In
Star Trek technobabble, Jefferies Tubes were these crawlspaces between decks and all around any place where theoretically somebody sometime would have to do something more than stare at a screen and punch a bunch of buttons. Supposedly the average
starship in the 25th century would be mostly automated and self-maintained. However eventually either something would get really broke, or the something that was supposed to fix the something would get really broke, so a normal average human (or
alien) would have to climb up in there and actually get his hands dirty.
Scotty knew about his
Jefferies Tubes intimately, as did
Geordi LaForge and Chief
Miles O'Brien. And I hear
B'Elanna Torres got to know
Tom Paris intimately in the Jefferies Tube.
Jefferies Tubes were originally concieved by
Star Trek: The Original Series art director
Matt Jefferies, who
logically figured that no
engineer worth his weight in
scotch would venture into space on any ship that didn't have some equivalent of a
car hood. These tubes also come in handy for Star Trek
writers, because whenever aliens try to take over the ship, the characters have some place to run.
Update: April 6th, 2005
mauler says Re:
Matt Jefferies,
Jefferies Tube - These were not named *by* Jefferies - they were named by other people *in honor* of him, cause he designed the original USS Enterprise model. Please correct when you have time.