Vending machines are a common sight in hospitals, schools, airports, and pretty much anywhere people frequently gather. While they can contain any number of items for sale, I most often associate them with junk food and drinks. Every vending machine I can remember has been electronically powered. Some now even accept payment through phone apps, so they are a thoroughly modern invention. But vending machines have been around for hundreds of years. In fact, the first vending machine was created in the first century AD to dispense holy water.

Hero of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician and engineer who lived from 10 to 70 AD. He is credited with having invented the first coin-operated vending machine. His machine, called a “sacrificial vessel,” was a large jar with a slot for coins in the top. When a coin was dropped in, it would land on a plate connected to a lever. The weight of the coin would lower the lever, which would open a valve, dispensing a measured amount of holy water. The coin would eventually fall off the plate and into the bottom of the jar.  The lever would then tip back into the original position, closing the valve.

Hero’s sacrificial vessel was eventually forgotten. Vending machines would not be reinvented until the 1600s for dispensing tobacco in English taverns.

However, vending machines were not the only invention of Hero’s that was well ahead of his time. He also invented the first steam engine, the first windmill, automatic doors and a rudimentary thermometer, to name a few of his accomplishments.

I find it fascinating to think about what the great thinkers, inventors and craftsmen of the ancient past were able to accomplish without the aid of computers or even electricity and power tools. In an age of increasingly powerful search engines and now AI, it reminds me what we have to lose if we lazily turn over our thinking to machines instead of using them as tools to allow us to discover and invent even greater things. Take some time today, and every day, to disconnect from screens, stretch your brain and create something.

Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy or to stump your in-laws.

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