Vacuum transport tubes. I seem to remember them being called photo tubes at the bank branch we went to when I was a child. That was a small part of a childhood I'm still recalling odd fragments of here and there. Thanks for prompting the recall.
Those things are still in use, believe it or not. There's a big box retailer where my parents live that has a tube to every register. When the registers have too much money the checker puts the excess into a cylinder that whooshes to the central office.
