Whoosh

The vacuum cleaner was on the top step but I was hoovering at the bottom with the hose outstretched. Wrong way round - I know. It fell off and I instinctively put my leg out to stop it sailing off through the glass panel in the door at the foot of the stairs. Ouch!

It got me thinking about vacuums. There was an old department store in either Liscard Road, Wallasey [Robbs?] or Grange Road, Birkenhead [Beatties?] that my mother took me to, where they had an overhead pneumatic vacuum system for sending off your money and the bill in a pipe to a central pay station and then your change and receipt came back a minute or two later. I liked the sound it made during its journey - a hiss and then a whoosh, as it shot off round the shop.

In Devon, we happened upon Brunel’s atmospheric pumping station at Starcross, where he set up a rail system that used air pressure in a tube set between the tracks to move the carriages along. It did not last long. Maybe he just chose the wrong location for such a radical experiment, as the former South Devon Railway is still battling with the elements today when compared to more favourably situated railway routes.

Now there are ideas being mooted for high speed “hyperloop” pods as the trains of the future, so perhaps Brunel was just way ahead of his time, in addition to all the other more tangible successes he achieved.  

The cut on my arm has just about healed, but my leg is still swollen and playing up from time to time. At least, the x-ray showed no fracture. Always vacuum the stairs from the bottom would appear to be the advice I need to give myself.