Ian Donegan asks: what does the direction the vending sector is taking say about the wider industry?
VENDING machines are one of the most succinct illustrations of human ingenuity. Ask some friends when they think the first instance of the contraption was invented and some might be brave enough to guess as far back as the end of the nineteenth century. In reality, 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 holy water.
When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened a valve that let some water 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 the valve off again.
