The 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
Shit we had wine2 back then and yet I’m still drinking wine1?
have you tried holy water9? afterward you spend the day feeling all
Just make sure you avoid Ice-9.
Don’t forget holy water :3
It’s just full of rocks, Jim
That’s pretty fucking incredible
Greeks created programmable robots, powered by string.
They beat Ada Lovelace? Citation needed.
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
the Hero
His name is Hero
Hiro Protagonist, presumably.
Lmfao I probably should know that thank you
Heros are delicious
I’m guessing you’re a Click spring fan too?
Plot twist: Lovelace has that name because she was another rope-powered robot!
With inflation 5 cents 2000 years ago is worth $1 billion
I wonder how much it would cost in modern cash
Still 1 coin, since it operated on the weight of whatever you put in.
So one penny is probably the best deal.
I’d reckon a nearby small rock might be better?
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:
I wonder how consistent the pours were.
You had me at wine vending nachine
RIP Necco Wafers, you were better than like half the stuff in that photo.
wine… holy water. wine… holy water.
Shit, I only have one coin! I guess the blessing will have to wait.
(I love it when people learn this)
edit: and I think it’s so cool that the weight of the coin determined how long the valve stayed open. Real money and all that.
