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9 hoursThe earliest known reference to a vending machine is in the work of Hero of Alexandria, an engineer and mathematician in first-century Roman Egypt. His machine accepted a coin and then dispensed wine2 or holy water.3 When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened a valve which let some wine flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counterweight snapped the lever up and turned off the valve.
Neat
- peopleproblems@lemmy.worldEnglish6 hours
Its the same inventor as this machine, referred to as the Hero of Alexandria. Largely they were complex theater puppets.
Coincidentally I ran into it reading up on automata in mythology today.
I’ll add my favorite bit of ancient technology here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
- Steve@startrek.websiteEnglish9 hours
Still 1 coin, since it operated on the weight of whatever you put in.
- brbposting@sh.itjust.worksEnglish6 hours
I would use the coin the vending operator wanted me to as long as it exists in this millennium, but I would have to be on the lookout for sheisters with their arcade tokens and coin blanks:
