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Editorial: 鈥� Breathing new life into the pneumatic dream鈥�

IN A windowless room in a London basement, there鈥檚 a device on the wall that makes things disappear. Technicians file in, grasping large containers shaped like drug capsules and stuffing bags into them. One places his container into the device, taps in a code on a panel, and whoosh, it鈥檚 gone. A few minutes later, the capsule reappears a kilometre away.

The device employs a technology that was supposed to have faded away decades ago 鈥� pneumatic tubes. Hidden in the walls is a vast computer-controlled network of pipes propelling capsules via air pressure and vacuum. Installed in the early 2000s, it is one of many places worldwide boasting a high-tech pneumatic network. Some places have hundreds of stations, fed by several kilometres of tubes and junctions.

Pneumatic tubes were once heralded as the future of communication and delivery. Indeed, some think their history echoes the way today鈥檚 information technology developed. Yet while today鈥檚 pneumatic market may be modest by comparison, it is now proving essential for a few types of organisation, such as this one in London. In a digital age, why has this antique technology been embraced once more?

In fiction, pneumatic technology is often associated with a creaking bureaucratic dystopia, such as George Orwell鈥檚 1984 or the satirical film Brazil, but it was once widely lauded. From the late 1900s, pneumatic tubes carried mail across the cities of the US and Europe 鈥� Paris had 450 kilometres of tubes 鈥� as well as shepherding cash, stock market messages and other objects inside buildings. Tubes were the social network of their era. In 1890, pneumatic pipes beneath Milan, Italy, allowed composer Giuseppe Verdi and his collaborator Arrigo Boito to shuttle messages concerning the opera they were working on.

By the turn of the 20th century, entrepreneurs 鈥� and even the US postmaster general 鈥� were predicting a 鈥減neumatic age鈥�, promising delivery of everything from household goods to hot food. 鈥淣ewer homes in Berlin will have no kitchens 鈥� simply a few pneumatic tube outlets beside the kitchen cabinet or sink,鈥� pronounced a . Meanwhile, some dreamed of pneumatic public transport. 鈥淲e had this utopian discourse about the pneumatic subway; the crazy notion that you鈥檇 be able to travel under the Atlantic,鈥� says of Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma, who has studied the social impact of pneumatic tubes.

Read more: 鈥�Hyperloop: Elon Musk unveils high-speed pneumatic transport鈥�

鈥淎 1935 article said, 鈥楴ewer homes in Berlin will have no kitchens, simply a few pneumatic tube outlets鈥欌��

Kruse argues that historical pneumatic efforts, and the surrounding discourse, echo facets of society today, particularly our use of information technology. They foreshadowed the physical structure of computer networks inside buildings, she says. And as well as inspiring the same utopian hyperbole as does the internet, tubes also prompted similar moral panics. In E. M. Forster鈥檚 1909 sci-fi story , for example, the 鈥減neumatic post鈥� has helped to create a dark future in which nobody converses face-to-face.

Tubes never did form a pneumatic internet, of course. One by one, citywide tube networks fell into disuse. Surprisingly, perhaps, a few were still running in the late 20th century, but the last postal example, in Prague, was eventually shut down in 2002 after a flood.

However, while the electronic age delivered many of the benefits foreseen by early tube enthusiasts, it is lacking in some respects. Wires cannot transport physical goods, for example. You can order practically anything online and have it delivered to your door, but until the 3D-printing revolution actually happens, it must still be transported by road. Could tubes be more efficient, and greener?

In 2008, a UK-based organisation called via networks of 1-metre-wide underground tubes. Pneumatic transport was one of the methods explored. The project got interest from at least one supermarket, but unfortunately the up-front cost meant it never got off the ground. 鈥淚t鈥檚 getting that first relatively large-scale demonstration in place and showing you can do it cost-effectively and that it works,鈥� says Jonathan Carter, a consultant on the project and now an engineer at energy firm E.ON. 鈥淚f you ever get that then I think it could snowball.鈥�

On a smaller scale, though, pneumatic delivery has been embraced by many modern organisations. In fact, in some places, it has never gone away. Banks and supermarkets use tubes to move money from cashiers to the back office, as cash collected by roving clerks has the potential to be lost or stolen.

Yet the real booming market for modern pneumatics is in hospitals. 鈥淭hey are used extensively in the healthcare sector,鈥� says Robert Beardsley, of the international , who is based in Nottingham, UK. The company has installed more than 1000 hospital systems in about 80 countries for transporting samples and drugs. And .

The London basement houses one of those modern networks. There, at University College Hospital, tubes deliver blood and tissue samples to the pathology lab from about 50 stations on various wards. Dispatching capsules at 20 to 30 kilometres per hour is handy in a large hospital with dozens of patients waiting for urgent treatment or diagnosis at any one time. 鈥淓ven if you get a Usain Bolt of a porter they are never going to run as fast as the air chute system,鈥� says lab manager Malcolm Nudd. It鈥檚 also more secure.

These hospital installations are not just pipes from A to B, but networks with junctions and computer-controlled switches. Some are vast: .

The basic mechanics, though, are simple: fans blow air to push capsules one way, and suck to pull them in the opposite direction. Air built up at the end of each tube provides a cushioning brake (see diagram). The modern twist comes with computer-controlled routing and motorised junctions that allow multiple capsules to be transported at once. And each capsule has a radio tracking tag.

Some predict that demand is likely to grow as hospitals expand in order to provide for growing populations. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got tall hospitals being built in overpopulated areas like China and they need ways of getting things to the 20th floor,鈥� says at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who maintains a blog about pneumatic tubes called .

Pneumatic delivery, then, may not have revolutionised the world in the way its early advocates hoped, but even in the digital age, it is prospering in many places. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen pneumatics change from steampunk brass to computerised systems, and it鈥檒l adapt as new technologies come about,鈥� says Harris. 鈥淚t seems to have a way of finding a niche.鈥� After all, not everything can be reduced to 1s and 0s.

This article will appear in print under the headline 鈥淣ewmatics鈥�