Episode Details

In 1947 in Philadelphia, two former servicemen, Lloyd K. Rudd and K.C. Melikian, built the first automated hot coffee vending machine, a Quick Cafe spelled with Ks. Established vendors selling soda and gumballs wanted no part of it, fearing scalds, electrical shorts, rust, and steam that turned stored instant powder into a solid brick. Rudd and Melikian kept the dry powder away from the splash zone, and a coin bought a paper cup of coffee in five seconds. Demand was so strong they moved to franchising.

Competitors dodged the patents with jugs of liquid coffee concentrate squirted into hot water, some even dropping a wooden stirring spoon. By 1948 Rudd and Melikian's machines served a quarter million cups a day, and by 1955 there were more than 60,000 machines nationwide, even as the coffee was compared to road paving material. Later machines ground fresh beans and pulled espresso, employers offered them free as a perk, and Italy and Japan built their own versions. In 2009 Douwe Egberts introduced the BeMoved, a touchscreen machine with a camera that recognized faces.

• Night shift factory workers kept buying the bitter coffee because they needed caffeine fast and could not leave for a diner.
• Bean to cup machines packed a burr grinder, flash heater, pressurized brew chamber, and grounds compactor into one cabinet.
• Italian machines evolved to offer up to 18 coffee varieties.
• Japanese street machines sell hot and cold canned coffee side by side.
• The BeMoved offered news and weather during brewing, remembered users' sugar preferences, and had a game played by jumping in front of it.