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Columbus Model 36

Columbus Vending Company, Columbus, OH, c. 1915, 7 ³/₄". This is an all-cast-iron model that sells one tab of gum for a penny. Silent Salesmen Too says this isn't a Columbus Model 36, that the "36" is the number of pieces of gum the machine holds. Maybe, but I'm not sure I buy into that story. I'd buy into a story that Columbus called it a Model 36 because it holds that many pieces, but Bill did his research so I can't simply dismiss the possibility that he's right. If he is, then I wish he'd indicated the model designation that Columbus used, 'cause you know there had to be one. Columbus didn't picture it their catalog without any model number, waiting for customers to order X number of those little red cast iron model-numberless gum-machine thingies. If anyone reading this page knows what this model was called in Columbus catalogs, please tell me and I'll update this page and give the informant a free lifetime subscription to this website!!!

Sooo...you put a penny into the hole at the top, push the black slide to the left, and a piece of tab gum falls into the opening in the southwest corner. In this respect the machine operates like a match vendor except the slide springs back to the right after each sale. The slide on most two-column match vendors moves left with one penny and then right with the next, then left, then right. Or right, then left, then right, then left. Examples of these kinds of mechanisms are the Sellem and the Griswold Match Machine and the Columbus Model 36 match, which as far as I know is Columbus's official Model 36. The so-called Model 36 above has a lot of holes in the back, most of which line the column in which the gum stacks and which I presume are there for ventilation.

This is a popular model among collectors but it's one I thought I'd never own. I've always liked it but considered that it doesn't have enough presence to justify the price that others are willing to pay for it. It's a great-looking model but its small, and can be easily lost in a display with other machines. In the fall of 2022, a friend told me about the one pictured above, which a mutual friend had owned for decades and was selling. It has a repair on the front and because of that, the price was discounted from its usual stratosphere. I saw some pictures and thought the repair wasn't too awfully glaring and that I might be able to live with it, and that if I couldn't then I'd sell it. The friend who told me about this had seen the machine in person said the repair was less noticeable in person than it was in the pictures. That put me over the hump. I was feeling flush and knew I'd never spring for a perfect one, so decided to take a chance on this one. I'm glad I did. The repair looks like smudged paint in the lower left corner but it doesn't bother me. Would I rather have a perfect one? Yes. Would I rather have a perfect one at the price it would take to get one? Nope, this one's fine thank you very much. I can't tell whether it's an old vendor repair or some collector did it, say, 30 years ago, but I don't see a collector doing this so I lean toward it being some crusty old vendor who did it. I like old vendor repairs so I don't mind it at all as long as I continue believing it's probably an old vendor repair. To top it all off, my wife likes this machine and it ended up on a kitchen counter, out of the way of everything else but quite visible, and the problem with "not enough presence" and "getting lost in a display" isn't an issue there. It fits the space well, I like it there, and my wife likes it there.

This example is 99.7% original. I'd say 100% but it has that repair, which may account for 0.3% of the machine's weight and volume and total surface area. Maybe less, even; I haven't done the math, just kinda eyeballed it and guessed. I could round its original-ness to 100% and be 100% accurate and justified, but that might be considered deceiving and I don't want to contribute to anyone's misperception.