If you’re not sure what this newsletter and/or website is all about, this is the post for you!

Tube Talk is the brainchild of me, Vanessa Armstrong. I’ve been a freelance journalist and editor for several years, and my beat has been varied. I’ve written for The New York Times, Smithsonian magazine, The Atlantic, Atlas Obscura, Vulture, Reactor, and many other places. The work I’ve loved the most, however, has been researching weird histories, talking with respected experts about unexpected things, getting into the details of making off-kilter entertainment, sharing book recommendations, and revealing how old-school technologies are still being used today.

This weekly newsletter is a place where I can share similar stories. Tube Talk will cover this in different ways: sometimes through deeply reported articles, sometimes through Q&As with experts more interesting than me, and sometimes via lists or roundups of things I find fascinating and think you will find interesting, too.

I named it Tube Talk because I’m low-key obsessed with pneumatic tubes, as this post will make clear, but I cover other things, too.

But let’s talk about the tubes! Below are some (just some!) articles I’ve written about the century-old technology. For those you don’t know, pneumatic tubes are pipes pumped with compressed air to move things inside them at varying speeds. Think of those old-school bank drive-thrus, for example. They used to be a fixture in department stores, delivered mail in major cities, and some even tried to use them for public transport.

They’re also still used prominently in one industry… but we’ll get to that below.

I hope you enjoy!

The first two posts I’m sharing are about how, for over 50 years, mail in New York City traveled 30 miles per hour via an underground pneumatic tube system. One of the first items through, however, was a live tomcat (the cat made it out okay, though I’m sure it wasn’t happy about the journey).

Pneumatic tubes are also a novelty in some bars and restaurants. Want to know if there’s one near you? I found five around the world that use the tubes in some capacity, even for mixing drinks! Here they are:

And finally (for this post, at least), pneumatic tubes are alive and well in one industry: healthcare. Almost all major hospitals have at least one system, and I interviewed the engineers who manage them. Check these two articles out: