Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Expensive, difficult, slightly dangerous, not particularly effective... I'm on a roll.

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electric_post_tube

like vacuum tube delivery but with electricity
  (+3, -1)
(+3, -1)
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use powered electric coils to send small vacuum tube sized mail containers with permanent magnets attached around individual buildings and eventually around a city. Inspired by see link [https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=J9b0J29OzAU] except powering the coils rather than the vehicle so you don't have to lug the batteries around with the vehicles (just use permanent magnets instead) and can just send a canister of standard vacuum tube size. You could run the coils around irrigation pvc pipe for an initial like prototype model, because its got holes to prevent air cushions (rather than going airtight, which was the main issue with vacuum tube systems, maintaining a vacuum over long distances is hard so it never scaled). The pvc would provide a smooth surface for the cannister to move through and the coils could be outside of that. You'd want to then protect the coils thermally and electrically from melting the pvc and from melting / conducting through anything outside. and then your issues are, supplying power (easy, get it from building or municipal power), switching (harder. I'd try and do most of it through y-junctions and use electromagnets to pull the 'packets' one way or another) and routing packets (harder. I'd start with something inspired by how packets are routed on the internet, so they can route around blocked places).
keira_black, Jan 09 2020

Curb Side Blow Job Curb_20Side_20Blow_20Job
[theircompetitor, Jan 09 2020]

OP's misplaced and therefore unfortunately broken link, fixed https://www.youtube...watch?v=J9b0J29OzAU
It's a YouTube video called "World's Simplest Electric Train", showing how to make a motor that is both homopolar and linear out of a battery, magnets, and a wire. [notexactly, Jan 15 2020]

[link]






       Aah! Some-one has stolen the paragraph breaks and most of the punctuation! But welcome to the halfbakery.
neutrinos_shadow, Jan 09 2020
  

       We've done and redone and re-re-redone variants on this theme, so let me baptize you with your first bone. Welcome to the Halfbakery and may your ideas all be more original and/or researched than this one.
Voice, Jan 09 2020
  

       and have capital letters.   

       I would however be delighted at receiving (electronic) valves via a pneumatic tube.
FlyingToaster, Jan 09 2020
  

       Nice category choice, though.
8th of 7, Jan 09 2020
  

       yeah, ok, but not an inspired idea title like the one linked :)
theircompetitor, Jan 09 2020
  

       Well, indeed, welcome to the HB!
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 09 2020
  

       Not much of a welcome - ie a bone for the first idea. I'm cancelling that out with a +
xenzag, Jan 09 2020
  

       Kindness costs nothing (but cruelty is more fun) - however, this is just a smaller version of Herr Doktor Professor Musk's Hyperloop idea.
8th of 7, Jan 11 2020
  

       Ditto welcome to the HB!   

       Not to worry, have 4 paragraph breaks   

         

       and   

       ))()*^%##%^*++_!?><L"{
not_morrison_rm, Jan 12 2020
  

       Welcome, [keira]! I fixed your link, which you should now see in clickable form below your idea text. For future reference, you can add a proper link by clicking the [link] button down there or in the left sidebar after submitting the idea. That will make it clickable with a title and description, and also keep the link from being ruined by the halfbakery server putting a space in the middle of it. (That's another thing to note: When you're writing or editing an idea or an annotation, make sure you don't have any words joined by punctuation (like hyphens or slashes) being broken by the soft wrap in the text area. Before you submit it, just resize the text area so the joined words aren't broken across two lines, or manually add a line break before the joined words. Otherwise, the server will put a space where the soft wrap occurred. (I don't even know how it's possible for the server to know where the soft wrap occurs, but apparently it does.))   

       // the main issue with vacuum tube systems, maintaining a vacuum over long distances is hard so it never scaled //   

       This implies that you intend this system to be used on scales larger than large cities, which is exciting!
notexactly, Jan 15 2020
  
      
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