Thinking about the cost of purchasing water yesterday got my mind heading into directions it hasn’t gone before. Like a cartoon lightbulb blinking alight above my head, an idea suddenly illuminated the dark empty parts of my brain as things suddenly became clear. (There are lots of those empty places, and they require lots of light, so this doesn’t happen very frequently.)

Here was what my idea sounded like:

“I bet if there were some way to remove shipping costs from the equation — like, for instance, with a network of pressurized tubes running to each home — it would be possible to get the cost of water much, much lower than $0.89 for 20 ounces, while completely eliminating the need to lug heavy cases of water from the grocery store.

In addition to a lower cost, the ‘cool factor’ of having a receptacle that dispenses 20oz bottles of water from your sink would be a real benefit. I mean, it’s not like the sink is doing anything for me now. How come nobody has thought of this before?”

At first I was thinking that using air to move the bottles along the pipes would be the way to go (you’ve seen this system in action at your bank’s drive-thru), but the more I thought about it, I decided that water might be a more efficient medium to move the bottles from place to place.

I’m not sure who to talk to to get this to happen, but I think a network of pressurized, water-filled tubes to whoosh bottles of water from place to place really needs to become reality, if only to help those of us with bad backs drink more while suffering less pain.

Hey! Now that I think about it, I think there are currently pressurized water-filled tubes running to my house that are sitting there unused! That seems like a good place to start, so I’m going to call around to see who is in charge of them and what would be involved in modifying them.

Defined tags for this entry: bottled water, I solved it, inventions, municipal services, pipeline