Ye olde holy water vending dispenser.
Hero of Alexandria (10-70 CE) was a Greek engineer and mathematician who lived in Roman-ruled Egypt. He invented many gadgets and wrote at length about them. In his book Pneumatics, he described an early vending machine. It dispensed holy water only when a coin was inserted. Here’s a selection from an English translation of the book…
Continue reading… “The First Vending Machine Was Made 2,000 Years Ago”
