Pneumatic tube room at the Broadway department store.

Posted on April 27, 2013 by

Pneumatic tube room at the Broadway department store, 1925

This photo was titled “Broadway, Southern California, 1925” so I’m assuming it’s a photo of the Broadway department store and this is the room (read: dungeon) where all those Pneumatic tubes capsules ended up. Pneumatic tubes were a popular system in large places like department stores where employees could quickly and easily send receipts or cash or messages through a network of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum. I remember seeing the last of them in stores when I was growing up and always wondered where they ended up. Now I feel sorry for the poor girls at the other end of the tube. Imagine spending your whole working week in there.

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5 responses to “Pneumatic tube room at the Broadway department store.”

  1. Jean Hunter says:
    April 19, 2016 at 6:48 pm

    Lord, I know I’m aging myself, but I worked at a place that used these things! I worked in the main office building for a plumbing supply wholesaler and across the (small) parking lot was the warehouse. We sent paperwork back and forth via these tubes. And yes, we still had a PBX switchboard which I operated when I gave the receptionist her coffee break. Seems like a million years ago, but this was during the mid-70s.

    I don’t know if anybody still uses these dinosaurs anymore let alone PBX switchboards, doubt it, but sure brings back memories!

    Thanks, Martin.

    Jean

    Reply
  2. Gene Bivins says:
    January 2, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    Wonderful picture, even if it does disclose the working conditions of those poor women! I remember going to The Broadway when I was young. I was fascinated by the clerks putting payments into and taking receipts out of the tubes by the counter. For me it was part of the magic of going shopping downtown, when downtown was still an upscale shopping district.

    Reply

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