Vintage Vending Machines

About Vintage Vending Machines

Give your memory a workout with Vintage Vending Machines: 15 multiple-choice questions with a mix of 7 easy, 4 medium, 4 hard questions, free to play right in your browser. Drop a coin and pull the knob: test your memory of the chrome-and-glass vending machines that dispensed icy bottles of pop, gum, and cigarettes. Expect to spend about 7 minutes; every question comes with an explanation, so you learn something even when you miss.

A few sample questions

1. 1. Early Coca-Cola vending machines kept bottles cold by storing them in what?

   Answer: A tank of ice water

   The classic 1950s Coca-Cola chest coolers, like the famous Westinghouse and Cavalier models, submerged bottles in a tank of ice-cold water, which kept them perfectly chilled. That satisfying clink of glass bottles is a fond memory for many!

2. 2. What was the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola from a vending machine for most of the 1950s?

   Answer: 5 cents

   A bottle of Coke cost just a nickel — 5 cents — for decades, and Coca-Cola famously resisted raising the price well into the 1950s. The company had locked in a 1-cent-per-bottle syrup contract with bottlers dating back to 1899!

3. 3. The Horn & Hardart Automat, famous for its coin-operated food compartments, was most closely associated with which two cities?

   Answer: New York and Philadelphia

   Horn & Hardart opened their first Automat in Philadelphia in 1902, then expanded to New York City, where the cafeterias became beloved institutions. At their peak, they served hundreds of thousands of customers a day in New York alone.

4. 4. In a classic gumball machine, what color was the gumball that was considered a lucky prize and entitled you to a free gumball?

   Answer: White

   A white gumball from a penny gumball machine traditionally meant you had won a free gumball — what a lucky surprise for a child! This custom was widespread in American corner stores and diners throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

5. 5. The iconic Coca-Cola vending machine model known as the "Vendo 81" got its name because it could hold how many bottles?

   Answer: 81 bottles

   The Vendo 81 was named for its capacity of 81 bottles, held in nine rows of nine, and it became one of the most recognizable soda machines of the 1950s and 1960s. The Vendo Company of Kansas City produced several popular models numbered by bottle capacity.

Things you'll learn along the way

• ✓Cigarette vending machines featured rows of knobs or handles, one for each brand, which you pulled to release your pack. The satisfying mechanical clunk as the pack dropped was a familiar sound in any mid-century diner or lounge.
• ✓The very last Horn & Hardart Automat, on 42nd Street in New York City, closed its doors in 1991, ending a roughly 90-year run. The rise of fast-food chains like McDonald's in the 1960s and 70s had steadily eaten into their customer base.
• ✓The Cavalier Corporation of Chattanooga, Tennessee, produced some of the most beloved and collectible Coca-Cola cooler machines, including the famous CS-72 model. Today, restored Cavalier machines are prized by collectors.