supply all the shops around town.
In the end it never panned out because the cost of it was just over the edge of financing.
Phillip Hermes wants to use tubes to deliver mail ? A shame for his great grand father Hermes, the messenger of the gods. :)
@BarCODE: That's a great article! It's so interesting to read predictions from the past, especially a whole century in the past. It's funny, but they actually got quite a few things right.
Wrabbit, don't be so gullible. There's no date.
Cant someone dig underneath, slash the tube open and intercept all the mail? No thanks, i rather have people deliver my valuable goods and put it in a mailbox.
Cant someone rob a mailman? Same thing.
Someone's got to be hard core to dig deep in a populated area to intercept your mail.
Leaving your mail on the mailbox allows people to get it, while a tube in your house will be likely to be safer.
TUBE TO THE POST OFFICE, I mean, not your house.
(Sorry if double post, wrong password me think.)
So this person who delivers your precious packages has no likelyhood of stealing ur mail from their own van?
it means that no more mail man gets bitten by a dog
Did you get that thing I sent ya?
Yes, Was it supposed to smell like sewer water?
It was a stool sample, so yes, it was supposed to smell that way.
hippo!!!
Won't this conflict with the existing series of tubes that we use to access the internet?
Maybe it'll use the same tubes. The question is whether or not the robots in the tubes, carrying email, will conflict with the carrier pigeon in the tubes (implementing IP over carrier pigeon -- actual RFC, look it up). I mean, this could scare the poor carrier pigeons that are the basis of our whole tube based internet! or obstruct them. And then what about when the robots become sentient, see the pigeons as a threat and ... decide their fate in a microsecond: extermination.
I'm disappointed... Does no one else remember this from Futurama? When Cubert Farnsworth orders a do-it-yourself spaceship and it's a few seconds late... It finally pops out of a tube a couple of seconds after he placed the order.
What's the bandwidth if I send LTO4 backup tapes?
Also, i'd rather not have said valuables emerge from said pipe covered in fecal matter...
I don't think that you'll notice anything from the fecal matter.
If the system works with a watertight seal, underpressure and a tube/canister mating with an airplane-like terminal system you can remove the contents without bad smells, water, etc.
It seems like a very good idea, but it will eventually lead to huge (read: REALLY HUGE!!) unemployment figures.
That's what tube socks are for.
This is off topic but i love your avatar pic... great album.
@ LD
Indeed it is, one of my favorites in the rock genre :)
It covers every single element of PT's music, and the production is absolutely superb.
didn't france use a system like this for delivering mail some time ago?
I think New York did, at one point.
Yes, thay have them in my office in NYC. I think they were finally fully dismantled in the 70s or 80s.
The routing number was dialed on a rotary phone dial and then you dropped in the shipping tube and I think the basement routed it to wherever it needed to go.
It's not exactly impressive that this guy placed second for an idea that has already been tried and abandoned.
Delivering packages via existing sewer lines might not happen? What a waste.
Oh well. Service probably would have been crappy anyway.
+13 internets.
'what a waste' lmfao!
First of all: Electric rails in a sewer pipe? Is that really the best idea?
Second: I'd hate to be the mailroom worker. Boss: "Yeah, Johnny, go put on your rubber gloves and pick up that TPS report from the sewers, please"
Third: Just think of all the spam clogging up the pipes!
"hey sweetheart, the package should be arriving. please check your bathroom."
"Honey, we got spam!"
"Well, throw it away then!"
"No, I mean we got our Safeway delivery!"
cool get my mail just like in 5th element!!
as soon as replicators become widely available no-one needs these things. I'll just download (via bit torrent, it will never die torrents =D) a file holding the atomic structure of a very cool laptop and replicate it.
Imagine; product piracy!
So, the Jetson future is becoming a reality eh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube#Historical_use
Anyone heard of this?
Yay, now the snake terminators will have physical access to your house from anywhere!