# Are there any "people tubes" like on Futurama? Pneumatic subways? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2004, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282 "2004-05-09T12:25:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shewriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@shewriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shewriter)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/1 "2004-05-09T12:25:33Z")
In 1869, Alfred Beach built a pneumatic passenger transport system in a 2·5-metre-diameter tunnel under Broadway in New York. It boasted a station with a grand piano but functioned for only a few months. One of its cars was retrieved in 1912 when workers building the current Broadway subway broke into the old tunnel. Delft University of Technology in the 1980s, was working on a 5-metre- diameter tunnel connecting the main international airport to the flower market and to a freight terminal. In “The World Is Not Enough”, James Bond goes down an oil pipeline in a pneumatic pod. Are there any, even small ones like at mine sites? Any big ones in the works somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/2 "2004-05-09T16:11:42Z")
> [@shewriter](#): > > In “The World Is Not Enough”, James Bond goes down an oil pipeline in a pneumatic pod. It has been done in a bond film but If I remember correctly in TWINE bond was in a motorised cart type thing. In an earlier bond film they sent a VIP (can’t remember who) down a pipeline in a sealed pod. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/3 "2004-05-09T16:31:56Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > It has been done in a bond film but If I remember correctly in TWINE bond was in a motorised cart type thing. > > In an earlier bond film they sent a VIP (can’t remember who) down a pipeline in a sealed pod. _The Living Daylights_ with, what’s his name as Bond. I _think_ that the reason they’re not done is because of the complexity of the whole mess. I know that Tesla had an idea for running a tube under the Atlantic to connect America and Europe, but even he discounted it when he started crunching the numbers and saw what it would take to actually get such a thing working. (IIRC, it had mainly to do with a friction problem.) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/4 "2004-05-09T16:48:23Z")
Roger Moore. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/5 "2004-05-09T16:52:09Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Roger Moore. No, the _other_ [what’shisname](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001096/). ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/6 "2004-05-09T17:00:37Z")
> [@Number](#): > > No, the _other_ [what’shisname](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001096/). Damn. I was sure it was Roger. I remember a fat woman in the control booth. Has it been done in more than one bond film? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/7 "2004-05-09T17:03:21Z")
The closest I’ve seen was a non-pneumatic elevator in a parking garage in Indianapolis. It was a vertical conveyor belt with handgrips and foot stands. You could step onto it on any floor, yank the switch rope, and be whisked up or down to the floor you wanted. It had a rail around it, and a sign said it was for employees only. I rode it anyway. It was scary/thrilling, and it seemed dangerous. I was a young teen at the time, and I don’t know if the thing is still there. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/8 "2004-05-09T17:07:09Z")
The one where the woman distracts the guard by shoving his face into her chest while “board lights up like Christmas tree” is definitely The Living Daylights. I don’t know if the same sequence has been used in any other Bond films, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/9 "2004-05-09T17:16:16Z")
> [@Number](#): > > The one where the woman distracts the guard by shoving his face into her chest while “board lights up like Christmas tree” is definitely The Living Daylights. In that case you are right. Because I know Living Daylights was Timothy Dalton. It just seems older in my head. It seems like it was from the Moore era. Tim it is. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/10 "2004-05-09T23:21:23Z")
Wouldn’t the Mag Lev trains have nearly the same speed as the system in the OP? ---
**Author:** ![glilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/48db29/32.png) [@glilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glilly)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/11 "2004-05-10T01:19:38Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > The closest I’ve seen was a non-pneumatic elevator in a parking garage in Indianapolis. It was a vertical conveyor belt with handgrips and foot stands. You could step onto it on any floor, yank the switch rope, and be whisked up or down to the floor you wanted. It had a rail around it, and a sign said it was for employees only. I rode it anyway. It was scary/thrilling, and it seemed dangerous. I was a young teen at the time, and I don’t know if the thing is still there. These are known as “manlifts.” They are more common in industrial settings. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/12 "2004-05-10T03:26:03Z")
New York City’s first subway – the first in the world – was a two-block-long pneumatic subway. It seems pretty bizarre and unbelievable, but you ca read about it in histories (such as Ellis’ **The Epic of New York** ). There was an article (with pictures) in American Heritage many years ago. The walls of the Subway sandwich shops include engravings of the pneumatic subway. Apparently, it was done partly to sneak the idea of a subway past the corrupt Tweed organization, which profited from rthe elevated railways, and didn’t want competition. It worked by comressed air, just like those mail tube systems. It didn’t work out. It wasn’t popular enough to get funded, and when the world’s first real, functioning subway opened in London, t was a conventional train. As far as I know, no one ele ever attempted a pneumatic subway. I suspect the complex technology made it too much of a pain. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/13 "2004-05-10T03:30:14Z")
Here’s one site to start you off – Alfred Ely Beach and his Pneumatic Subway o 1870: > **[Inventions](https://www.thoughtco.com/inventions-4133303?terms=scientific%2Bamerican)** > > Get inspired with profiles and biographies of famous inventors and their inventions. Then, become an inventor yourself with our resources for transforming your ideas into consumer products. ---
**Author:** ![shewriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@shewriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shewriter)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-people-tubes-like-on-futurama-pneumatic-subways/244282/14 "2004-05-10T05:35:49Z")
I can’t believe I’m the only person to have seen _The World Is Not Enough_. Pierce Brosnan with Denise Richards in her most famous role. > [@](#): > > From the [M I 6 site](http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/q-branch/pipelinerig.php3?t=twine&s=twine) > Pipeline Rig > (The World Is Not Enough) > Vehicle: Pipeline Rig > Movie: The World Is Not Enough > Owner: King Industries > Status: Destroyed > > This small electric rig is somewhat like a scouring plug and is used inside King Industry’s Caspian Sea Oil pipeline. > > Use > Bond and Christmas Jones are delivered to the Rig in a helicopter and sealed into the oil pipeline by Robinson, their objective being to diffuse a bomb speeding through the pipeline at over 70 Mph before it reaches its destination. Once Bond and Christmas discover the bomb can not go nuclear, they leave it to explode along with the pipeline rigs, thus letting Elektra believe they are dead. > > Specs > > Normally only used for repairs to the pipeline, the rigs can hold up to two persons. Thanks for links to the 1800’s site, but I already knew about that one, as I mentioned. I’m wondering if anybody has one or is working on one now.