The first vending machine sold holy water.
Hero of Alexandria described a temple device in which a coin fell onto a lever that opened a valve and released a measured squirt of water.
The event
More amazing facts
- 39 Caligula never made his horse a consul.
- 50 · 1769 A steam turbine was built in Alexandria in the 1st century, about 1,700 years before Watt's engine.
- 50 An ancient temple could have automatic doors.
- 60 According to Pliny the Elder, Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights through an emerald.
- 64 Nero could not have fiddled while Rome burned: the violin was invented in the 16th century.
- 75 · 79 Cuneiform was still being written shortly before Pompeii was buried.