receive holy water for use in washing the hands and face prior to worship. At the end of the day, the priests would empty the machines and keep the money.
             The slot machine worked through an intricate system of balances. One could drop a coin into the slot, which would then fall onto a small pan that hung from one end of a balanced beam, thereby raising the other end. As the end was raised, it opened a valve, which released the holy water out. When the balance was tipped, the coin would fall off and the valve was closed .
             Heron was by far the greatest inventor of Alexandria's time. He developed numerous gadgets that won praise for their usefulness. Another such invention was his version of the siphon. Although the siphon had been developed by previous generations in other places, Heron was responsible for honing its design and putting it to use in various contexts. Not exactly sure of the reasons why a siphon worked, he did understand that pressure acting on the surface of the liquid in the container forced it up the siphon into the vacuum created by the initial sucking .
             One such use for this siphon was in the development of automatic doors. Heron designed the first of such over 2000 years ago as a gift to the Egyptian priests for their temples in order to reinforce their authority and prestige. When the priests would light a fire on the altar outside of the temple walls, the doors to the temple would open, thereby making it appear as though the priests were responsible for their opening.
             The doors were designed to open when the fire would heat the air in a metal globe that was hidden underneath the altar. When the air heated, it would push the water in the globe up through a siphon and into an enormous bucket that was suspended by a chain using a system of weights and pulleys. As the bucket got heavier, it turned the doors on their pivots, causing them to open. Then, when the priest would extingui...