The inaugural episode of The Untapped New York Podcast was a dive into my favorite subject of all time: New York City’s pneumatic tube mail system. One of the highlights of this exploration was ...

A Globe reporter in 1900 asked the city’s top minds what the year 2000 would look like. Some things they got right, others they got wrong. One prediction was that a pneumatic tube system would connect ...

When New York launched its pneumatic-tube mail system in the fall of 1897, postal workers tested it out by sending canisters loaded with a Bible wrapped in an American flag, an artificial peach, a ...

In the late 1890s, networks of pneumatic tube systems were installed under city streets to move the mail. Each pneumatic tube canister could hold up to 500 letters. The canisters, also known as ...

New Yorkers have a history of experimenting with pneumatic tubes—both for mail delivery (seen above) and public transit—but only one version ever really stuck: An automated vacuum trash collection ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

In the late 1890s, networks of pneumatic tube systems were installed under city streets to move the mail. Each pneumatic tube canister could hold up to 500 letters. The canisters, also known as ...