A slikautomat or a kaffe automat is a common sight these days. It can be seen at short intervals in a busy public place. There are even newspaper vending machines at some places. For people fond of expresso coffee,
espressomaskiner are also available at the local shopping places. There are
snackautomat, which are vending machines exclusively for snacks and separate vending machines are present for beverages like instant coffee and tea. All this shows the popularity of vending machines. This increased popularity has resulted in the invention of vending machines for newspapers and all the possible items which can be disbursed with their help.
But how do the vending machines work?
The mechanism of the vending machine is very simple. The initial vending machine was found in the work of Hero of Alexandria, a Greek engineer and mathematician in the first century. The machine he invented, accepted a coin and disbursed a particular amount of holy water. The coin when inserted had touched a lever attached to a pan containing the holy water. The lever opened the pan and the holy water is released. The pressure of the coin continues to tilt the pan and water flows out, till the time the coin falls off. The pressure on the lever is released and the pan also closes. The flow of water is ended with this.
Vending machines got more popular in the 1880s with the disbursement of post cards.
This basic idea of functioning of the vending machine is still followed, though with a lot of modifications Once the payment is done, i.e the coin is inserted in to the slot of the machine, the machine would release the packet of snack or the beverage.
Scientists kept on innovating on the machines so as to reduce the theft of the items from the machine. Most of the inventions and interventions were problem based. As and when problems arose, people worked on methods to get rid of them.
A major problem that came up with vending machine was using coins of lesser monetary value but would fit into the slot of the machine. The newer machines are made in such a way to distinguish between these coins and reject if not suitable. This has reduced the problem to quite an extent.
