You may have heard or seen pictures of the aeolipile, aka Hero's engine which is the first-recorded steam engine:
Public Domain
Never heard of the fella? Tldr, Hero of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in Alexandria of Egypt during the Roman era about two thousand years ago. Heron had plenty of free tims and came out with all kinds of inventions that were quite ahead for his time.
And amongst them was one that until today I would guess was much more modern.
Apparently Heron created the world's first vending machine!
A vending machine that dispensed a set amount of water for ablutions when a coin was introduced via a slot on the top of the machine. This was included in his list of inventions in his book Mechanics source
Heron's vending machine was designed to dispense holy water for ritual purposes in Egyptian temples. It was a practical solution to ensure a controlled supply of water for worshippers without the need for constant supervision.
Here's a quick rundown of how it worked:
A worshipper would insert a coin into a slot on top of the vending machine which in turn would trigger a lever. The lever would then open a valve, allowing a specific amount of holy water to flow out. Once the coin had fallen off, a counterweight would reset the lever, preparing the machine for the next sheep worshiper.
Sure, a far cry of what we have today but still so far ahead of it's time!
Here's a video showing a modern depiction of how the machine might had looked back then:
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