Vending Machines - a Brief History

Vending machines generally serve the purpose of selling products automatically, without intervention of human. People insert money or token, then select the product they wan to buy. Vending machine will validate the entered money or token, then if it is ok, it will eject the selected product.

Vending machine is believed to have been invented in first century by a techno geek named Hero of Alexandria. Hero’s Vending machine accepted coin and then dispensed a fixed amount of holy water. When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened up a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counter-weight would snap the lever back up and turn off the valve. Very simple and effective.

The first modern coin-operated vending machine is post card automatic kiosk. It was introduced in London, England, 1880s. The first vending machine in the U.S. was built by the Thomas Adams Gum Co., in in 1888. It was selling gum on train platforms. The idea of adding simple games to these machines as a further incentive to buy came in 1897 when the Pulver Manufacturing Company added small figures which would move around whenever somebody bought some gum from their vending machines.
 

Source: Wikipedia and EarthSync.Net