A Brief History Of Pneumatic Tube Technology Old-style pneumatic tube system used in business.
Pneumatic tubes used for transporting physical objects have a long history.
However, it wasn't until the industrial age that real work was being done on applying pneumatics to transportation. The first pneumatic tube systems were originally proposed in the early Nineteenth century by George Medhurst, a London businessman. Although his plans called mainly for the transportation of heavy freight, his ideas were eventually adopted for delivering documents and parts by businesses, industry, and government agencies. Those who operated in large buildings, such as the new sky scrapers, or who had offices spread out over a city found pneumatic tubes to be an economical and convenient addition to the work-place. Their use in this area has diminished greatly in the latter half of this century with the rise in electronic communication devices, making the delivery of paper-based information somewhat obsolete.