Few people have heard of it, yet John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 was the first commercially available personal computer.
The Vendo 39: A Classic Coca-Cola Vending Machine
By James Grahame
Modern Coca-Cola machines terrify me. They seem at least ten feet tall with dozens of blindingly illuminated buttons. I fully expect the things to call my name if I get within arm's length.
If you ask me, things were slightly more respectable in the good old days. The machine in the picture is a Vendo 39, marketed from 1949 to 1957. Over 80,000 of them were sold, and they once peppered the North American landscape. Of course, that was back in the days when soda pop came in skinny little 8 oz. bottles (Coke still offers them, by the way).
Back In Time Warehouse sells restored versions of this and a variety of other machines. It accepts 39 bottles of a single flavor (20 are pre-cooled at a time). There are no prices listed on the BITw site, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them cost a few thousand dollars.
The Vendo 39 at Back In Time Warehouse (includes some cool interior photos)
