Remember in study hall, you stole the straw from the cafeteria. Sitting at your desk, chewing on a piece of paper, you position the straw to your mouth and place the wad of chewed paper into the end of the tube. Then in a quick exhale, blowing forcibly, the wad is projected across the room hitting your friends or foes in the back of the head. Who would've thought, the process is over 100 years old and originally used as a tool to send information along a superhighway of polished brass tubes. The predecessor of today's Internet, email and computerized POS terminals.
We've all seen them. Those plastic tubes at the drive-thru tellers at your local bank. It's a simple process really, but you probably never really thought about it. You pull up in your car, press a button, and a door opens and pushes a plastic tube towards you. You reach out and grab it, twisting the end open, placing your deposit (no rolled coin please!) into the cylinder and twisting it shut. Then you place it back into the door and press the send button. Instantly the door shuts and they tube is whooshed either above the canopy or below the drive into the bank as the teller completes your transaction and returns it to you as quickly as he/she received it.
The technology for these Pneumatic tubes isn't new. In fact, department stores have been using them to transport cash and charge transactions long before the cash register was invented. Let alone the common POS systems of today. Some of America's great stores had more then 30 miles of tubing throughout their emporiums, speeding travel of currency at 1000 - 2500 feet per minute. On busy days, some of the tubes would travel over 12,000miles
(almost half way around the world.)
We've all seen them. Those plastic tubes at the drive-thru tellers at your local bank. It's a simple process really, but you probably never really thought about it. You pull up in your car, press a button, and a door opens and pushes a plastic tube towards you. You reach out and grab it, twisting the end open, placing your deposit (no rolled coin please!) into the cylinder and twisting it shut. Then you place it back into the door and press the send button. Instantly the door shuts and they tube is whooshed either above the canopy or below the drive into the bank as the teller completes your transaction and returns it to you as quickly as he/she received it.
The technology for these Pneumatic tubes isn't new. In fact, department stores have been using them to transport cash and charge transactions long before the cash register was invented. Let alone the common POS systems of today. Some of America's great stores had more then 30 miles of tubing throughout their emporiums, speeding travel of currency at 1000 - 2500 feet per minute. On busy days, some of the tubes would travel over 12,000miles
(almost half way around the world.)
Strawbridge & Clothier's of Philadelphia impressive pneumatic tube system. Operators would be considered the lifeline of the stores they worked, for without them, service as they have known would come to a halt.
Prior to the installation of pneumatic tubes or the other popular choice the Lamson Cash Railway System, Many retailers used the not-so-novel system of the "Cash Child". A small boy or girl hired by the store to run the transactions from the selling floor to the cash office and back with the correct change due the customer. Working for what seemed like pennies back then (and probably more so the case) the kids would be exhausted by the end of the day, and let go shortly after the busy season ended. It was only fitting that a new more updated method was needed to assist in transaction processing.
Lamson brass pneumatic tube from the store Scruggs Vandervoort & Barney of St. Louis, MO. Once privately owned, they were absorbed into the Denver Dry Goods Company. DDG was merged into and became part of the Foley's nameplate after a May Company Conversion. Most locations of course are now Macy's.
Gone are the days for these familiar tubes of commerce. Outside of your local bank branch or even at times in a warehouse club, will you rarely find these intricate workings of compressed air, polished brass and good old fashioned ingenuity. Thank god we still have straws!
Gone are the days for these familiar tubes of commerce. Outside of your local bank branch or even at times in a warehouse club, will you rarely find these intricate workings of compressed air, polished brass and good old fashioned ingenuity. Thank god we still have straws!
2 comments:
Just wanted to say, you're missing a bit of the history here ...
The Denver Dry Goods, a member of the Associated Dry Goods, was folded into fellow longtime Denver, CO chain, May D&F when May Dept Stores (parent of May D&F) acquired ADG (parent of Denver DG). May Dept Stores May D&F division operated as a full division with it's own buying office, distribution, and central functions up to the consolidation wave May went through in the early 90's, at which point the May D&F division was merged into Foley's. (Denver Dry Goods had been a part of May D&F from 1986 to 1993.)
wjs
Town & Country Dept Store in Dunkirk, NY used this system as late as 1978.
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