It was Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria, an ancient Greek mathematician, who is credited with inventing the world’s first drinks vending machine nearly 2000 years ago. Around the time of 50 AD, he came up with the idea of dispensing a measure of Holy water when a coin was placed in a slot on a machine. The idea was simple - the coin dropped on to a pan on a lever and the weight of the coin moved the lever which opened a crude valve and allowed the Holy water to flow, then as the lever continued to move, the coin fell off, the lever moved back and the water flow was shut off again - simple!

This description of his invention comes from a pair of ancient books of his called The Pneumatica - regretfully an actual machine has yet to be discovered! This was rather early days for vending machines however, and the world had to wait a bit longer for the vending machine to become a commercial success. In fact it was not until the late 19th century that the first machines vending postcards and books appeared in London in the early 1880’s, with the Adams Gum company being generally regarded as having produced the first coin operated machines in America.

Their machines sold chewing gum in the subways and stations of New York City in 1888. The 1920’s saw the first cigarette machines, which began to be sited throughout America, followed by candy machines and bottled drinks machines. It was not until after the end of the Second World War however, that drinks machines, more or less as we know them today - started to appear. Some of the first machines in the UK were made by the Ditchburn Organisation in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire to sell fresh milk. The Avenco Corporation was among the first American machine manufacturers to introduce coffee vending machines to the UK, using dried ingredients and mixing them inside the machine and dispensing the drink into a disposable paper cup.

Avencos range of machines were imported in to the UK in the late 1950’s, by one of Britain’s first vending machine companies, the Autobar Group. Since then the use of beverage vending machines has continued to grow annually and has now become the accepted form of providing hot and cold drinks in the workplace. Today some £1.5 billion per year goes through the slots of nearly a quarter of a million drinks machines, sited throughout British industry with more than 10 million cups of tea and coffee vended each day.

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Tags: Machines, Vending