Jefferies Tube
Jefferies tubes, in the Star Trek fictional universe, are narrow tunnels or corridors inside a starship. They can be vertically or horizontally oriented, and form a network that allows travel throughout large volumes of a starship even when the turbolifts are not functioning.
The term "Jefferies tube" was originally an inside joke among the original Star Trek production staff, a reference to Original Series art director Matt Jefferies, the man who designed the original starship Enterprise. The term was used frequently throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. and Star Trek: Voyager.
Another in-joke reportedly appearing in the Jefferies tube sets on the original Star Trek series are labels on the pipes marked "G.N.D.N.". This stands for "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing." The labels are usually written so small as to be invisible to the audience, but can be seen in certain scenes from the Star Trek films.
Read more about Jefferies Tube: Other Uses
Famous quotes containing the word tube:
“The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie “answers” questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)