When we put the coins in and make a snack or drink selection from a vending machine, we think of the mechanism -- some with lights and sound -- as a modern thing. But vending devices go way, way back.

Back in the 1920s, it seemed everything was becoming coin-operated. All over the U.S., you could find coin-operated weighing machines at railroad stations; coin-operated vending machines were chock ...

Good design is all about making life easier. But in the case of the coin-operated vending machine, the starting point was the idea of moderation. The first recorded contraption was created in first ...