I don’t mean BETTER. That’s a different conversation. I mean cooler.

An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.

If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.

That’s just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    Pneumatic tubes were way, way cooler than email.

    Of course, you could only use them to send a message to someone in the same office building, so the comparison isn’t perfect… but you know what I mean.

    • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      I’m not crazy old, but I’m old enough that the supermarket I went to as a kid had these at all the checkout aisles and the cashiers would use them to send cheques/reciepts/ whatever.

      It was awesome to see.

      • ghashul@feddit.dk
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        1 month ago

        They still use them today in some supermarkets, now they use them to send packets of cigarettes through the store.

        • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          That’s actually a pretty good use. In my local market they send the person to a separate counter.

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      1 month ago

      Big hospitals still have them to send medications and random lightweight stuff around the complex. My wife has worked in two large hospitals that had pretty extensive tube systems, used especially with pharmacy.

      • JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Tom Scott does a youtube video about one in Canada (IIRC) where they send radioactive medicine from the lab a down the road to a hospital due to the half life of the medication making traditional transport (ie vehicles) impractical.

        Edit: bothered to look it up

        • fermionsnotbosons@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          I know of a hospital where the local university sends tracers with F-18 for PET scans in much the same way. Half-life of 110 minutes.

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        1 month ago

        The two major hospitals, relatively near me, use a combination of tubes, and robots, to dispense medications. One is working on completely robotic food service, and has completely robotic floor cleaning/polishing. Both, also, have robots that do the basic landscaping maintenance, like mowing/edging. There is more, it is interesting to walk around and see all these infrastructure systems work. Feels, at least partially, like the promised future of sci-fi.

    • CrayonRosary@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Before ATMs, bank drive-throughs (the ones with multiple lanes for cars) had pneumatic tubes to send cash and checks to the bank teller, or receive cash.

      Some probably still do. I feel like I used one within the past 10 years.

      • MrShankles@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        They’re still in use at most banks where I live. Most hospitals use them too; way faster than dumbwaiters

      • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        I remember those! I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still in use. I’ve never used the drive-through lane at my bank. I can deposit checks online by taking a picture of it (which still seems weird to me), and I use the ATM for everything else.

    • BearGun@ttrpg.network
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      1 month ago

      The factory i work at occasionally still uses them for delivering tests to the lab, pretty cool to hear them swish around in the pipes.