The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-26

From the Scientific American.
 Now we have the automatic restaurant, a gigantic slot machine or combination of slot machines, from which we can pur- chase food and drink The wonder Is that this idea is not of American, but of Ger man origin. Automatic restaurants have been familiar sight in many of the more prominent European cities for the last nine years.
 New York's restaurant, in principle, is very much the same as those of the Ger man towns It is fitted up much more elaborately however. There are no wait CTS in the usually accepted sense of that term. The two or three white-aproned men who nonchalantly roam around with. out apparently much to do are there not to serve meals, but to remove the empty dishes. You must serve yourself. You buy your portion of meat or soup, your glass of beer or wine. or your cup of cof- fee, and you carry what you have bought to your table. If you are in a hurry you may stand and eat and enjoy what is popularly known as perpendicular meal'
 In describing the automatic restaurant. it may be well to divide it's various appli- ances Into three classes. The first class of machines sell hot foods by means of coins and checks; the second dispenses cold food Salads, desserts) by the use of coins alone, and the third sell liquids (beer, wine, coffee, whisky, liquors etc.) by the use of coins alone also
 The bill of fare is printed upon a board in which the slots are located. Each slot bears a reference letter Opposite slot A a small placard is pasted which gives the name of the particular dish to be pur- chased by dropping a coin in the slot Similar legends are printed upon the pla- cards pasted opposite slots B, c, D, etc
 After the desired dish has been selected, a coin of the proper denomination is drop ped into the corresponding slot. A handle is pulled which rings a bell in the base ment, and signals the attendants. Stimuli taneously a brass check is delivered. The coin has dropped down a chute, which lies adjacent to an elevator and is held in place at the bottom by retaining de- vice. By counting the number of coins the attendants know how many dishes of that particular food are wanted As each dish is served the retaining device is released, so that coin drops into a receptacle leaving behind a number of coins corres- bonding to the number of dishes still to be served. The food attractively served in neat chinaware, is placed on a silvered metal tray In one of the compartments of the elevator and crank is turned in order to raise the elevator to the floor above. The purchaser sees his dish as it lies in the elevator behind a glass parti- tion; he cannot reach it, however, because it has been lifted somewhat above the dis charge opening. Not until he has dropped his brass check into a second slot, bearing a reference letter corresponding to that of the coin slot, and pulled another han dle, will the elevator descend sufficiently to enable him to obtain his purchase.
 Here, one peculiarity in the slot me chanism of the automatic restaurant should be mentioned. Spurious coins. as well as coins of improper value, fail to operate the mechanism An honest slot machine is probably as rare as an honest man. The automatic restaurant machines however, are far more trustworthy than many human beings, Coins of improper value which have been erroneusly inserted are returned. The customer is not cheated
 Cold foods, such as salads and desserts, are placed upon the elevator of another section and raised to the purchasing floor in full view, protected. of course, by glass partitions. In order to purchase what one desires, it is necessary simply to drop a