Pneumatic!

Trevor @ Sunday October 8th 2006 15:20

I rather like Barcelona’s pneumatic waste disposal systems, mainly for the pretentious reason that they provide a principally non-organic analogue to the principally organic waste systems wandering around upstairs on their hind legs. Although pneumatic systems are still to be seen, whooshing bundles of banknotes away from our grubby mitts in supermarkets and banks, they used to be rather more interesting. There’s a good page about them on Douglas Self’s brilliant site, most of which seems to be devoted to weird and wonderful technology. Dave (thanks Dave) rather liked the Japanese War Tubas. Although a Swiss gentleman is to be seen making his way to Spain in a one-wheel motorcycle, there is no Spanish equipment on the site, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise.

(I’ve been suffering vague and disturbing visions of a Basie album called “Pneumatic!” Don’t go there, people.)

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Barcelona

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Josep Pla, Palafrugell (1918-9)

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