INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT VENDING MACHINES

As one of the country’s leading vending machine company’s you might expect us at UKVending to know a thing or two about vending machines, but there is always something new to learn about vending machines.

The world’s first vending machine was invented in ancient Egypt as long ago as 215 BCE. Admittedly there wasn’t an electricity supply but the machine instead sold holy water in a temple in Alexandria. When a customer placed a five drachma coin into the machine the weight of the coin would tilt a receptacle inside and a supply of holy water would flow from a tap.

It was a long time later that the first patent for a vending machine was issued in 1857 to Englishman Simeon Denham who saw his machine as ideal for issuing postage stamps.

The American soft drinks giant Coca Cola, who have many millions of vending machines around the world have been using their machines to fight crime. Their employees who refill their machines are also told to look out for any suspicious activity and then alert the authorities.

Coca Cola is also using its vending machines to aid ecological research into a rare species of bird called the Okinawa Rail. The machines on the north of the Japanese island record the movements of this endangered species of bird.

In nearby China, vending machines are used to issue all kinds of products ranging from Umbrellas in Hong Kong to live crabs in Shanghai.