Vending machines. Can't walk into a store without bumping into one of these tempting titans. A friend of mine tells me that at his local supermarket they have vending machines that sell everything from smokes, to candy to trading card game packs. People just can't seem to get enough of them.

So when did this vending machine craze start and who started it?

Vending machines, or going by their technical term "automatic retailing machines" actually go back a long way. Supposedly, and I'm not really sure how you would verify this, the Greek mathematician Hero made the first vending machine in 215 BC when he invented a machine to vend holy water in Egyptian temples. That must have been quite a site.

The first commercial vending machines, however, popped up in London, England in the early 1880's. The first machine dispensed post cards. Then a gentleman by the name of Richard Carlisle, an English publisher and book store owner, invented a vending machine that sold books. The closest thing we have to that today are those machines on the street corners that you get the daily newspaper from. But I digress. In 1888 the Thomas Adams Gum Company gave the United States it's first vending machine. The machine was installed on the subway platforms of New York (where else)? and dispensed Tutti Frutti Gum. In 1897 the Pulver Manufacturing Company added animated figures to it's gum machines. Kind of like a toy surprise. This feature is still prevalent in gum machines even today, except most of the time you pretty much just get some cheap plastic decoder ring or a rubber space monster that smells pretty bad. The actual round gumball vending machines were first made in 1907.

As time went on you could get just about everything from vending machines including cigars, post cards, stamps, cigarettes, tampons, and the list goes on and on.

Probably the most famous vending machines, even to this day, are the Coca Cola vending machines. How many commercials on TV over the years have we seen that have featured these machines? Of course soda machines are no longer limited to just Coca Cola. Pepsi has also gotten into the act as well as just about every other major soft drink manufacturer.

Another big thing in vending machines today is food. Go to just about any public place such as an office building or an airport or train station. It's a known fact that people waiting for public transportation get very hungry after a while. In these machines you can now get salads, sandwiches, desserts, canned goods and just about anything that won't go bad if not refrigerated.

Vending machines are not limited to just public places. You can also get your own vending machines for your home. They're not the full blown business versions but they are working models that you can toss a few gumballs into. As a matter of fact this is a very big business in the United States as people just love showing off their replica Coca Cola machine.

There is no question that vending machines are convenient. They make it so that we can get just about anything, anytime, anywhere. It's hard to find anything bad about them. Except maybe those times when they take your money and give you nothing in return.

Oh yeah, we have commercials about that too.

-------------------------------------------------------
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Vending Machines
-------------------------------------------------------