Automats are one of those old-school inventions that are totally obsolete today, but still cooler than anything that replaced them. Where are the steampunkers to pick up on these puppies? Automats were food dispensaries that didn't require a waiter; you simply put your money into the machine and would turn a knob to receive your food from a heated slot.

The first American automat was opened in 1902 in Philadelphia by Joe Horn and Frank Hardart. The men imported the automat machine from Berlin, where it was already popular. The only employees of the automat, which expanded to Times Square in 1912, were so-called "nickel throwers" who broke larger bills to the only coin the machine would accept: the nickel. Horn and Hardart charged a nickel for a cup of coffee, five nickels for a turkey and gravy dish and a nickel for a slice of pie.

The Philadelphia and New York automats, which eventually expanded to 85 locations, had a range of dinners from which to choose. They offered chicken pot pies, macaroni and cheese, Salisbury steak with potatoes, pumpkin pie and rice pudding with raisins.

Some thought of the automat as the great leveler. The 1940's and '50's were the heyday of the automat with an estimated 350,000 people eating from them each day. Despite no need for human contact with a waiter, people of all classes would eat at the automats because of their price, efficiency and food quality.

The most novel part of the invention was the central kitchen where all of the meals serve were prepared. The kitchens were directly behind the automats themselves and required meticulous--and streamlined preparations. For example, coffee could never be more than 20-minutes old as it poured out of the lion- or duck-head spigot and baked beans were to be baked properly and then topped with a 1-by-1 inch square of bacon.

The automat began declining in popular when prices started rising. Nickels began being replaced by quarters or even tokens, which increased the time needed for a person to receive her food. Fast food places were the final nail in the automats' coffins and the last one closed in New York in 1991.

The automat, however, isn't completely dead. Art-o-mats use the same idea as did the automat: you put your token in the slot and then receive a small, custom-made piece of art. The only difference between these and the originals is that art-o-mats offer an element of surprise.