Quisisana was a German company that introduced the world's first automat restaurant in June 1895 on the grounds of the

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, Germany. The establishment was considered a success, selling 5,400 sandwiches, 9,000 glasses of wine and cordials, and 22,000 cups of coffee on the first Sunday of business. Quisisana also manufactured automat machines and equipment, including a milk vending machine which was adapted for use in German schools. The name ''Quisisana'' comes from the Italian phrase ''qui si sana'' which roughly translates to "here one is healed" or "here you become healthy". ''Automat'' is a loanword from German for

automaton An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

which was adopted from Latin ''automatus'', originally borrowed from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''autómatos'' (''αὐτόματος''), meaning "acting of itself".

History and American expansion

After the introduction of the first automat in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1895 and a demonstration of the technology at the Brussels World Fair in 1897, the concept soon expanded into other European cities such as

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in 1898 and

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in 1900 (), whilst its developers also purveyed their methods in the

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. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, owners of the first automat in the United States, were inspired by the Quisisana automat restaurant after Hardart, of Bavarian heritage himself, visited one in 1900. Hardart then supposedly convinced Horn to place an order for automat equipment from the Quisisana company itself in order to expand their existing restaurant services. However, some sources instead state that they purchased their

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or payment is otherwise m ...

s in 1901 from a person of the name Max Sielaff, a salesman looking to sell vending machines designed by a German

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

from Automat GmbH. Sielaff had supposedly been convincing the partners to purchase automat equipment since 1898 and believed that America would be receptive to this new technology. It took two years for Quisisana's equipment to arrive in

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for Horn and Hardart's first automat restaurant; the steamship transporting the first machine sank. Their insurance company covered the bill and they received their automat equipment in 1902 — the same year they opened their automat under the name Horn & Hardart at No. 818 Chestnut Street. Horn and Hardart ordered more of the German equipment in 1905, '07, and '12, each time having it refined by their chief

John Fritsche, before eventually devising their own automat machines.

Payment methods

In the United States, customers paid for the meals by exchanging larger sums of money for change at a register without a number display, supposedly keeping diner's spending habits discreet. In

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, a system of tokens existed for the restaurant on Kärntner Straße (potentially alongside cash as well) with the inscription "Automaten Buffet, Quisisana" on the front face and "Centrale Wien-I, Kärtnerstr. 57" on the back face, referring to No. 57, Kärtnerstraße, District 1, Vienna. There also exist tokens displaying an unknown illustration on the back face instead of writing, possibly suggesting these were used by different Quisisana automats. The original automat in Berlin supposedly exclusively used tokens as well. It still remains unknown whether this token system applied to other establishments in

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, or whether it was reserved for the automat buffets located in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and Austria.

References

{{portalbar, Companies, Food, Germany German restaurants Fast-food chains of Germany

History and American expansion

Payment methods

See also

Further reading

References