A Book-Vending Machine On Anvil!

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oi-Staff

By Staff

Monday, May 4, 2009, 15:42

An average reader may take several months to complete the copy of "Crime And Punishment." However it will take only nine minutes to print this classic book completely. It"s all owing to Britain"s first "book vending machine."

Espresso Book Machine opened for business for the first time on April 27th 2009. It started with a freshly bound edition of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic. The book is one of more than 400,000 titles that can be printed on demand at Blackwell bookshop on Charring Cross Road in central London. The firm was uncertain how the 68,000-pound machine – one of only three such printers in the world – would be used during its three-month trial period.

With pages spewed out at the rate of 100 a minute, the printing itself will be over in a little over five minutes. The sheets were then shuttled into the binding section of the machine were they were pressed, covered, glued, and cut to shape in under four minutes. The results were impressive, as the work looked and felt like a standard edition. The paper and ink are the same quality used in larger presses, and the binding appeared flawless.