[GreenKeys] [External] Re: 1940 Britih Teleprinter film

[Richard Knoppow]

    Pneumatic tube systems were common for many purposes at least 
through the 1960s. When I worked for the Los Angeles Police Dept, we had 
at least two, one from the "mic room" headquarters of the communications 
division to the R&I (records and identification), there was another from 
the police parking lot in the basement to the crime lab, with large 
enough carriers to hold a hand gun. Perhaps others. They were commonly 
used where a store wanted to have a centralized department to handle 
cash.  I also remember stores using a system of baskets on wires for 
this purpose. Saw the first one when I was a young kid in Michigan but a 
large hardware store here in L.A. used the same system, again into the 
1960s.  I don't know the name of this system.
     Historically, Western Union, in New York had a pneumatic tube 
system that ran under the streets from office to office. Often, messages 
that went between local offices were dispatched via this tube system and 
were never put on the wires. I think this system also was working as 
late as the 1960s. I have not done any searching for further 
information. Remember that WU also ran a large network of messengers and 
couriers. While mainly for telegrams they were widely used for business 
messages and small object.

On 8/19/2026 6:03 PM, Jones, Douglas W via GreenKeys wrote:
> From: Harold Hallikainen via GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> -- Wednesday, August 19, 2026 4:31 PM
>> When I was in college, there was a department store that used a tube system between the sales floor and the cashiers upstairs. ...
> 
> Large hospitals still use pneumatic tube systems to move specimens between the various clinics and the centralized lab facility.  I've had blood drawn too many times, and seen the phials holding my freshly drawn samples loaded into a tube and shot off to a lab that was probably 1/4 mile away as the crow flies, and longer as the corridors, skywalks and elevators meander.  Turns out you can't really send blood over the Internet, you still have to move it physically from here to there.
> 
>                 Doug Jones
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-- 
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
SKCC 19998