Does anyone want to venture a guess on what was sold in the first vending machine? In the first century CE a Greek engineer published a treatise on mechanics, it included: a never ending wine cup, rudimentary automatic doors, singing mechanical birds, various automata, the world's first steam engine, and a coin operated vending machine. The man (Heron) was hired by various temples to supply mechanical miracles to encourage faith. Some of the temples had problems with worshipers taking too much holy water so they employed his vending machine to regulate the amount dispensed. When a coin was inserted it weighed down an arm which unplugged a container of the holy water, once the coin dropped off the arm the water stopped flowing. The modern vending machines pretty much operate on the same principal. They must have been short on priests to bless the water to make it holy, why else would they be so careful about how they doled it out?
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