{"id":340,"date":"2023-12-06T20:37:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T20:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/vendingone\/?p=340"},"modified":"2023-12-06T20:37:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T20:37:59","slug":"what-did-the-first-vending-machine-dispense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/what-did-the-first-vending-machine-dispense\/","title":{"rendered":"What did the first vending machine dispense?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because vending machines are now automated, they can feel like a relatively modern invention. However, the basic contraption has actually been around for more than 2,000 years. Introduced around the first century CE by Greek engineer and mathematician Heron of Alexandria, the first vending machine didn\u2019t deliver snacks \u2014 it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalfloss.com\/article\/68270\/worlds-first-vending-machine-dispensed-holy-water\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dispensed holy water<\/a>. Similar to modern machines, Heron\u2019s device required inserting a coin into a slot. The coin fell onto a pan that was connected to a lever, which opened a valve on the other end where the holy water flowed out. The pan continued to move under the weight of the coin until, eventually, the coin slid off. The lever would then raise back to its initial state and close the valve, stopping the flow of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The machine \u2014 described by Heron as a \u201csacrificial vessel\u201d \u2014 was made to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/old-world-high-tech-141284744\/?no-ist=&amp;page=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">limit the amount of holy water<\/a>\u00a0people were using at ancient temples. (This was during the Hellenistic period, when Alexandria was a multicultural hub for various Roman, Greek, and Egyptian faiths.) Heron\u2019s invention didn\u2019t stick around with any regularity until centuries later, however. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, coin-operated machines were used to sell tobacco in English taverns, and by the 1800s, they were selling everything from banned literary works to stamps. In 1888, a new chewing gum called Tutti-Frutti appeared in custom penny-operated vending machines on New York City subway platforms, introducing the United States to vending machines as we know them today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because vending machines are now automated, they can feel like a relatively modern invention. However, the basic contraption has actually been around for more than 2,000 years. Introduced around the first century CE by Greek engineer and mathematician Heron of Alexandria, the first vending machine didn\u2019t deliver snacks \u2014 it\u00a0dispensed holy water. Similar to modern [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlineproz.com\/calcoast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}