Post #1694634
2026-04-06 13:19 UTC
@drmikepj 2/ Pneumatic rail is like that thing you might use at a bank drive-through, or that used to be common in large retail or business environments, with document carriers whizzing around through tubes by differential pressure -- scaled up to the size of a rail car with people on board.
And it worked. But not so well as to justify keeping it, and by a century ago it was mostly abandoned.
Is Elmo's better? Not really.
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Replies (1)
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@wesdym@mastodon.social 2026-04-06 13:24
@drmikepj 3/ Elmo's system would use improved materials and computer control, to be sure. But it solves none of the basic limitations of the original concept, and there's no reason to assume it would be functionally or practically better. And what pneumatic rail would have originally displaced -- traditional rail -- has itself vastly improved. So what's the benefit? None, that any experts can discern. Elmo seems to either not know, or not care. #