Long before the "series of tubes" become a web parlance (thanks to former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens), there was a real tubes technology: the pneumatic tube system.
WebUrbanist takes a look at this fantastic retro-technology that until recently was still used in my local Costco to move around money:
Long before the Internet was a glimmer in Al Gore’s eye, a different series of tubes helped shuttle messages from one place to another, seemingly by magic. These pneumatic tube systems, many of which are still operating, are a marvel of not-so-modern technology and although they blow, they most definitely do not blow.