The earliest known vending machine dispensed holy water.
Why this sounds fake
Vending machines feel like modern convenience tech, not something that belongs in an ancient temple.
Vending machines feel like snacks, soda, and office hallways. The earliest known version belongs somewhere stranger. Hero of Alexandria, a first-century engineer in Roman Egypt, described a coin-operated device that dispensed holy water. A coin's weight opened a valve and released a measured amount. The basic pay-and-dispense idea is about 2,000 years old, and its product was ritual water, not candy. It is the same simple exchange pattern, just in a temple setting instead of a train station. The machine logic is ancient. The product is the twist. Very old tech.
Coin-operated pay-and-dispense was already invented ~1,800 years before any modern vending machine.
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