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The History of Vending Machines
Automated dispensers of food, beverages and other goods stretch back to ancient Egypt
One of the most enduring tools of convenience has been the vending machine. Easily dispensing food, beverages and a cornucopia of other goods to customers on the go, they are a staple around the world. It should go without saying that this icon of popular culture has a long and varied history to get to where it stands today as an integral part of every-day life.
The automated machines that dispense a specific product or range of products for a price is not some recent invention of modernity. The first known vending machine was developed by Hero of Alexandria, a Greek engineer and mathematician in Roman-dominated Egypt around the first-century A.D. He built a rudimentary device that provided a swallow of holy water in exchange for a coin. When a coin was deposited, it landed on a pan connected to a lever, which in turn briefly opened a valve to permit water flow. It was so amazingly revolutionary that historians have chuckled that it must have reinforced the miraculous reputation of the liquid to those who couldn’t believe how such an ingenious dispenser could work.
There were machines not entirely dislike the early Egyptian version in English taverns that popped up around 1615. Made of brass and…
