From holy water to CocaCola

According to the ancient mathematician Hero of Alexandria, Egyptian temples in 1 about 215 BC had devices from which one could get a squirt of holy water for a few  small coins. Today’s vending machines, however, have their origins in coin-operated  dispensers of tobacco and snuff in 18th-century England, and later in the American  colonies. These were called honour boxes, because when a coin was inserted, the  top opened, laying bare the supply. Customers were on their honour to take their 1 entitled amount and then close the lid so that the next person could pay. The first I practical vending machines appeared in the United States in 1888 – chewing gum  machines on elevated train platforms in New York City. The machines remained gum I and penny-candy vendors until the modern cigarette machine was introduced in I 1926. Cigarette machines were the first to return change. The first soft drink  machine appeared in 1937.