Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bu.edu!telecom-request From: npl@mozart.att.com (Nickolas Landsberg) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Local Competition Comes to Illinois Bell Message-ID: Date: 7 Mar 91 15:15:19 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 31 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 186, Message 12 of 14 In article wb8foz writes: > This brings up a VERY interesting scenaro. WU used to have not just > cable, but pneumatic message tube virtually everywhere in many Eastern > US cities. A late friend of mine who worked for WU through both World > Wars talked about the seventeen-odd branch offices that they had in > downtown Cleveland alone - all interconnected by message tube. > Folks, you can stuff an awful lot of fiber bandwidth down just one of > those tubes. Heck, if you did it right, maybe you could get the fiber > pulled in by a carrier tube - no digging needed. While I was running underground construction in NYC (more years ago than I care to admit to) we used to come accross these beasts in the streets. Since they were unused, we generally wound up ripping them up (of course, after calling the "rightful owners" to see if they wanted the salvage value of the copper :-) ). I doubt if you could find an unbroken run of these pneumatic tubes anywhere nowadays. Nick Landsberg [Moderator's Note: A nice deal here in Chicago are the miles and miles of underground tunnels built at the turn of the century by the now long-defunct Chicago Tunnel Company. The tunnels go under every street downtown, and connect all the office buildings. Originally (in 1900) used to carry coal in to heat the buildings and to carry garbage out, the tunnels have been used in recent years for lots of fiber optic cables and other utility service wires. PAT]