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
this will breed a new kind of criminal for sure though, sewer snatchers or something haha- they'll wait in the sewers and find a way to get past guards or security devices and steal our goods.
not a reason not to do it, just saying that it could make for the plot of a new criminal movie in the future :P
I don't think the mailmen would like this idea very much.
is the earth going to collapse in on itself one day if we keep digging under shit?
No, just the big cities, but in 35 million years, robot archeologist are going to see the craters that used to be cities, and think that somehow the earth got struck by thousands of asteroids around the same time, and they took out all the big cities, and it will be the accepted rendition of what happened to the humans. All the time, in reality, they have forgotten that they were the ones that caused our extension long long ago. Man and Dinosaur never living together. . . yeah right.
Wow doc,
That was heavy
Ya less jobs, that's what we need.
this seems pretty limited in use though, even if it is clever. say i order a package from a store that's in my city, i could probably just go pick it up myself and not wait for them to mail it. and if my order is shipping from across the nation (which is usually the case) then this system would be pointless. i'm sure there are scenarios when packages through the sewer would be useful and efficient, but i doubt there will be enough of them to justify the cost of installing these electric rails, not to mention paying the people to run the "mole stations."
Pneumatic tube mail was used in New York City until the 1950s. Service between Brooklyn and New York City was discontinued in April 1950 because of repairs on the bridge and was never restored. Service was suspended in 1953 for the rest of New York City, pending review. It had never been reinstated. However, use of pneumatic mail systems survived in Paris until 1983, when it was finally replaced by telexes and fax machines. The same sort of pneumatic dispatch system is still in use today at large stores such as Sam's Club and Home Depot, hospitals, and most familiar to most of the public, banks across the United States.
sewer pipe?? what if my package got stick despite the content stays ok. Feels like digging gold in toilet.
I'll run is ass over.
http://fiestamovement.com/agents/view/58
did u shit on my mail???
The London mail railway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway
I was wondering how long it would take for somebody to mention this. Glad I persevered before posting...
that's cool, thanks for posting.
Wow if you gotta wash crap off your package it better be cheap!!
SoulinEther, again, it boils down to supply and demand. Firefighters risk their lives and possess the skills to save the lives of others. Not many people are willing to do this, nor are they capable of doing this. As far as demand goes, we absolutely need them, and we need the best people for the job. So there you go: low supply, high demand. Firefighters should be paid well.
What, does it come up through the toilet?
You know what? I don't want to know.
hot!!
Dumbest Idea Ive ever heard. Seriously, I'm fine with how my mail is shipped.
this is nothing new, we got hundred of kilometers of tubes in our City (Prague, Czech Republic, EU) - they connect several institutions - banks, post, government ...
Problem with tubes is that you aren't guaranteed by a human. who you can blame, that it arrives and you can't have people sign that they received it, although some sort of electronic acknowledgement system could be created
Hey, I'm a grumpy mailman! and if someone is mailing something cross town
I think they use a currier service not post. Interesting idea/dream. who's the poor guy/gal
that has to handle the "capsule" after it just had a 10 minute ride down shit creek?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company
Electric rails for propulsion. Methane gas in sewer pipes. What could possibly happen?
One obvious advantage is that this approach would smell better than a bike messenger.
Ten movies streaming through that, that mail system, and what happens to your own personal mail? I just the other day got...a mail was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going in the mail system commercially.
They want to deliver vast amounts of information through the mail system. And again, the mail system is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
Way old idea, mothballed long ago in favor of petrol-powered "horseless carriages".
An old map of the extensive NYC pneumatic mail delivery system:
http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2b1b6_2_tubemail.html
The summer 1898 announcement in the New york Times of the Manhattan-Brooklyn mail delivery tube over the Brooklyn bridge:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E0DA103CE433A25751C0A96E9C94699ED7CF
now why cant they do that with Fiber Optics? And what about email? it takes like 1 second for email to travel across the world, and think of all the people that would lose there job to that.
lol that's gonna be some stinky ass mail
Sounds more like an idea from Hermes Conrad.
Terrorists would love delivering bombs with that system!
more and more like the film "The Fifth Element" Black president, cops are fat and lazy and now mail threw tubes.
London already has somethig similar to this as well as different "tube" lines for telephone equipement.
hardly doubt it that this security breach will come to its existent. This will just bring job cuts and anyways bike messengers, regular mail, ups etc..., do a way better job....
the inventor by name of hermes...slightly ironic one might think.
Not really an original idea to have placed second in the Vision Works contest. It's already used on a small scale, and I've seen this in movies and stuff hundreds of times.