posted
intraship transport might be dangerous between a transporter and an open area, but maybe not a transporter and a transporter [which would be inside the food slot]. And maybe it was only dangerous if sent as a transmission like the matter stream. If instead there were transporter emitters [like there are on the hull of the ship] inside of the food slots with cables leading back to the galley where there was a true transporter.
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posted
Also, mucking up a food transport is not as dangerous as mucking up a person transport.
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I think involving transporters technology in the food slots is more than a little unnecessary and it makes the slots just a little too close to being replicators for my liking.
A short, vertical tube that can carry food up one or two decks in half a second is explanation enough for me, even in the 23rd century antigravity technology seams to be commonplace. Especially when you consider than some of those slots might just be simple vending machines that deliver some of the more simple things like soup and beverages.
posted
You thought tomatoes could act rotten before . . . just wait till they get transporter psychosis!
So, we have three concepts of delivery:
1. Closed-circuit transporter . . . advantages would be rapid delivery after preparation, as has been seen. Disadvantages would be what would seem to be a ridiculous cost for the TOS era, and the implication that such a thing is not done. 1a. But, the "Enterprise Effect" will no doubt lessen that disadvantage over the next few seasons. 1b. It would also work nicely for the tribbles on Kirk's plate, which would've been at the prep location and inadvertently brought along. 1c. No problems with the food slots in the transporter room.
2. Dedicated mini-turboshafts . . . advantages include the possibility of fairly rapid delivery if the dispensers are located close to the origin point. Disadvantages include the space requirement of having food shafts running all around the ship, and the need for high levels of inertial dampening. One would also wonder just how hot food stays hot if its flying around the ship like a bat out of hell, since that would produce a stiff breeze. One would expect the turboshafts to be full of blown food giblets. 2a. If any person handled Kirk's food, they'd have probably had to have left the tribbles on it when it was sent. 2b. The presence of food slots in the transporter room (of all places) argues for the requirement of food slots in all sorts of odd places, unless that was some sort of special-purpose transporter room. If not, though, then the food shafts would have been running all over the place.
3. None . . . if a room has a food slot, then that's where preparation takes place. The distribution requirements would then just be the food/protein stock to be used, which could be piped or moved more efficiently than whole meals or than by beaming things around all throughout the ship. 3a. The tribble infestation could quite easily have gotten them into the food/protein stock of the ship, meaning they "dropped in" to Kirk's meal as it was being prepared, or something similar. On the other hand, I'd imagine they'd have had to simply be in the slot chamber already, since I doubt a protein resequencer sort of device would avoid picking apart a tribble. 3b. The food slots in that transporter room would imply that there was a great deal of totally unrelated machinery right there in the wall, which seems strange. On the other hand, the NX-01 transporter seems to just be a hole in the wall of a corridor.
Though high-tech is cool, I'm just not comfy with the presumption of a closed-circuit transporter system . . . seems too high-tech for the era, not to mention power-prohibitive. Besides, it would just be the most Rube Goldberg method of food delivery available. (Not to mention the fact that the food slots wouldn't need doors if the food was beaming in.)
I'd thus aim for a low-tech solution, something not involving dematerialization. But, the requirements of the mini-turboshaft system rapidly become as complicated as the transporter, what with all the inertial dampening, wind control, and so on . . . but it would work well in situations where they're just running it up one or two levels from a galley or resequencer. But, it has to get to transporter rooms and other strange places, too, if that's the only system.
So, to my mind, the best catch-all system would be the notion that the device which prepares the food is right there in the wall with the food slot. The tech level required is minimal, the travel time is non-existent, and all it requires might be a little extra piping on a ship which already had pipes that went nowhere and did nothing anyway.
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posted
The delivery tube system seem best to me - given the perfection of the interial damper.
The breeze problem is easily addressed - simply have the food travel within a 'box' within the tube - the inner door of the box opens linked with the outer doors of the food slot 9 much like turbolift doors).
Did Scotty say the tribbles had found their way into the food production system - or the food distribution system? I can see how they might hitch a ride inside a closed 'food box' - they might even be inside it prior to the automated system placing Kirk's platter insode.
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Registered: Feb 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Treknophyle: The delivery tube system seem best to me - given the perfection of the interial damper.
Seems like an awful waste of technology. It would be akin to Coca-Cola putting a plant in every city and distributing its drinks to restaurants via specially-constructed subway tunnels, instead of just dropping off the concentrate from various locations and letting the restaurant mix it themselves. And remember that that's per glass, with ice (or without if so ordered).
quote:The breeze problem is easily addressed - simply have the food travel within a 'box' within the tube - the inner door of the box opens linked with the outer doors of the food slot 9 much like turbolift doors).
True enough, but that is yet another complication to an already-painfully-complicated system.
quote:Did Scotty say the tribbles had found their way into the food production system - or the food distribution system?
The transcript from "Star Trek Sickbay" . . . the characters aren't labelled, but we're dorks and remember.
***************************************** My chicken sandwich and coffee. This is my chicken sandwich and coffee. Fascinating. I want these off the ship. I don't care if it takes every man we've got. They're into the machinery, all right. They're probably in all the other food processors, too. How? Probably through one of the air vents. Captain, there are vents of that type on the space station. And in the storage compartments. ********************************************
Thanks for bringing that up . . . note his use of the term "processor". Though that still leaves the elevator idea some minor wiggle room (multiple facilities around the ship doing the processing, each having its own inertial-dampened mini-turboshafts to the locations it serves, with its own supply of boxes), I'd think it more likely that Scotty was referring to the food slot as that which does the processing.
I hereby invoke Occam.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
But it's WAY too early for replicator technology - which is what a 'processor' would be under this example. And the NCC-1701-A wouldn't have a kitchen!
Occam! Occam!
-------------------- 'One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.' - Lazarus Long
Registered: Feb 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Treknophyle: But it's WAY too early for replicator technology - which is what a 'processor' would be under this example.
Uhhhhhhh, why would "food processor" suddenly transform and transmogrify itself into meaning "replicator" in that context?
quote:And the NCC-1701-A wouldn't have a kitchen!
Why not? Having food processors, or even replicators, does not eliminate the need or desire for a proper kitchen. That way, the crew can enjoy special meals as required, or the officers can enjoy better food, or what-have-you.
Even when life was good aboard Voyager and the replicators were spitting out stuff left and right, Neelix had his kitchen and people ate there . . . sometimes even voluntarily, if even out of morbid curiosity.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
Remember it was always ascertained by various different characters that replicated food just WASN'T as good as real-cooked food. Sisko is one. Keiko another. Scotty about Synthehol, Aladir Jarok about something, Picard about something else. Must have been ok for tea though!
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