New York Public Library installs high-tech, wall-climbing book-train

Neat! I was wondering why they had swinging little baskets inside the chassis until I saw the cars running up the vertical track. What an endearing and elegant setup!

I want to work in an office where everything, from interoffice memos to files to lunches, are delivered this way.

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I thought of exactly that when I read this article. Who wants to start the online petition requesting the NYPL name this the “Mister Rogers Book Trolley” or something similar?

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Looks like the publishing industry has me covered!

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In case the test train asplodes?

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That reminds me of the jail in Half Life 2.

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“I am not a number, I am a free man!”

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I once used a similar system at AI DuPont, the children’s hospital in Wilmington. It was installed when the hospital was built in (I think) the 80s, to ferry medicine and test samples to various parts of the hospital. It was a real marvel and worked well, for a while

Unfortunately, the company that built it went out of business soon after, which led to a slow decay. I likewise fear for the Library’s ability to keep it running. It was really neat, though.

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feckin AMATEUR HOUR in here

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So now they can’t say they’re not tracking what you’re reading :slight_smile:

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You could always use copies of The Little Book of Calm.

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The Wanamaker’s Monorail ran to about 1984. I remember riding it as a kid at Christmastime when going to see the Light Show. It is now in Philly’s Please Touch Museum, but I don’t think it actually runs anymore.

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“Free” as in "speech, or “free” as in “beer”?

  1. If the former, please proceed down the hall to your designated FreeSpeechZone™.

  2. If the latter, please proceed down the hall to your deisgnated CommieKickOut­­™ departure lounge and detention facility (brought to you by HMSHost - “bringing travelers exciting food and beverage experiences they’ve never had before at more than 120 airports worldwide!”).

I never visited the Wanamaker’s until it wasn’t and was a sad little Macy’s instead. Didn’t even have a housewares department, then! RUBBISH!

I know a Wanamaker, originally of Oregon who now lives with wife and family in Japan; he thinks they are distantly related, so every now and then I send him Wanamaker-the-store related things; I just posted this image to his Facebook timeline the other day.

How long until Anthony Weiner uses it to send photocopies of his junk?

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Books can get heavy.

Very neat, and I’d love to have one, but “innovative design”?
I dimly remember watching a book show for kids in the mid-1970ties. Set in a library, of course, presented by a sock puppet…
The only clip on tubethingy I could find.
And the logo on the rotating containers looks very much like the updated version of the MGM lion Kubrick used for 2001.

Try the big one. Operating since 1901, still going strong.

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