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A vending machine is a machine that provides snacks, beverages, lottery tickets, gold, and other products to consumers without a cashier. Items sold via these machines vary by country and region. 
A vending machine made in 1952. In some countries, merchants may sell alcoholic beverages such as beer through vending machines, while other countries do not allow this practice (usually because of dram shop laws). The first recorded reference to a vending machine is found in the work of Hero of Alexandria, a first-century engineer and mathematician. His machine accepted a 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. Despite this early precedent, vending machines had to wait for the Industrial Age before they came to prominence. The first modern coin-operated vending machines were introduced in London, England in the early 1880s, dispensing post cards. The first vending machine in the U.S. was built in 1888 by the Thomas Adams Gum Company, 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 machines. This simple idea spawned a whole new type of mechanical device known as the "trade stimulators". The birth of slot machines and pinball is ultimately rooted in these early devices. In December 1970 Ussery Industries of Dallas, Texas at its Dallas convention displayed its new "talking" vending machine, the Venda Talker. With insertion of a coin, the machine said "thank you" and added a one-liner voiced by comic Henny Youngman. The Venda Talker was featured on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in March 1971.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Rental of vending machines |
