Here's What The World's First Vending Machine Sold

If you could jump in a time machine and make a purchase from the world's first (known) vending machine, you wouldn't end up with a can of soda or a bag of chips, and certainly not a fancy can of Japanese coffee. In fact, the machine wouldn't even use electricity. That's because you'd be heading to ancient Greece. And the "treat" you'd get from the machine? A serving of holy water.

The machine was the work of engineer and mathematician Heron of Alexandria (sometimes referred to as "Hero") from the now-Egyptian city of Alexandria, and he devised it around the middle of the first century A.D. (the exact dates are hazy).

Heron's machine tackled a specific problem: To distribute limited amounts of holy water at a temple. While worshippers were apparently paying for the water before the machine was implemented, the problem was that they were taking too much, so the machine promised to put a lid on that. It worked mechanically, with templegoers dropping a coin into a slot at the top of the machine. The coin would hit a small tray attached to a lever, which opened a valve that let holy water flow out. After a moment, the coin would slide off the tray (it was tilted for this purpose) and fall into a collection box at the bottom. The lever would snap back into place, stopping the water supply. Very roughly speaking, you could compare it to how a conventional toilet's flush mechanism works.

There's not a whole lot else known about Heron's creative contraption, given that records from the time have been mostly lost. But it seems that he had an influence on future vending machines, as those that appeared centuries later (but before electricity) used a similar mechanism.

Heron's idea didn't catch on at the time, and vending machines as a widespread concept didn't really pick up until the late 1800s or so. (There are indications that vending machines sold tobacco in English taverns in the 1600s, although information on this is scant.) Modern vending machines also didn't start out as beacons for quick snacks: One of the first known ones, from the 1850s, sold postage stamps. Yet, credit for modern vending machines seems to go to Englishman Percival Everett, for a postcard-selling machine he invented around the 1880s.

The first machines in the United States appeared towards the end of the 1880s, and were also the first to sell food (at least, if you count gum as "food"). Beverage machines initially appeared around 1890 in Paris, but required you to supply your own cup — or, somewhat questionably, drink out of a shared public cup. The closely-related gumball machine came along around this era, too. By the 1920s, there was no shortage of vending machines selling all sorts of products, from candy to peanuts and cigarettes, paving the way for the machines that sell everything from live crabs to fresh-baked pizza today.