The devices are ubiquitous in our world yet those as we know them didn’t emerge until the latter days of the 19th century. But wait! The very first vending machine was actually invented almost two ...

Designed by the Greek inventor Heron, this coin-operated holy water dispenser was used in Egyptian temples to dispense water for ritual washings. Worshippers would place a coin into the machine and ...

Heron of Alexandria created over a startling 80 inventions during his lifetime, and most of them relied on the properties of air and water. One of the most fascinating? The first ever vending machine, ...