Member-only story
The Vending Machine Was a First Century Invention
Popular to contrary belief, the first vending machine was built in the time of Jesus
First-century temple goers had a familiar ritual when they left home to go worship. They would bring a few drachmae, a hope, and a prayer, and they would travel to their nearest place of worship. Upon entering the temple, they would pay the temple tax and receive a blessing, a fortune, or merely a splash of holy water depending on how much they wanted to spend. This monetary exchange occurred in temples all across the Greek world for centuries.
However, the temples were having a problem. They were finding it hard to control how much of the precious holy water lower paying parishioners were taking from the vases around the temple, and the Greek priests were being forced to collect money, administer the religious rites as well as keep an eye on greedy worshipers in the temple. For some, it was getting to be too much.
Luckily, there was an inventor at the time who was specializing in just this kind of problem solving. He was popular in his time but has faded from public admiration in more recent times. His name was Heron of Alexandria. His solution? Create a vending machine that dispensed holy water.
