• Verdant Banana
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    1042 months ago

    The New York City steam system includes Con Edison’s Steam Operations, a piped steam system which provides steam to large parts of Manhattan. Other smaller systems provide steam to New York University and Columbia University, and many individual buildings in New York City also have their own steam systems. The steam is used to heat and cool buildings and for cleaning and disinfecting. It is the largest such system in the world and has been in operation since 1882.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_steam_system

    • @[email protected]
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      62 months ago

      Wow this makes me realise why so many movies set in New York I watched in the 80’s and 90’s often had steam coming up from the ground.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 months ago

      We have these in Lansing MI too! Part of the Satanic Panic back in the 80s involved kids playing D&D down in parts of the steam tunnels under MSU, which, I’m told, is much harder to do now unfortunately

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        We have these in Lansing MI too! Part of the Satanic Panic back in the 80s involved kids playing D&D down in parts of the steam tunnels under MSU, which, I’m told, is much harder to do now unfortunately very fortunately since children don’t know how to look out for a superheated steam leak and it was only a matter of time before a child got fucking bisected

        Ftfy

  • ivanafterall ☑️
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    42 months ago

    What the other comments aren’t mentioning is that, as you’ve probably learned, poops steam. Put a lot of poops under the ground (i.e. sewers) and that steam has to go somewhere, due to various complex thermodynamic principles that are probably beyond the scope of this question.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 months ago

      Despite the fact that poo steams if it is really cold outside, I have a strong suspicion they did not build a smoke stack to release a cloud of shit-smelling steam in the city.

      • snooggums
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        32 months ago

        Based on media set in New York, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 months ago

      It’s not poop. It’s people running hot water. That hot water needs to go somewhere and that somewhere are the sewers.

      Hot water flowing through the sewers is warmer than the air temps. The air being vented from the sewers is also hot because of the water.

      As the hot air comes into contact with cold air outside of the sewers you see vapor form as the cold air squeezes condensation from the hot air.

  • @[email protected]
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    22 months ago

    They might be smoke testing the system, looking for leaks! Smoke is pumped into water pipe infrastructure and leaks out of potential cracks or undisclosed/illegal sources (such as a company dumping into the sewer system without disclosing it to the city). They do this so they can locate and fix these sources so the water remains uncontaminated by groundwater seepage.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 months ago

      Wait those pneumatic tube things are real?? I always thought it was like 1960s sci-fi. Like what they thought the future would be like

      • @[email protected]
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        82 months ago

        Those things used to be on every single bank drive-up teller booth in the 80’s and 90’s.

      • @[email protected]
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        192 months ago

        It was the fastest way to get original physical documents from one side/floor of the building to another.

        When I was a kid that was the standard way that banking drive throughs worked, too. You’d drive up to the multi-lane drive through, each station would have a pneumatic tube for handing off cash or checks or receipts between the car and the teller in the window. It pretty much ended when ATMs could start handling cash and checks.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          Oh shit you’re right. I think I vaguely remember banks having those when I was really young. I mostly remember the suckers they’d give us tho. Fuck those things are cool tho. We should bring them back

          • @[email protected]
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            32 months ago

            They left? All the banks still use them in the middle of the US. So do drive through pharmacies that have an extra lane.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 months ago

              The drive thru pharmacy I go to just has like a shelf thingy they can lift and push down. Not one of those cool tubes :(

          • @[email protected]
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            42 months ago

            They’re still a thing. You can still find them at banks with drive thru tellers. My local department of motor vehicles has a drive thru for vehicle registration so you can do your inspection and registration without leaving your car. You send the registration documents back/forth via pneumatic tubes.

          • @[email protected]
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            32 months ago

            I haven’t seen a new bank branch open with a drive through in a long, long time. Most banks just have multiple ATMs in the drive through, as there’s very little you’d need a teller to do compared to what the ATMs can do now.

            • @[email protected]
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              2 months ago

              It’s true that most banks haven’t had new branches in a while. In Florida, a lot of old banks are being converted into Cannabis dispensaries because of their vaults. I hear they even repurposed the tubes as a delivery system.

            • @[email protected]
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              22 months ago

              Ah I’ve never seen that. Big city? ATM vendors sucks… Can’t imagine banks here surviving without tellers. I’ve only seen multiple teller drive throughs and an ATM eating one of the drive through spots.

  • Cornpop
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    62 months ago

    They use a lot of steam for heating still