The Hidden History of Pneumatic Tubes

Extensive networks of pneumatic tubes allowed stories to whoosh around newsrooms, saving time, improving communication, and reducing stress, all while making really cool sounds.

In the 2003 holiday film, Elf, Will Ferrell, as the titular elf, Buddy, finds himself working in a mailroom, proclaiming the pneumatic tube system to be “very sucky.”

Away from the movies, pneumatic tubes represent the bygone analog technologies of yesteryear, and like other devices from that era — think typewriters, fountain pens, and rotary phones — people can be downright sentimental about them. Growing up, I loved the sucking and slaps they made at the drive-through at the bank when my mom would deposit a check. More recently, at our local kids’ museum, I’ve probably had more fun with the small demonstration tube system than most of the actual kids.

Pneumatic tubes were used to move mail in New York City, London, Germany, and Washington, D.C., and even transport food, cats, and yes, people. Tubes were the future, before they became part of the past. The scale of these systems covered dozens of blocks in sprawling cities. There was even a demonstration line in New York that pneumatically pushed people down about the length of a football field. While the human-carrying version didn’t last beyond the 1870s, pneumatic tubes that spanned cities were a reality by the early 20th century.

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