This One-Of-A-Kind Toronto Vending Machine Replaces Snacks With Rare Books
"Every book a surprise no two alike. Collect all 112 Million Copies!" 📚
Monkey's Paw, an unassuming rare bookshop sandwiched between a Toronto pharmacy and laundromat, is home to one of the coolest non-tech inventions ever.
Tucked amid shelves in the back corner is the Biblio-Mat, a one-of-a-kind invention that peddles random books.
Shop owner Stephen Fowler first came up with the idea of a book vending machine as a clever sidewalk sale opportunity but expected he'd just stick an assistant behind a refrigerator box to dispense books through a slot to passersby.
But Fowler's friend and designer Craig Small had a better idea. He immediately began sketching up ideas for an automated book-dispensing machine, and spent the next four months constructing it.
The Biblio-Mat uses a pulley system to dispense books randomly from one of three columns that are raised gradually until the topmost book falls through a slot and out the front of the machine.
The shop prides itself on being an antiquarian non-fiction resource and the Biblio-Mat is no different with titles like "The Shocking Truth About Water" and "The 12 Hardest Shots in Golf"
Each random book costs just a toonie (aka a Canadian two-dollar coin), and as the machine itself advertises, you can "Collect all 112 Million Copies" slowly but surely.
Check out a video about the perfectly literary invention here: