contamination risk?

Can the use of pneumatic tubes to transport lab samples of a deadly virus lead to wider contamination? This is the fear of some hospital staff where an Ebola patient has been treated recently in Maryland, U.S.

The hospital, in an attempt to calm such fears, issued a statement declaring that while the lab samples of the patient did travel by pneumatic tube during his first visit to the hospital, at no time did they leak or spill from their bag or carrier into the tube system. During the patient's second visit, the pneumatic tube system was not used. Specimens were instead "triple bagged", placed in a container, placed in another container and then hand-carried to the lab via a "buddy system". Contrast this with health facilities in Guinea, where nurses don't even have an adequate supply of gloves, as reported in this blogpost, part of Somatosphere's intelligent coverage of the disastrous epidemic, Ebola Fieldnotes.

Image of biohazard bags for pneumatic tube system, my own.

political pipelines

Continuing with our current pneumatic tube movie theme, time for another spy agency, MI6, and the dashing James Bond. Its The Living Daylights, and Agent 007 has been assigned to help a defective KGB officer escape from a concert hall in Bratislava, in the then Czechoslovakia. What better way to do this than through a pipe.

Bond uses the Trans-Siberian Pipeline to smuggle his man, thanks to the help of a contact who works for the pipeline. To do so, 007 uses a cleaning capsule (otherwise known as a pipeline inspection gauge) specially designed by the Q Branch. The KGB officer is a bit hesitant about becoming a human specimen in the pipeline. He asks Bond how many times they've done this before - "Relax" Bond says, "you're the first".

OK, this isn't technically a pneumatic tube, but it looks so much like one! And it was too tempting to post this not only because of the current "gas war", but also because, well, it is James Bond and its not everyday that someone wears a tux when sending a capsule off through an international pipeline.

Images and information for this blogpost resourced from The Air Pump and James Bond Gadgets file in MyHavens.

i love you tubes

It's back to work this week, so if you are like me you might be in the mood for a little light entertainment while at the computer (and you can learn about how capsules move in a pneumatic tube system at the same time!):

Video of David Cross loving the tubes, from Just Shoot Me!, from YouTube.

pneumatic sounds

Some pneumatic tube sounds from my factory tour:

Sending ...



And receiving ...



For some other wonderful pneumatic tube sounds listen also to the Buispost blog.