What they saw was a giant coin-operated vending machine with rows of glass window compartments which looked like the fronts of postal boxes, but contained various menu items. Once decided on a food item, the customer would drop a nickel in the appropriate box, and open it to retrieve his food item. Although this could be considered a bit crude by todays terms of “Automation”, back in the 1800’s it was the latest in self-serve technology. I guess one could say that Horn & Hardart’s coin-operated vending machine had more “slots” than a Las Vegas casino, and a winner every time to
