Back in the 1st century CE, you could bless yourself—for a price.
The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria, also known as Hero (also responsible for creating the syringe and one of the first steam engines, among many other inventions.)
In our technological age, it’s hard to imagine how a vending machine could have existed so long ago. His machine accepted a coin and then dispensed holy water. When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counterweight snapped the lever up and turned off the valve.
The process has been compared to that of flushing a toilet, noting the similarities between the specific amount of holy water dispensed into the vessel and the amount of water that fills a toilet bowl after it’s flushed.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this invention, aside from its mechanism, is the reason behind creating it. John Humphrey, a professor of Greek and Roman studies at the University of Calgary, stated that the machine was devised because people were taking more holy water than they were paying for.
The concept of the vending machine didn’t take off for many, many more centuries. Even so, early versions didn't have the technology of Hero’s invention. A snuff and tobacco vending machine introduced around 1615 opened automatically after money was inserted, but displayed its entire contents, leaving the customer to choose their tobacco product manually and close the machines themselves. For obvious reasons, these machines came to be known as Honor Boxes.
The first modern, commercial vending machines didn’t surface until around the Industrial Revolution when, in 1883, Percival Everett designed a vending machine that provided postcards. However, Hero’s mechanisms were used in modern vending machines until they became powered by electricity.