8 Modern Inventions That Are Actually Super Ancient

7. Ancient Greek Vending Machines

Two people per year are killed by vending machines. We have not been able to do away with this public menaces for nearly 2,000 years, however, as the Ancient Greeks were using them to stop people playing fast and loose with holy water.

Hero of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician and engineer who developed a device for a temple which would dispense a set amount of holy water to worshippers in order to stop them nicking bottles of the stuff. It was even coin operated.

Customers would insert a coin through a slot, which would drop onto a plate and trigger a counterweight to unstopper a bottle of holy water. The coin would then slide slowly off the plate into a collection tin and the bottle would reseal itself. There aren't any accounts of people dying from shaking the vending machine but, then again, there wasn't an extra bag of Flamin' Hot Monster Munch at stake.